Excerpt from Fishes of Fancy: Their Place in Myth, Fable, Fairy-Tale and Folk-Lore, Etc

The range of this Handbook is so extensive, that it is obviously impossible to accomplish more than a superficial review of its subjects in the compass of ninety pages. For it traverses Primitive Zoolatry (glancing at Totemism and Sacred Fish-myths), Zoological Mythology, Legendary Art, the Folk-tale of all nations, Fables, the Sciences of Heraldry and Astronomy - and Modern Folklore. Moreover, following the liberal "fish-idea" of the Exhibition, it has been necessary to wander from the cetaceans on the one hand through fishes proper to the crustacea and molluscs on the other. So that not only in Unnatural, but in Natural History also, the range of this Handbook is of necessity very wide. I have contented myself, therefore, with bringing a few leading thoughts into prominence - the antiquity of the Religious Fish-myth, its dignity, its importance in Totemism, the benign aspect of Fish in the Folk-tale, the persistence of ancient fancies in modern superstitions. Such subjects are not, I take it, to be treated with a uniform gravity, at the same time their intrinsic importance should never be lost sight of.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.