fish form was known to every generation of men. It was presented to
their sight in childhood by sculptures and pictures, and was a
conspicuous object in their religious worship. By the lapse of time its
original import was lost and debased; and, from being an emblem and
symbol, it came to be accepted as the corporeal shape and structure of
actually-existent sea-deities, who might present themselves to the view
of the mariner, in visible and tangible form, at any moment. Thus were
men trained and prepared to believe in mermen and mermaids, to expect to
meet with them at sea, and to recognise as one of them any animal the
appearance and movements of which could possibly be brought into
conformity with their pre-conceived ideas.
Accordingly, and very naturally, we find that from north to south this
belief has been entertained. Megasthenes, who was a contemporary of
Aristotle, but his junior, and whose geographical work was probably
written at about the period of the great philosopher's death, reported
that the sea which surrounded Taprobana, the ancient Ceylon, was
inhabited by creatures having the appearance of women. AElian stated that
there were "whales," or "great fishes," having the form of satyrs. The
early Portuguese settlers in India asserted that true mermen were found
in the Eastern seas, and old Norse legends tell of submarine beings of
conjoined human and piscine form, who dwell in a wide territory far
below the region of the fishes, over which the sea, like the cloudy
canopy of our sky, loftily rolls, and some of whom have, from time to
time, landed on Scandinavian shores, exchanged their fishy extremities
for human limbs, and acquired amphibious habits. Not only have poets
sung of the wondrous and seductive beauty of the maidens of these
aquatic tribes, but many a Jack tar has come home from sea prepared to
affirm on oath that he has seen a mermaid. To the best of his belief he
has told the truth. He has seen some living being which looked
wonderfully human, and his imagination, aided by an inherited
superstition, has supplied the rest.
Before endeavouring to identify the object of his delusion, it may be
well to mention a few instances of the supposed appearance of mermen and
mermaidens in various localities.
Pliny writes[42]: "When Tiberius was emperor, an embassy was sent to him
from Olysippo (Lisbon) expressly to inform him that a Triton, which was
recognised as such by its form, had shown itself in a certain cave, and
had been heard to produce loud sounds on a conch-shell. The Nereid,
also, is not imaginary: its body is rough and covered with scales, but
it has the appearance of a human being. For one was seen upon the same
coast; and when it was dying those dwelling near at hand heard it
moaning sadly for a long time. And the Governor of Gaul wrote to the
divine Augustus that several Nereids had been found dead upon the shore.
I have many informants--illustrious persons in high positions--who have
assured me that they saw in the Sea of Cadiz a merman whose whole body
was exactly like that of a man, that these mermen mount on board ships
by night, and weigh down that end of the vessel on which they rest, and
that if they are allowed to remain there long they will sink the ship."
[42] _Naturalis Historia_, Lib. ix. cap. v.
AElian in one of his short, jerky, disconnected chapters,[43] which
rarely exceed a page in length, and some of which only contain two
lines, writes: "It is reported that the great sea which surrounds the
island of Taprobana (Ceylon) contains an immense multitude of fishes and
whales, and some of them have the heads of lions, panthers, rams, and
other animals; and (which is more wonderful still) some of the cetaceans
have the form of satyrs. There are others which have the face of a
woman, but prickles instead of hair. In addition to these, it is said
there are other creatures of so strange and monstrous a kind that it
would be impossible exactly to explain their appearance without the aid
of a skilfully drawn picture: these have elongated and coiled tails,
and, for feet, have claws[44] or fins. And I hear that in the same sea
there are great amphibious beasts which are gregarious, and live on
grain, and by night feed on the corn crops and grass, and are also very
fond of the ripe fruit of the palms. To obtain these they encircle in
their embrace the trees which are young and flexible, and, shaking them
violently, enjoy the fruit which they thus cause to fall. When morning
dawns they return to the sea, and plunge beneath the waves."
[43] _De Natura Animalium_, Lib. xvi. cap. xviii.
[44] "_Forfices_," literally "shears," or "nippers," like the claws
of a lobster.
