Chapter IV: Part 4

It is impossible to doubt for a moment the genuineness of the statement made by Captain Drevar and his crew, or their honest desire to describe faithfully that which they believed they had seen; but the height to which the snake is said to have upreared itself is evidently greatly exaggerated; for it is impossible that any serpent could "elevate its body some sixty feet perpendicularly in the air"--nearly one-third of the height of the Monument of the Great Fire of London. I have no desire to force this narrative of the master and crew of the _Pauline_ into conformity with any preconceived idea. They may have seen a veritable sea-serpent; or they may have witnessed the amours of two whales, and have seen the great creatures rolling over and over that they might breathe alternately by the blow-hole of each coming to the surface of the water; or the supposed coils of the snake may have been the arms of a great calamary, cast over and around the huge cetacean. The other two appearances--1st, the animal "seen shooting itself along the surface with head and neck raised" (p. 77), and 2nd, the elevation of the body to a considerable height, as in Egede's sea monster, (p. 67), would certainly accord with this last hypothesis; but, taking the statement as it stands, it must be left for further elucidation.

On the 28th of January, 1879, a "sea-serpent" was seen from the s.s. _City of Baltimore_, in the Gulf of Aden, by Major H. W. J. Senior, of the Bengal Staff Corps. The narrator "observed a long, black object darting rapidly in and out of the water, and advancing nearer to the vessel. The shape of the head was not unlike pictures of the dragon he had often seen, with a bull-dog expression of the forehead and eyebrows. When the monster had drawn its head sufficiently out of the water, it let its body drop, as it were a log of wood, prior to darting forward under the water. This motion caused a splash of about fifteen feet in length on either side of the neck much in the 'shape of a pair of wings.'" This last particular of its appearance, as well as its movements, suggest a great calamary; but, as one with "a bull-dog expression of eyebrow, visible at 500 yards distance," does not come within my ken, I will not claim it as such.

In June 1877 Commander Pearson reported to the Admiralty, that on the 2nd of that month, he and other officers of the Royal Yacht _Osborne_, had seen, off Cape Vito, Sicily, a large marine animal, of which the following account and sketches were furnished by Lieutenant Haynes, and were confirmed by Commander Pearson, Mr. Douglas Haynes, Mr. Forsyth, and Mr. Moore, engineer.

"Lieutenant Haynes writes, under date, 'Royal Yacht _Osborne_,
Gibraltar, June 6': On the evening of that day, the sea being
perfectly smooth, my attention was first called by seeing a ridge
of fins above the surface of the water, extending about thirty
feet, and varying from five to six feet in height. On inspecting it
by means of a telescope, at about one and a-half cables' distance,
I distinctly saw a head, two flappers, and about thirty feet of an
animal's shoulder. The head, as nearly as I could judge, was about
six feet thick, the neck narrower, about four to five feet, the
shoulder about fifteen feet across, and the flappers each about
fifteen feet in length. The movements of the flappers were those of
a turtle, and the animal resembled a huge seal, the resemblance
being strongest about the back of the head. I could not see the
length of the head, but from its crown or top to just below the
shoulder (where it became immersed), I should reckon about fifty
feet. The tail end I did not see, being under water, unless the
ridge of fins to which my attention was first attracted, and which
had disappeared by the time I got a telescope, were really the
continuation of the shoulder to the end of the object's body. The
animal's head was not always above water, but was thrown upwards,
remaining above for a few seconds at a time, and then disappearing.
There was an entire absence of 'blowing,' or 'spouting.' I herewith
beg to enclose a rough sketch, showing the view of the 'ridge of
fins,' and also of the animal in the act of propelling itself by
its two fins."

PHASE I.]

PHASE 2.]

It seems to me that this description cannot be explained as applicable to any one animal yet known. The ridge of dorsal fins might, possibly, as was suggested by Mr. Frank Buckland, belong to four basking sharks, swimming in line, in close order; but the combination of them with long flippers, and the turtle-like mode of swimming, forms a zoological enigma which I am unable to solve.

