Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
phin as a sacred animal, and they are rarely hunted. Likewise, in South American Indian
folklore, the Amazon river dolphin is considered sacred, leading to the belief that hunting
and killing them will bring bad luck. The Yangtze river dolphin was revered as the goddess
of the Yangtze in China until it was declared extinct in 2007.
Various species of salmon have been honoured in myths and rituals in several societies
thanks to their value as an important seasonal food source and their ability to survive in
both the salty ocean and freshwater rivers. The Atlantic salmon occupied a special place
in Celtic mythology. It was said to be as old as time and to know all things, both in the
past and in the future. The Salmon of Wisdom, from Irish legend, features in an important
episode in the early life of Fionn mac Cumhaill (anglicized to Finn McCool), a legendary
hunter-warrior. Fionn was studying under a poet who had sought the fish for seven years.
When the poet finally caught the fish, he asked Fionn to cook it for him, but Fionn burned
his thumb on the fish and instinctively put it in his mouth to suck the burn, hence receiving
all the knowledge in the world.
During the Middle Ages in Britain, salmon were known as the all-knowing water creatures
in Arthurian legends. Gwrhyr, one of King Arthur's finest men and an expert linguist,
talked to a series of wise animals in his search for a master huntsman. Each animal was
wiser than the previous one, and the oldest and wisest of them all was the salmon of Llyn
Llyw, a mythological pool on the River Severn. The magic salmon was said to have gained
the power of wisdom by consuming hazelnuts that had dropped into its pool. According to
this tradition, the number of spots on a salmon's back is supposed to represent the number
of nuts consumed.
Salmon has long been a principal source of food for indigenous groups in northern latit-
udes, such as on the Pacific coast of North America before the arrival of European colon-
ists. As such a mainstay of the diet, the fish became a focus for numerous rituals, taboos,
and mythological stories. Catching the salmon as they ran up the rivers in enormous num-
bers to spawn was a time of great abundance, often marking a stark contrast to the times
when only dried meat and fish were eaten, so the start of the season was a time for reveren-
ce and celebration. In the early decades of the 20th century, anthropologists working in the
region recorded details of the 'first salmon ceremony' held among many Native American
groups, to mark the initial salmon run of the season, before the practice ceased.
Among the Tsimshian communities along the Skeena River in today's Canadian province
of British Columbia, any fisherman landing the first salmon was obliged to call four sham-
ans who arrived to take charge. The fish was placed on a mat made of cedar bark and car-
ried to the chief's house in a procession led by one of the shaman - who had put on the
