Herodotus tells us that in his day three tribes of Babylonians subsisted on fish alone; and the present inhabitants of Lower Mesopotamia make it a principal article of their diet.

The rivers and the marshes produce it in great abundance, while the sea is also at hand, if the fresh-water supply should fail.

Carp and barbel are the principal fresh-water sorts, and of these the former grows to a very great size in the Euphrates.

An early tablet, now in the British Museum, represents a man carrying a large fish by the head, which may be a carp, though the species can scarcely be identified.

There is evidence that the wild-boar was also eaten by the primitive people; for Mr.Loftus found a jaw of this animal, with the tusk still remaining, lying in a shallow clay dish in one of the tombs.