AElian seems to have derived this information from Megasthenes, already
referred to; but in another chapter,[45] he writes with greater
certainty concerning these semi-human whales, and claims divine
authority for his belief in the existence of tritons. "Although," he
says, "we have no rational explanation nor absolute proof of that which
fishermen are said to be able to affirm concerning the form of the
tritons, we have the sworn testimony of many persons that there are in
the sea cetaceans which from the head down to the middle of the body
resemble the human species. Demostratus, in his works on fishing, says
that an aged triton was seen near the town of Tanagra, in Boeotia, which
was like the drawings and pictures of tritons, but its features were so
obscured by age, and it disappeared so quickly, that its true character
was not easily perceptible. But on the spot where it had rested on the
shore were found some rough and very hard scales which had become
detached from it. A certain senator--one of those selected by lot to
carry on the administration of Achaia and the duties of the annual
magistracy" (the mayor, in fact,) "being anxious to investigate the
nature of this triton, put a portion of its skin on the fire. It gave
out a most horrible odour; and those standing by were unable to decide
whether it belonged to a terrestrial or marine animal. But the
magistrate's curiosity had an evil ending, for very soon afterwards,
whilst crossing a narrow creek in a boat, he fell overboard and was
drowned; and the Tanagreans all regarded this as a judgment upon him for
his crime of impiety towards the triton--an interpretation which was
confirmed when his decomposing body was cast ashore, for it emitted
exactly the same odour as had the burned skin of the triton. The
Tanagreans and Demostratus explain whence the triton had strayed, and
how it was stranded in this place. I believe," continues AElian, "that
tritons exist, and I reverentially produce as my witness a most
veracious god--namely, Apollo Didymaeus, whom no man in his senses would
presume to regard as unworthy of credit. He sings thus of the triton,
which he calls the sheep of the sea:
[45] Lib. xiii. cap. xxi.
'_Dum vocale maris monstrum natat aequore triton,
Neptuni pecus, in funes forte incidit extra
Demissos navim_';"
which I venture to translate as follows:
A triton, vocal monster of the deep,
One of a flock of Neptune's scaly sheep,
Was caught, whilst swimming o'er the watery plain,
By lines which fishers from their boat had lain.
"Therefore," AElian concludes, "if he, the omniscient god, pronounces
that there are tritons, it does not behove us to doubt their existence."
Sir J. Emerson Tennent, in his 'Natural History of Ceylon,' quoting
from the _Histoire de la Compagnie de Jesus_, mentions that the annalist
of the exploits of the Jesuits in India gravely records that seven of
these monsters, male and female, were captured at Manaar, in 1560, and
carried to Goa, where they were dissected by Demas Bosquez, physician to
the Viceroy, "and their internal structure found to be in all respects
conformable to the human." He also quotes Valentyn, one of the Dutch
colonial chaplains, who, in his account of the Natural History of
Amboyna,[46] embodied in his great work on the Netherlands' possessions
in India, published in 1727,[47] devoted the first section of his
chapter on the fishes of that island to a minute description of the
"Zee-Menschen," "Zee-Wyven," and mermaids, the existence of which he
warmly insists on as being beyond cavil. He relates that in 1663, when a
lieutenant in the Dutch service was leading a party of soldiers along
the sea-shore in Amboyna, he and all his company saw the mermen swimming
at a short distance from the beach. They had long and flowing hair of a
colour between grey and green. Six weeks afterwards the creatures were
again seen by him and more than fifty witnesses, at the same place, by
clear daylight. "If any narrative in the world," adds Valentyn,
"deserves credit it is this; since not only one, but two mermen together
were seen by so many eye-witnesses. Should the stubborn world, however,
hesitate to believe it, it matters nothing, as there are people who
would even deny that such cities as Rome, Constantinople, or Cairo,
exist, merely because they themselves have not happened to see them. But
what are such incredulous persons," he continues, "to make of the
circumstance recorded by Albrecht Herport[48] in his account of India,
that a merman was seen in the water near the church of Taquan on the
morning of the 29th of April, 1661, and a mermaid at the same spot the
same afternoon? Or what do they say to the fact that in 1714 a mermaid
was not only seen but captured near the island of Booro, five feet,
Rhineland measure, in height; which lived four days and seven hours,
but, refusing all food, died without leaving any intelligible account of
herself?" Valentyn, in support of his own faith in the mermaid, cites
many other instances in which both "sea-men and sea-women" were seen and
taken at Amboyna; especially one by a district visitor of the
church, who presented it to the Governor Vanderstel. Of this
"well-authenticated" specimen he gives an elaborate portrait amongst the
fishes of the island,[49] with a minute description of each for the
satisfaction of men of science.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--MERMAID AND FISHES OF AMBOYNA. _After
Valentyn._]
[46] One of the Dutch spice-islands in the Banda Sea, between
Celebes and Papua.
