[489] _Afanassieff_, i. 2.--Cfr. the eleventh of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_; a monstrous fish devours the princess; the fish is said to be a shark (pesce cane); and v. 8 of the _Pentamerone_.
[491] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 55, vi. 32.--It is the same fish which, saved by the girl who is persecuted by her step-mother, comes to her assistance, separates the wheat from the barley for her (like the Madonna, the purifying moon-fairy, the nightly cleanser of the sky), and gives splendid robes to her, in vi. 29.--In the story v. 54, instead of the pike as a fœcundator we find the bream, which is also called "of the golden fins" (szlatopioravo), of which the colours are the same as those of the pike.
[492] In the nineteenth Russian story of _Erlenwein_, and in a variety of the same in the last book of Afanassieff's stories.--In an unpublished story of the Monferrato, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, a fisherman catches a large fish which says to him, "Let me go, and you will always be fortunate." The wife of the fisherman opposes this, roasts and eats the fish, from whose bones are born to the fisherman three sons, three horses, and three dogs. Evidently the story has been corrupted.
[493] Cfr. Salvianus, _Aquatilium Animalium Historiæ_, Romæ, 1554.
[494] At Berlin, children sing on the first of April--
"April! April! April! Man kann den Narren schicken wohin man will."
[495] Another custom concerning herrings is described by Baron von Reinsberg, relating to Ash-Wednesday, when people return from church in Limburg: "Begiebt man sich zuerst nach Hause, um nach gewohnter Weise den Häring abzubeissen. Sobald man nämlich aus der Kirche kommt, wird ein Häring, nun muss jeder mit geschlossenen Beinen, die Arme fest an den Leib gedrückt, in die Höhe springen und dabei suchen, ein Stück abzubeissen." And Karl Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 561, writes: "In der Mark muss man zu Neujahr Hirse oder Häringe essen, im Wittenbergischen Heringssalat, so hat man das ganze Jahr über Geld."
[496] Cfr. Salvianus, _ut supra_. The habit certain fishes have of ejecting froth from the mouth may have suggested a phallical image.
[497] Bei Hans Sachs, Nürnberger, Ausgabe von 1560, ii. 14, 96, Eine Frau und Magd essen den für den Herrn bestimmten Aal; eine Elster schwatzt es aus; ran sich zu rächen, rupfen die Weiber ihr den Kopf kahl. Daher man sprichwörtlich von einem kahlen Mönche sagt: der hat gewiss vom Aale ausgeschwatzt; Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_.