Thus, we see that the story of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish, meant originally the Sun swallowed up by Night, and that it is identical with the well-known nursery-tale. How such legends are transformed from intelligible into unintelligible myths, is very clearly illustrated by Prof. Max Müller, who, in speaking of "the comparison of the different forms of Aryan Religion and Mythology," in India, Persia, Greece, Italy and Germany, says: "In each of these nations there was a tendency to change the original conception of divine powers; to misunderstand the many names given to these powers, and to misinterpret the praises addressed to them. In this manner some of the divine names were changed into half-divine, half-human heroes, _and at last the myths which were true and intelligible as told originally of the Sun, or the Dawn, or the Storms, were turned into legends or fables too marvellous to be believed of common mortals_. This process can be watched in _India_, in _Greece_, and in _Germany_. The same story, or nearly the same, is told of gods, of heroes, and of men. The _divine myth_ became an _heroic legend_, and the _heroic legend_ fades away into a _nursery tale_. Our nursery tales have well been called the modern _patois_ of the ancient sacred mythology of the Aryan race."[81:1] How striking are these words; how plainly they illustrate the process by which the story, that was true and intelligible as told originally of the _Day_ being swallowed up by _Night_, or the _Sun_ being swallowed up by the _Earth_, was transformed into a legend or fable, too marvellous to be believed by common mortals. How the "_divine myth_" became an "_heroic legend_," and how the heroic legend faded away into a "_nursery tale_." In regard to Jonah's going to the city of Ninevah, and preaching unto the inhabitants, we believe that the old "Myth of Civilization," so called,[82:1] is partly interwoven here, and that, in this respect, he is nothing more than the Indian _Fish Avatar of Vishnou_, or the Chaldean _Oannes_. At his first Avatar, _Vishnou_ is alleged to have appeared to humanity in form like a fish,[82:2] or half-man and half-fish, just as Oannes and Dagon were represented among the Chaldeans and other nations. In the temple of _Rama_, in India, there is a representation of _Vishnou_ which answers perfectly to that of _Dagon_.[82:3] Mr. Maurice, in his "Hist. Hindostan," has proved the identity of the Syrian _Dagon_ and the Indian Fish Avatar, and concludes by saying: "From the foregoing and a variety of parallel circumstances, I am inclined to think that the Chaldean _Oannes_, the Phenician and Philistian _Dagon_, and the _Pisces_ of the Syrian and Egyptian Zodiac, were the same deity with the Indian _Vishnu_."[82:4]