[47] _Beschrijving van Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien_, etc., 5 vols.
folio, Dordrecht and Amsterdam, 1727, vol. iii. p. 330.
[48] _Itinerarium Indicum_, Berne, 1669.
[49] With the permission and assistance of Messrs. Longman, the
accompanying wood-cut of this picture, and that of the Dugong, on
page 43, are copied from Sir J. Emerson Tennent's book published in
1861.
The fame of this creature having reached Europe, the British minister in
Holland wrote to Valentyn on the 28th of December, 1716, whilst the
Emperor Peter the Great, of Russia, was his guest at Amsterdam, to
communicate the desire of the Czar that the mermaid should be brought
home from Amboyna for his inspection. To complete his proofs of the
existence of mermen and merwomen, Valentyn points triumphantly to the
historical fact that in Holland, in the year 1404, a mermaid was driven,
during a tempest, through a breach in the dyke of Edam, and was taken
alive in the lake of Purmer. Thence she was carried to Haarlem, where
the Dutch women taught her to spin, and where several years after, she
died in the Roman Catholic faith;--"but this," says the pious
Calvinistic chaplain, "in no way militates against the truth of her
story." The worthy minister citing the authority of various writers as
proof that mermaids had in all ages been known in Gaul, Naples, Epirus,
and the Morea, comes to the conclusion that as there are "sea-cows,"
"sea-horses," "sea-dogs," as well as "sea-trees," and "sea-flowers,"
which he himself had seen, there are no reasonable grounds for doubt
that there may also be "sea-maidens" and "sea-men."
In an early account of Newfoundland,[50] Whitbourne describes a
"maremaid or mareman," which he had seen "within the length of a pike,"
and which "came swimming swiftly towards him, looking cheerfully on his
face, as it had been a woman. By the face, eyes, nose, mouth, chin,
ears, neck and forehead, it appeared to be so beautiful, and in those
parts so well proportioned, having round about the head many blue
streaks resembling hair, but certainly it was no hair. The shoulders and
back down to the middle were square, white, and smooth as the back of a
man, and from the middle to the end it tapered like a broad-hooked
arrow." The animal put both its paws on the side of the boat wherein its
observer sat, and strove much to get in, but was repelled by a blow.
[50] Whitbourne's 'Discourse of Newfoundland.'
In 1676, a description was given by an English surgeon named Glover, of
an animal of this kind. The author did not designate it by any name, but
the incident has the honour of being recorded in the _Philosophical
Transactions_.[51] About three leagues from the mouth of the river
Rappahannock, in America, while alone in a vessel, he observed, at the
distance of about half a stone-throw, he says, "a most prodigious
creature, much resembling a man, only somewhat larger, standing right up
in the water, with his head, neck, shoulders, breast and waist, to the
cubits of his arms, above water, and his skin was tawny, much like that
of an Indian; the figure of his head was pyramidal and sleek, without
hair; his eyes large and black, and so were his eyebrows; his mouth very
wide, with a broad black streak on the upper lip, which turned upwards
at each end like mustachios. His countenance was grim and terrible. His
neck, shoulders, arms, breast and waist, were like unto the neck, arms,
shoulders, breast and waist of a man. His hands, if he had any, were
under water. He seemed to stand with his eyes fixed on me for some time,
and afterwards dived down, and, a little after, rose at somewhat a
greater distance, and turned his head towards me again, and then
immediately fell a little under water, that I could discern him throw
out his arms and gather them in as a man does when he swims. At last, he
shot with his head downwards, by which means he cast his tail above the
water, which exactly resembled the tail of a fish, with a broad fane at
the end of it."
[51] Glover's 'Account of Virginia,' ap. Phil. Trans. vol. xi. p.
625.
Thormodus Torfaeus[52] maintains that mermaids are found on the south
coast of Iceland, and, according to Olafsen,[53] two have been taken in
the surrounding seas, the first in the earlier part of the history of
that island, and the second in 1733. The latter was found in the stomach
of a shark. Its lower parts were consumed, but the upper were entire.
