CHAPTER IX The Fisher King Summary of evidence presented. Need of a ‘test’ element. To be found in central figure. Mystery of his title. Analysis of variants. _Gawain_ version. _Perceval_ version. Borron alone attempts explanation of title. _Parzival. Perlesvaus. Queste. Grand Saint Graal_. Comparison with surviving ritual variants. Original form King dead, and restored to life. Old Age and Wounding themes. Legitimate variants. Doubling of character a literary device. Title. Why _Fisher_ King? Examination of Fish Symbolism. Fish a Life symbol. Examples. Indian—Manu, Vishnu, Buddha. Fish in Buddhism. Evidence from China. Orpheus. Babylonian evidence. Tammuz _Lord of the Net_. Jewish Symbolism. The Messianic Fish-meal. Adopted by Christianity. Evidence of the catacombs. Source of Borron’s Fish-meals. Mystery tradition not Celtic Folk-tale. Comparison of version with _Finn_ story. With Messianic tradition. _Epitaph of Bishop Aberkios. Voyage of Saint Brandan_. Connection of Fish with goddess Astarte. Cumont. Connection of Fish and Dove. Fish as Fertility Symbol. Its use in Marriage ceremonies. Summing up of evidence. Fisher King inexplicable from Christian point of view. Folk-lore solution unsatisfactory. As a Ritual survival completely in place. Centre of action, and proof of soundness of theory. CHAPTER X The Secret of the Grail (1) _The Mysteries_ The Grail regarded as an object of awe. Danger of speaking of Grail or revealing Its secrets. Passages in illustration. Why, if survival of Nature cults, popular, and openly performed? A two-fold element in these cults, _Exoteric, Esoteric_. The Mysteries. Their influence on Christianity to be sought in the _Hellenized_ rather than the _Hellenic_ cults. Cumont. Rohde. Radical difference between Greek and Oriental conceptions. Lack of evidence as regards Mysteries on the whole. Best attested form that connected with Nature cults. Attis-Adonis. Popularity of the Phrygian cult in Rome. Evidence as to Attis Mysteries. Utilized by Neo-Platonists as vehicle for teaching. Close connection with Mithraism. The Taurobolium. Details of Attis Mysteries. Parallels with the Grail romances. CHAPTER XI The Secret of the Grail (2) _The Naassene Document_ Relations between early Christianity, and pre-Christian cults. Early Heresies. Hippolytus, and _The Refutation of all Heresies_. Character of the work. _The Naassene Document_. Mr Mead’s analysis of text. A synthesis of Mysteries. Identification of Life Principle with the Logos. Connection between Drama and Mysteries of Attis. Importance of the Phrygian Mysteries. Naassene claim to be sole Christians. Significance of evidence. Vegetation cults as vehicle of high spiritual teaching. Exoteric and Esoteric parallels with the Grail tradition. Process of evolution sketched. Bleheris. _Perlesvaus_. Borron and the Mystery tradition. Christian Legendary, and Folk-tale, secondary, not primary, features. CHAPTER XII Mithra and Attis