Identifier: fishstoriesalleg00hold (find matches)
Title: Fish stories alleged and experienced, with a little history natural and unnatural
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Holder, Charles Frederick, 1851-1915 Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931, joint author
Subjects: Fishes
Publisher: New York, H. Holt and company
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

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e were gods in those days and demigods and block-heads and Japanese, and the first fisherman was all of these.His name was Ebisu (pronounced Aybees, the u being justas nearly silent as you can make it, just like the final e in theFrench word quelque). The father of Ebisu was a demigodnamed Ganamuchi, and he lived by the mighty sea, whileoutside was a solitary island with its mountain top hiddenin the mists. Maybe this island was Oshima, in which caseI could point you the very spot where Ebisu was born. But Ebisu was not only a demigod, at least a quarter god,but he was a blockhead. A barbarian perhaps is a moreexact statement, for the name Ebisu indicates an outsider,and it is spelled in Chinese ideographs by a sign of a bowand arrow, so blockhead may have meant woodsman or onepossessing the craft of outdoor things. In any event, Ebisu was banished to Oshima or someother mist-covered island, that he might die of starvation.He went fishing instead, and wandered barefoot all day long l6
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EBTSU, THE FISH GOD OF JAPAN, HAVING A RED TAI. The Oldest of Fishermen 17 up and down the sandy shores of Oshima. At last, hismother took pity on him and whispered through the softwarm wind of the Kuroshiwo, Fish, fish, my son, by fish-ing shalt thou Hve. By fishing shalt thou be made a man.So angling made a man of Ebisu, as it has helped to makeone of you and me. And the seas were ripe for his hookand his net. His catch was boundless. No one could do sowell as he. And men called him the fish god. But living onfish alone, he thirsted for rice; for raw fish and cooked ricego together to make a meal in Japan. And so he carried his fishes inland to the lands whichknow not the sea. And there he met Daikoku, the smilinggod of luck, sitting high on his bags of rice. Ebisu had ared tai, or snapper (Pagrus major), under his arm, andDaikoku gave him a bag of rice for it. Thus they becamethe twin gods of trade, as no one before them had everthought of such a thing, and because both made by the

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