Note 150 — Chapter IV · ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

Fish are in many places regarded as sacred. The salmon of knowledge appears in the Celtic folk-lore.150 The sacred speckled trout are found in many Irish wells, and the same idea prevails in many parts of Europe.151 We find the fish figuring in the Hindu myth of the Creation. Manu, while he was bathing, found a fish in the water, which said, “I will save thee from the flood which shall destroy the world.” The fish grew and was about to go to the ocean, when he directed Manu to build a boat. When the deluge came, the fish dragged the boat by his horn to a place of safety. The myth appears in other forms, more or less akin to the Hebrew story based on Babylonian tradition.