Apart from the mythological fishes, the _Abdu_ and the _Ant_, which were supposed to accompany the boat of the Sun, we find others held sacred or worshipped in different Nomes or cities. Before considering these, I draw attention to the cut of a representation from Gamhud,[833] and to the account by E. Mahler of a _Stele_, attributed to Thotmes III., now in the Museum at Buda-Pesth.[834] Both are remarkable; for in both _Fish_ takes the place of the usual Bird-Soul. As the Buda-Pesth _Stele_ is unpublished, we have to depend on Mahler’s account. He tells us that in the ancient beliefs and myths of Egypt the fish was a symbol of eternity, and guided the boat which bore the dead to the waters of the blessed. The Gamhud illustration, attributed to the Ptolemies, who held fast to the tradition that the parts of Osiris were eaten by three fishes, one of which was the _Oxyrhynchus_, has a distinct interest, because here for the first time the _Oxyrhynchus_ figures as a substitute for the Bird-Soul. The Buda-Pesth _Stele_ probably deduces from Gurob, where there is, or rather twenty years ago was, a fish cemetery excavated by Petrie. Here, too, was a temple built by Thotmes III., and a smaller one erected in his honour. The idea of the dead man may well have been “I have embalmed thousands and thousands of fish. Now then, one of you, in return do your best to secure for me immortality.” Herodotus[835] states that only two fishes are venerated, the _Lepidotus_ and the _Phagrus_. The Father of History is not open in this case to the charge of exaggeration, for with these the _Oxyrhynchus_, and (according to Strabo) the _Lates niloticus_, and (according to Wilkinson) the _Mœotes_ should be included. [Illustration: THE _OXYRHYNCHUS_ TAKING THE PART OF THE USUAL BIRD-SOUL. From Ahmed Bey Kamal, _Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte_.] Various reasons are assigned for the veneration, local if not national, of these particular fishes. Wilkinson suggests, with a touch of ironical humour—“the reason of their sanctity (_i.e._ the _Oxyrhynchus_ and _Phagrus_) was owing to their being unwholesome: the best way of preventing their being eaten was to assign them a place among the sacred animals of the country!” Some writers detect in their sanctity a remnant of local Totemism, a word which in blessedness equals and in length of inadequate definition surpasses Mesopotamia.[836]