In another version[1092] —very probable because more characteristic of Solomon, in that he annexes another wife—the King after the loss of his throne became a cook in the palace of a foreign sovereign, married his master’s daughter, bought a fish with the ring inside, and so recovered his realm.
In another legend fish play, if not a historical, yet no small part in connection with a famous historical character.
St. Brandan in his travels encountered Judas Iscariot, whose allotted punishments at any rate lacked not monotony, for after each spell of pitch and sulphur he was condemned to sit on a desolate rock in the frozen regions. To the query as to the purpose of a cloth bandage worn round the head, Judas made answer that it was an effectual charm against the ferocious fishes among which he was often doomed to be thrown, for at its sight they lost their will to bite. He had obtained this shield because on earth he had once given a piece of cloth to a naked beggar, and so, even unto him, a deed of charity was not allowed by the Almighty to pass without reward.[1093]
When, in Matthew Arnold’s poem, “St. Brandan sails the northern main” and comes across Judas on an iceberg, the fishes occur not, but the cloth appears:
“And in the street a leper sate Shivering with fever, naked, old; Sand raked his sores from heel to pate, The hot wind fevered him five-fold.
He gazed upon me as I passed And murmur’d: Help me or I die!— To the poor wretch my cloak I cast, Saw him look eased, and hurried by.”
For which act of charity Judas was permitted by the angel every Christmas night to
“Go hence and cool thyself an hour.”