36. The ancient authors frequently alluded to this superstition of the
Syrians (the texts have been collected by Selden, _De dis Syris_, II, C. 3,
pp. 268 ff., ed. of 1672). W. Robertson Smith (_loc. cit._, p. 449), is
right in connecting it with certain ideas of savages. Like many primitive
beliefs, this one has continued to the present day. It has been pointed out
to me that at Sam-Keuï, a little west of Doliché, there is a pond fed by a
spring and well stocked with fish, which one is forbidden to take. Near the
mosque of Edessa is a large pond where catching fish is prohibited. They
are considered sacred, and the people believe that any one who would eat
them would die instantly. (Sachau, _Reise in Syrien_, 1883, pp. 196 ff. Cf.
Lord Warkworth, _Diary in Asiatic Turkey_, London, 1898, p. 242). The same
is the case at the mosque of Tripoli and elsewhere (Lammens, _Au pays des
Nosaïris_ [_Revue de l'Orient chrétien_], 1908, p. 2). Even in Asia Minor
this superstition is found. At Tavshanli, north of Aezani on the upper
Rhyndacus, there is to-day a square cistern filled with sacred fish which
no one is allowed to take (on the authority of Munro). Travelers in Turkey
have frequently observed that the people do not eat fish, even when there
is a scarcity of food (Sachau, _loc. cit._, p. 196) and the general belief
that their flesh is unhealthful and can cause sickness is not entirely
unfounded. Here is what Ramsay has to say on the subject (_Impressions of
Turkey_, London, 1897, p. 288): "Fish are rarely found and when found are
usually bad: the natives have a prejudice against fish, and my own
experience has been unfavorable.... In the clear sparkling mountain stream
that flows through the Taurus by Bozanti-Khan, a small kind of fish is
caught; I had a most violent attack of sickness in 1891 after eating some
of them, and so had all who partook." Captain Wilson, who spent a number of
years in {246} Asia Minor, asserts (_Handbook of Asia-Minor_, p. 19), that
"the natives do not eat fish to any extent." The "totemic" prohibition in
this instance really seems to have a hygienic origin. People abstained from
all kinds of fish because some species were dangerous, that is to say,
inhabited by evil spirits, and the tumors sent by the Syrian goddess were
merely the edemas caused by the poisoning.
37. On the [Greek: Ichthus] symbolism I will merely refer to Usener,
_Sintflutsagen_, 1899, pp. 223 ff. Cf. S. Reinach, _Cultes, mythes_, III,
1908, pp. 43 ff. An exhaustive book on this subject has recently appeared:
Dölger, [Greek: ICHTHYS], _das Fischsymbol in frühchristlicher Zeit_, I,
Rome, 1910.
On sacred repasts where fish was eaten see Mnaseas, fragment 32 (_Fragm.
histor. graec._, III, 115); cf. Dittenberger, _Sylloge_, 584: [Greek: Ean
de tis tôn ichthuôn apothanêi, karpousthô authêmeron epi tou bômou], and
Diog. Laert., VIII, 34. There were also sacred repasts in the Occident in
the various Syrian cults: _Cenatorium et triclinium_ in the temples of
Jupiter Dolichenus (_CIL_, III, 4789; VI, 30931; XI, 696, cf. _Mon. myst.
Mithra_, II, p. 501); _promulsidaria et mantelium_ offered to the Venus
Caelestis (_CIL_, X, 1590); construction of a temple to Malachbel with a
_culina_ (_CIL_, III, 7954). Mention is made of a [Greek: deipnokritês,
deipnois kreinas polla met' euphrosunês], in the temple of the Janiculum
(Gauckler, _C.R. Acad. Inscr._, 1907, p. 142; _Bolletino communale_, 1907,
pp. 15 ff.). Cf. Lagrange, _Religions sémitiques_, II, p. 609, and
Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, s. v. "Gad."