he Unconscious," p. 532). The
idea of guarding the divine tree[276] by dragons was probably the result
of the transference to that particular surrogate of the Great Mother of
the shark-stories which originated from the experiences of the seekers
after pearls, her other representatives.

There are many other bits of corroborative evidence to suggest that
these shell-cults and the legends derived from them were actually
transmitted from the Red Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean. Nor is it
surprising that this should have happened, when it is recalled that
Egyptian sailors were trafficking in both seas long before the Pyramid
Age, and no doubt carried the beliefs and the legends of one region to
the other. I have already referred to the adoption in the Mediterranean
area of the idea of the dragon-protectors of the tree- and pillar-forms
of the Great Mother, and suggested that this was merely a garbled
version of the pearl-fisher's experience of the dangers of attacks by
sharks. But the same legends also reached the Levant in a less modified
form, and then underwent another kind of transformation (and confusion
with the tree-version) in Cyprus or Syria.

As the shark would be a not wholly appropriate actor in the
Mediterranean, its role is taken by its smaller Selachian relative, the
dog-fish. In the notes on Pliny's Natural History, Dr. Bostock and Mr.
H. T. Riley[277] refer to the habits of dog-fishes ("Canes marini"), and
quote from Procopius ("De Bell. Pers." B. I, c. 4) the following
"wonderful story in relation to this subject": "Sea-dogs are wonderful
admirers of the pearl-fish, and follow them out to sea.... A certain
fisherman, having watched for the moment when the shell-fish was
deprived of the attention of its attendant sea-dog, ... seized the
shell-fish and made for the shore. The sea-dog, however, was soon aware
of the theft, and making straight for the fisherman, seized him. Finding
himself thus caught, he made a last effort, and threw the pearl-fish on
shore, immediately on which he was torn to pieces by its
protector."[278]

Though the written record of this story is relatively modern the
incident thus described probably goes back to much more ancient times.
It is only a very slightly modified version of an ancient narrative of a
shark's attack upon a pearl-diver.

For reasons which I shall discuss in the following pages, the role of
the cowry and pearl as representatives of the Great Mother was in the