This brings us face to face with the question: "Is it then so impossible that there may exist some great sea creature, or creatures, with which zoologists are hitherto unacquainted, that it is necessary in every case to regard the authors of such narratives as wilfully untruthful, or mistaken in their observations, if their descriptions are irreconcileable with something already known?" I, for one, am of the opinion that there is no such impossibility. Calamaries or squids of the ordinary size have, from time immemorial, been amongst the commonest and best known of marine animals in many seas; but only a few years ago any one who expressed his belief in one formidable enough to capsize a boat, or pull a man out of one, was derided for his credulity, although voyagers had constantly reported that in the Indian seas they were so dreaded that the natives always carried hatchets with them in their canoes, with which to cut off the arms or tentacles of these creatures, if attacked by them. We now know that their existence is no fiction; for individuals have been captured measuring more than fifty feet, and some are reported to have measured eighty feet, in total length. As marine snakes some feet in length, and having fin-like tails adapted for swimming, abound over an extensive geographical range, and are frequently met with far at sea, I cannot regard it as impossible that some of these also may attain to an abnormal and colossal development. Dr. Andrew Wilson, who has given much attention to this subject, is of the opinion that "in this huge development of ordinary forms we discover the true and natural law of the production of the giant serpent of the sea." It goes far, at any rate, towards accounting for its supposed appearance. I am convinced that, whilst naturalists have been searching amongst the vertebrata for a solution of the problem, the great unknown, and therefore unrecognized, calamaries by their elongated, cylindrical bodies and peculiar mode of swimming, have played the part of the sea-serpent in many a well-authenticated incident. In other cases, such as some of those mentioned by Pontoppidan, the supposed "vertical undulations" of the snake seen out of water have been the burly bodies of so many porpoises swimming in line--the connecting undulations beneath the surface have been supplied by the imagination. The dorsal fins of basking sharks, as figured by Mr. Buckland, or of ribbon-fishes, as suggested by Dr. Andrew Wilson, may have furnished the "ridge of fins;" an enormous conger is not an impossibility; a giant turtle may have done duty, with its propelling flippers and broad back; or a marine snake of enormous size may, really, have been seen. But if we accept as accurate the observations recorded (which I certainly do not in all cases, for they are full of errors and mistakes), the difficulty is not entirely met, even by this last admission, for the instances are very few in which an ophidian proper--a true serpent--is indicated. There has seemed to be wanting an animal having a long snake-like neck, a small head and a slender body, and propelling itself by paddles.[32]

[32] It must be noted, however, that in almost every case, except
that of the _Osborne_, the paddles were _supposed_, not _seen_, and
were invented to account for an animal of great length progressing
at the surface of the water at the rate of twelve to fifteen miles
an hour without its being possible to perceive, upon the closest
and most attentive inspection, any undulatory movement to which its
rapid advance could be ascribed. As the great calamaries were
unknown, their mode of swift retrograde motion, by means of an
outflowing current of water, was of course unsuspected.

The similarity of such an animal to the _Plesiosaurus_ of old was remarkable. That curious compound reptile, which has been compared with "a snake threaded through the body of a turtle," is described by Dean Buckland, in his _Bridgewater Treatise_, as having "the head of a lizard, the teeth of a crocodile, a neck of enormous length resembling the body of a serpent, the ribs of a chameleon, and the paddles of a whale." In the number of its cervical vertebrae (about thirty-three) it surpasses that of the longest-necked bird, the swan.

The form and probable movements of this ancient saurian agree so markedly with some of the accounts given of the "great sea-serpent," that Mr. Edward Newman advanced the opinion that the closest affinities of the latter would be found to be with the _Enaliosauria_, or marine lizards, whose fossil remains are so abundant in the oolite and the lias. This view has also been taken by other writers, and emphatically by Mr. Gosse. Neither he nor Mr. Newman insist that the "great unknown" must be the _Plesiosaurus_ itself. Mr. Gosse says, "I should not look for any species, scarcely even any genus, to be perpetuated from the oolitic period to the present. Admitting the actual continuation of the order _Enaliosauria_, it would be, I think, quite in conformity with general analogy to find some salient features of several extinct forms."

