36. The ancient authors frequently alluded to this superstition of the Syrians (the texts have been collected by Selden, _De dis Syris_, II, C. 3, pp. 268 ff., ed. of 1672). W. Robertson Smith (_loc. cit._, p. 449), is right in connecting it with certain ideas of savages. Like many primitive beliefs, this one has continued to the present day. It has been pointed out to me that at Sam-Keui, a little west of Doliche, there is a pond fed by a spring and well stocked with fish, which one is forbidden to take. Near the mosque of Edessa is a large pond where catching fish is prohibited. They are considered sacred, and the people believe that any one who would eat them would die instantly. (Sachau, _Reise in Syrien_, 1883, pp. 196 ff. Cf. Lord Warkworth, _Diary in Asiatic Turkey_, London, 1898, p. 242). The same is the case at the mosque of Tripoli and elsewhere (Lammens, _Au pays des Nosairis_ [_Revue de l'Orient chretien_], 1908, p. 2). Even in Asia Minor this superstition is found. At Tavshanli, north of Aezani on the upper Rhyndacus, there is to-day a square cistern filled with sacred fish which no one is allowed to take (on the authority of Munro). Travelers in Turkey have frequently observed that the people do not eat fish, even when there is a scarcity of food (Sachau, _loc. cit._, p. 196) and the general belief that their flesh is unhealthful and can cause sickness is not entirely unfounded. Here is what Ramsay has to say on the subject (_Impressions of Turkey_, London, 1897, p. 288): "Fish are rarely found and when found are usually bad: the natives have a prejudice against fish, and my own experience has been unfavorable.... In the clear sparkling mountain stream that flows through the Taurus by Bozanti-Khan, a small kind of fish is caught; I had a most violent attack of sickness in 1891 after eating some of them, and so had all who partook." Captain Wilson, who spent a number of years in {246} Asia Minor, asserts (_Handbook of Asia-Minor_, p. 19), that "the natives do not eat fish to any extent." The "totemic" prohibition in this instance really seems to have a hygienic origin. People abstained from all kinds of fish because some species were dangerous, that is to say, inhabited by evil spirits, and the tumors sent by the Syrian goddess were merely the edemas caused by the poisoning. 37. On the [Greek: Ichthus] symbolism I will merely refer to Usener, _Sintflutsagen_, 1899, pp. 223 ff. Cf. S. Reinach, _Cultes, mythes_, III, 1908, pp. 43 ff. An exhaustive book on this subject has recently appeared: Doelger, [Greek: ICHTHYS], _das Fischsymbol in fruehchristlicher Zeit_, I, Rome, 1910.