Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/355

Rh Immediately that monstrous fish came and swallowed him, and he, seeing his sister standing in despair on the shore, called out to her, and she tied an old mocassin to a string, and fastened it to a tree near the water's edge. The fish said to the boy-man under water, "What is that floating?" The boy-man said to the fish, "Go take hold of it, and swallow it as fast as you can." The fish darted towards the old shoe, and swallowed it; the boy-man laughed to himself, but said nothing till the fish was fairly caught, and then he took hold of the line and hauled himself to shore. When the sister began to cut the fish open she heard her brother's voice from inside the fish, calling to her to let him out, so she made a hole, and he crept through, and told her to cut up the fish and dry it, for it would last them a long while for food.

In the Old World, the Hindoo story of Saktideva tells that there was once a king's daughter who would marry no one but the man who had seen the Golden City, and Saktideva was in love with her; so he went travelling about the world seeking some one who could tell him where this Golden City was. In the course of his journeys he embarked on board a ship bound for the island of Utsthala, where lived the King of the Fishermen, who, Saktideva hoped, would set him on his way. On the voyage there arose a great storm and the ship went to pieces, but a great fish swallowed Saktideva whole. Then driven by the force of fate, the fish went to the island of Utsthala, and there the servants of the King of the Fishermen caught it, and the King wondering at its size had it cut open, and Saktideva came out unhurt, to pass through other adventures, and at last to see the Golden City, and to marry, not the Princess only, but her three sisters beside.

The analogy of these curious tales with the leading episode of the Book of Jonah is of course evident, and it might at first appear as though this very ancient story were possibly the direct origin of one or both of them; as regards dates, the American story has been but recently taken down, and even the Hindoo tale only comes out of a mediæval Sanskrit collection. But both agree in differing from the history of Jonah, in the fish