_Plesiosaurus Dolichodeirus restored by The Rev. W. D. Canybeare._]

The form and habits of the recently-recognized gigantic cuttles account for so many appearances which, without knowledge of them, were inexplicable when Mr. Gosse and Mr. Newman wrote, that I think this theory is not now forced upon us. Mr. Gosse well and clearly sums up the evidence as follows: "Carefully comparing the independent narratives of English witnesses of known character and position, most of them being officers under the crown, we have a creature possessing the following characteristics: 1st. The general form of a serpent. 2nd. Great length, say above sixty feet. 3rd. Head considered to resemble that of a serpent. 4th. Neck from twelve to sixteen inches in diameter. 5th. Appendages on the head, neck, or back, resembling a crest or mane. (Considerable discrepancy in details.) 6th. Colour dark brown, or green, streaked or spotted with white. 7th. Swims at surface of the water with a rapid or slow movement, the head and neck projected and elevated above the surface. 8th. Progression, steady and uniform; the body straight, but capable of being thrown into convolutions. 9th. Spouts in the manner of a whale. 10th. Like a long nun-buoy." He concludes with the question--"To which of the recognized classes of created beings can this huge rover of the ocean be referred?"

I reply: "To the Cephalopoda. There is not one of the above judiciously summarized characteristics that is not supplied by the great calamary, and its ascertained habits and peculiar mode of locomotion.

"Only a geologist can fully appreciate how enormously the balance of probability is contrary to the supposition that any of the gigantic marine saurians of the secondary deposits should have continued to live up to the present time. And yet I am bound to say, that this does not amount to an impossibility, for the evidence against it is entirely negative. Nor is the conjecture that there may be in existence some congeners of these great reptiles inconsistent with zoological science. Dr. J. E. Gray, late of the British Museum, a strict zoologist, is cited by Mr. Gosse as having long ago expressed his opinion that some undescribed form exists which is intermediate between the tortoises and the serpents."[33]

[33] Dr. Gray wrote in his 'Synopsis of Genera of Reptiles,' in the
Annals of Philosophy, 1825: "There is every reason to believe from
general structure that there exists an affinity between the
tortoises and the snakes; but the genus that exactly unites them is
at present unknown to European naturalists; which is not
astonishing when we consider the immense number of undescribed
animals which are daily occurring. If I may be allowed to speculate
from the peculiarities of structure which I have observed, I am
inclined to think that the union will most probably take place by
some newly discovered genera allied to the marine or fluviatile
soft-skinned turtles and the marine serpent."

_After_ Mr. P. H. GOSSE, F.R.S.]

Professor Agassiz, too, is adduced by a correspondent of the _Zoologist_ (p. 2395), as having said concerning the present existence of the _Enaliosaurian_ type that "it would be in precise conformity with analogy that such an animal should exist in the American Seas, as he had found numerous instances in which the fossil forms of the Old World were represented by living types in the New."

On this point, Mr. Newman records, in the _Zoologist_ (p. 2356), an actual testimony which he considers, "in all respects, the most interesting natural-history fact of the present century." He writes:

"Captain the Hon. George Hope states that when in H.M.S. 'Fly,' in
the Gulf of California, the sea being perfectly calm and
transparent, he saw at the bottom a large marine animal with the
head and general figure of the alligator, except that the neck was
much longer, and that instead of legs the creature had four large
flappers, somewhat like those of turtles, the anterior pair being
larger than the posterior; the creature was distinctly visible, and
all its movements could be observed with ease; it appeared to be
pursuing its prey at the bottom of the sea; its movements were
somewhat serpentine, and an appearance of annulations, or ring-like
divisions of the body, was distinctly perceptible. Captain Hope
made this relation in company, and as a matter of conversation.
When I heard it from the gentleman to whom it was narrated, I
enquired whether Captain Hope was acquainted with those remarkable
fossil animals _Ichthyosauri_ and _Plesiosauri_, the supposed forms
of which so nearly correspond with what he describes as having seen
alive, and I cannot find that he had heard of them; the alligator
being the only animal he mentioned as bearing a partial similarity
to the creature in question."

