INTRODUCTION. 7

firmed by history. This was also the case in Palestine, and
hence the surprise evinced, when Christ selected two of his
apostles from this despised race. “Now as he walked by
the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, and Andrew his brother,
casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus
said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to
become fishers of men ; and straightway they forsook all and
followed him.” The sea of Galilee still abounds in excellent
fish, though from the poverty of the country they are un-
molested, but by the storks and diving birds which frequent
its shores.

In Leviticus, the permission to eat of the inhabitants of
the waters is limited to such as have both fins and scales :
“These shall ye eat, of all that are in the waters; whatsoever
hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the
rivers, them shall ye eat.” The shark, the ray, and the
sun-fish are examples of those fish destitute of scales, while
the seal and the walrus, though living in the waters, have
neither scales nor fins; these latter animals are also am-
phibious, which was another reason for their being regarded
as unclean. The same prohibition was in force in Egypt,
and the people of that country ate no fish brought from the
sea, under an idea that all marine productions were impure :

6