comes.[1] The Zend-Avesta tells us that she, like Chalchihuitlicue of Mexico, purified all human offspring and was the goddess of birth. In process of time, as we all know, Anahita specialized off into two goddesses, Aphrodite and Athene, passing through the phases of Astarte and of Isis, one of whose symbols was the fish. We cannot do more than just glance at this world-wide cult.
To return to our quest for facts suggesting a mystic link between children and water. It is obvious that if babies are to be had for the asking from wells, ponds, or rivers, then people who want them will know where to go in order to get them.
In the marriage rite, the Brahmins of Kanara, in India, take the newly-married couple to a pond, and make them throw rice into the water, and catch a few minnows, fish being the emblem of fertility in India to-day just as in Assyria thousands of years ago. The young people let all the minnows go, save one, and with its scales they mark their brows.[2]
At Khan-Jahan-Ali, in Jessore, India, young married women who desire a family frequent the tanks, and assiduously feed the water-gods, who, at that place, take the shape of crocodiles.[3] It is a custom in Esthonia for a newly-married wife to drop a present into the well of the house.[4] In Japan, a practice followed at a Shinto temple is for lovers to throw little pellets into a pond. If the newts at once rush out to seize the pellet, the omen is good, whereas if they do not do so, the omen is bad.[5]
In Bohemia, St. Anna takes charge of the still-born babies, but a father can make them live again, if he
