h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Some of our jobs and professions are very old, and the origins of their names have been lost in time. Occasionally research can throw light on some of these.

One such job title has been traced back to the book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible. One of the best-known stories there is that of the Great Flood, where God ordered Noah to build a massive boat to house his family and all the animals of the earth. As every child knows, the animals were led in two-by-two and managed to survive the forty days and forty nights of the storm and the time thereafter until the waters had subsided. They were then led out of the ark and ordered to go forth and multiply.

One often asked question is what happened to the fish? Not the fish of the sea, of course - the flood had not displaced them - but the freshwater fish of the rivers and lakes. The flood would envelop their habitat with what was predomiantly salty water, an environment in which these fish could not survive.

Historians now believe that Noah built tanks from reeds and tar and stored these aboard his vessel. As these fish couldn't make their own way to the craft, he ordered his sons and daughters to go out and fetch them from the rivers. Each was responsible for the safe-keeping of a number of species.

And it is this responsibility that has been preserved in the job title which survives to this day - the Carp Ark Attendant.

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If you've discovered any more job derivations, please post them here

Shouldn't this be in the Useless Facts thread?

I agree it's about as reliable as my usual contributions to that thread.

Just wanted to see if anyone used this forum, really.

I was looking for something else.

Forgotten what it was now