They were as large as those of a boy eight or nine years old. Both the
cutting teeth and grinders were long and shaped like pins, and the
fingers were connected by a large web. Olafsen was inclined to believe
that these were human remains, but the islanders all firmly maintained
that they were part of "a marmennill," by which name the mermaid is
known among them.
[52] _Historia rerum Norvegicarum._
[53] _Voyage en Islande_, tom. iii. p. 223.
Of course the worthy bishop of Bergen, Pontoppidan, has something to
tell us about mermaids in his part of the world. "Amongst the sea
monsters," he says,[54] "which are in the North Sea, and are often seen,
I shall give the first place to the Hav-manden, or merman, whose mate is
called Hav-fruen, or mermaid. The existence of this creature is
questioned by many, nor is it at all to be wondered at, because most of
the accounts we have had of it are mixed with mere fables, and may be
looked upon as idle tales." As such he regards the story told by Jonas
Ramus in his 'History of Norway,' of a mermaid taken by fishermen at
Hordeland, near Bergen, and which is said to have sung an unmusical song
to King Hiorlief. In the same category he places an account given by
Besenius in his life of Frederic II. (1577), of a mermaid that called
herself Isbrandt, and held several conversations with a peasant at
Samsoe, in which she foretold the birth of King Christian IV., "and made
the peasant preach repentance to the courtiers, who were very much given
to drunkenness." Equally "idle" with the above stories is, in his
opinion, another, extracted from an old manuscript still to be seen in
the University Library at Copenhagen, and quoted by Andrew Bussaeus
(1619), of a merman caught by the two senators, Ulf Rosensparre and
Christian Holch, whilst on their voyage home to Denmark from Norway.
This sea-man frightened the two worshipful gentlemen so terribly that
they were glad to let him go again; for as he lay upon the deck he spoke
Danish to them, and threatened that if they did not give him his liberty
"the ship should be cast away, and every soul of the crew should
perish."
[54] 'Natural History of Norway,' vol. ii. p. 190.
"When such fictions as these," says Pontoppidan, "are mixed with the
history of the merman, and when that creature is represented as a
prophet and an orator; when they give the mermaid a melodious voice, and
tell us that she is a fine singer, we need not wonder that so few people
of sense will give credit to such absurdities, or that they even doubt
the existence of such a creature." The good prelate, however, goes on to
say that "whilst we have no ground to believe all these fables, yet, as
to the existence of the creature we may safely give our assent to it,"
and, "if this be called in question, it must proceed entirely from the
fabulous stories usually mixed with the truth." Like Valentyn, he argues
that as there are "sea-horses," "sea-cows," "sea-wolves," "sea-dogs,"
"sea-hogs," etc., it is probable from analogy, that "we should find in
the ocean a fish or creature which resembles the human species more than
any other." As for the objection "founded on self-love and respect to
our own species which is honoured with the image of God, who made man
lord of all creatures, and that, consequently, we may suppose he is
entitled to a noble and heavenly form which other creatures must not
partake of," he thinks "its force vanishes when we consider the form of
apes, and especially of another African creature called 'Quoyas Morrov'
described by Odoard Dapper" in his work on Africa, and which appears to
have been a chimpanzee. Pontoppidan regarded it as being the Satyr of
the ancients. He therefore claims that "if we will not allow our
Norwegian Hastromber the honourable name of merman, we may very well
call it the 'Sea-ape,' or the 'Sea-Quoyas-Morrov;'" especially as the
author already quoted says that, "in the Sea of Angola mermaids are
frequently caught which resemble the human species. They are taken in
nets, and killed by the negroes, and are heard to shriek and cry like
women."
