The fish was an emblem of Freyja, and as such was offered by the Scandinavians to their goddess on the sixth day of the week.[421] The fish was also held sacred by the Babylonians and Assyrians, and by the ancient Romans as a symbol of Venus. The generally accepted theory is that the crucifixion of our Lord on Good Friday was the origin of the widespread superstitions regarding the sixth day of the week. It is highly probable, however, that these beliefs originated at a much earlier epoch; for similar ideas are current among the inhabitants of heathen countries, as in Hindostan, for example. According to an ancient monkish legend, Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit on a Friday; and in the Middle Ages many inauspicious occurrences of history or tradition were thought to have happened on that day. In a French manuscript of the year 1285, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, entitled “Recommandation du Vendredi,” the following events are alleged to have occurred on a Friday: Adam’s creation, his sin and expulsion from Eden, the murder of Abel, Christ’s crucifixion, the stoning of Stephen, the massacre of the Innocents by Herod, the crucifixion of Peter, the beheading of Paul and that of John the Baptist, and the flight of the children of Israel through the Red Sea; also the Deluge, the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel, and the infliction of the Plagues upon the land of Egypt.[422] The following extract from a translation of a Saxon manuscript of about the year 1120 may serve to illustrate the credulity of that epoch in England, and the odium attaching to Friday:— Whoever is born on Sunday or its night, shall live without anxiety and be handsome. If he is born on Monday or its night, he shall be killed of men, be he laic or be he cleric. If on Tuesday or its night, he shall be corrupt in his life, and sinful and perverse. If he be born on Wednesday or its night, he shall be very peaceable and easy and shall grow up well and be a lover of good.… If he be born on Friday or its night, he shall be accursed of men, silly and crafty and loathsome to all men and shall ever be thinking evil in his heart, and shall be a thief and a great coward, and shall not live longer than to mid-age. If he is born on Saturday or its night, his deeds shall be renowned, he shall be an alderman, whether he be man or woman; many things shall happen unto him, and he shall live long.[423] Although the superstitions of the dark ages may seem to us so childish, it may yet be affirmed with reason that, in proportion to the enlightenment of the times, the beliefs then current regarding day-fatality were no more absurd than those of our own era. In the “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” by Thomas Percy, D. D., is to be found the following “excellent way to get a fayrie:”—