The Bishop adds that in the diocese of Bergen, as well as in the manor
of Nordland, there were hundreds of persons who affirmed with the
strongest assurances that they had seen this kind of creature; sometimes
at a distance and at other times quite close to their boats, standing
upright, and formed like a human creature down to the middle--the rest
they could not see--but of those who had seen them out of water and
handled them he had not been able to find more than one person of credit
who could vouch it for truth. This informant, "the Reverend Mr. Peter
Angel, minister of Vand-Elvens Gield, on Suderoe," assured his bishop,
when he was on a visitation journey, that "in the year 1719, he (being
then about twenty years old) saw what is called a merman lying dead on a
point of land near the sea, which had been cast ashore by the waves
along with several sea-calves (seals), and other dead fish. The length
of this creature was much greater than what has been mentioned of any
before, namely, above three fathoms. It was of a dark grey colour all
over: in the lower part it was like a fish, and had a tail like that of
a porpoise. The face resembled that of a man, with a mouth, forehead,
eyes, etc. The nose was flat, and, as it were, pressed down to the face,
in which the nostrils were very visible. The breast was not far from the
head; the arms seemed to hang to the side, to which they were joined by
a thin skin, or membrane. The hands were, to all appearance, like the
paws of a sea-calf. The back of this creature was very fat, and a great
part of it was cut off, which, with the liver, yielded a large quantity
of train-oil." The author then quotes a description by Luke Debes[55] of
a mermaid seen in 1670 at Faroe, westward of Qualboe Eide, by many of
the inhabitants, as also by others from different parts of Suderoe. She
was close to the shore, and stood there for two hours and a half, and
was up to her waist in water. She had long hairs on her head, which hung
down to the surface of the water all round about her, and she held a
fish in her right hand.
[55] _Feroa Reserata_, or Description of the Faroe Islands. 8vo.
Copenhagen, 1673.
Pontoppidan mentions other instances of similar appearances, and says
that the latest he had heard of was of a merman seen in Denmark on the
20th of September, 1723, by three ferrymen who, at some distance from
the land, were towing a ship just arrived from the Baltic. Having caught
sight of something which looked like a dead body floating on the water,
they rowed towards it, and there, resting on their oars, allowed it to
drift close to them. It sank, but immediately came to the surface again,
and then they saw that it had the appearance of an old man,
strong-limbed, and with broad shoulders, but his arms they could not
see. His head was small in proportion to his body, and had short,
curled, black hair, which did not reach below his ears; his eyes lay
deep in his head, and he had a meagre and pinched face, with a black,
coarse beard, that looked as if it had been cut. His skin was coarse,
and very full of hair. He stood in the same place for half a quarter of
an hour, and was seen above the water down to his breast: at last the
men grew apprehensive of some danger, and began to retire; upon which
the monster blew up his cheeks, and made a kind of roaring noise, and
then dived under water, so that they did not see him any more. One of
them, Peter Gunnersen, related (what the others did not observe) that
this merman was, about the body and downwards, quite pointed, like a
fish. This same Peter Gunnersen likewise deposed that "about twenty
years before, as he was in a boat near Kulleor, the place where he was
born, he saw a mermaid with long hair and large breasts." He and his two
companions were, by command of the king, examined by the burgomaster of
Elsineur, Andrew Bussaeus, before the privy-councillor, Fridrich von
Gram, and their testimony to the above effect was given on their
respective oaths.
Brave old Henry Hudson, the sturdy and renowned navigator, who thrice,
in three successive years, gave battle to the northern ice, and was each
time defeated in his endeavour to discover a north-west or north-east
passage to China, though he stamped his name on the title-page of a
mighty nation's history, records the following incident: "This evening
(June 15th) one of our company, looking overboard, saw a mermaid, and,
calling up some of the company to see her, one more of the crew came up,
and by that time she was come close to the ship's side, looking
earnestly on the men. A little after a sea came and overturned her. From
the navel upward, her back and breasts were like a woman's, as they say
that saw her; her body as big as one of us, her skin very white, and
long hair hanging down behind, of colour black. In her going down they
saw her tail, which was like the tail of a porpoise and speckled like a
mackarel's. Their names that saw her were Thomas Hilles and Robert
Rayner."
Steller, who was a zoologist of some repute, reports having seen in
Behrings Straits a strange animal, which he calls a "sea-ape," and in
which one might almost recognise Pontoppidan's "Sea-Quoyas-Morrov." It
was about five feet long, had sharp and erect ears and large eyes, and
on its lips a kind of beard. Its body was thick and round, and it
tapered to the tail, which was bifurcated, with the upper lobe longest.
It was covered with thick hair, grey on the back, and red on the belly.
No feet nor paws were visible. It was full of frolic, and sported in the
manner of a monkey, swimming sometimes on one side of the ship and
sometimes on the other. It often raised one-third of its body out of the
water, and stood upright for a considerable time. It would frequently
bring up a sea-plant, not unlike a bottle-gourd, which it would toss
about and catch in its mouth, playing numberless fantastic tricks with
it.
Somewhat similar accounts have been brought from the Southern
Hemisphere, two, at least, of which are worth transcribing.