Unfortunately, the estimated dimensions of this creature are not given.

That negative evidence alone is an unsafe basis for argument against the existence of unknown animals, the following illustrations will show:

During the deep-sea dredgings of H.M.S. _Lightning_, _Porcupine_, and _Challenger_, many new species of mollusca, and others which had been supposed to have been extinct ever since the chalk epoch, were brought to light; and by the deep-sea trawlings of the last-mentioned ship, there have been brought up from great depths fishes of unknown species, and which could not exist near the surface, owing to the distension and rupture of their air-bladder when removed from the pressure of deep water.

Mr. Gosse mentions that the ship in which he made the voyage to Jamaica was surrounded in the North Atlantic, for seventeen continuous hours by a troop of whales of large size of an undescribed species, which on no other occasion has fallen under scientific observation. Unique specimens of other cetaceans are also recorded.

We have evidence, to which attention has been directed by Mr. A. D. Bartlett, that, "even on land there exists at least one of the largest mammals, probably in thousands, of which only one individual has been brought to notice, namely, the hairy-eared, two horned rhinoceros (_R. lasiotis_), now in the Zoological Gardens, London. It was captured in 1868, at Chittagong, in India, where for years collectors and naturalists have worked and published lists of the animals met with, and yet no knowledge of this great beast was ever before obtained, nor is there any portion of one in any museum. It remains unique."

I arrive, then, at the following conclusions: 1st. That, without straining resemblances, or casting a doubt upon narratives not proved to be erroneous, the various appearances of the supposed "Great Sea-serpent" may now be nearly all accounted for by the forms and habits of known animals; especially if we admit, as proposed by Dr. Andrew Wilson, that some of them, including the marine snakes, may, like the cuttles, attain to an extraordinary size.

2nd. That to assume that naturalists have perfect cognizance of every existing marine animal of large size, would be quite unwarrantable. It appears to me more than probable that many marine animals, unknown to science, and some of them of gigantic size, may have their ordinary habitat in the great depths of the sea, and only occasionally come to the surface; and I think it not impossible that amongst them may be marine snakes of greater dimensions than we are aware of, and even a creature having close affinities with the old sea-reptiles whose fossil skeletons tell of their magnitude and abundance in past ages.

It is most desirable that every supposed appearance of the "Great Sea-serpent" shall be faithfully noted and described; and I hope that no truthful observer will be deterred from reporting such an occurrence by fear of the disbelief of naturalists, or the ridicule of witlings.

FINIS.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

_From a Picture by Otto Sinding._]

_International Fisheries Exhibition_ LONDON, 1883

SEA FABLES EXPLAINED

BY

HENRY LEE, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S.

SOMETIME NATURALIST OF THE BRIGHTON AQUARIUM
AND
AUTHOR OF 'THE OCTOPUS, OR THE DEVIL-FISH OF FICTION AND FACT;'
'SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED,' ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON

WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION
AND 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W.
1883

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

PREFACE.

The little book 'Sea Monsters Unmasked,' recently issued as one of the Handbooks in connection with the Great International Fisheries Exhibition has met with so favourable a reception, that I have been honoured by the request to continue the subject, and to treat also of some of the Fables of the Sea, which once were universally believed, and even now are not utterly extinct.

The topic is not here exhausted. Other sea fables and fallacies might be mentioned and explained; but the amount of letter-press, and the number of illustrations that can be printed without loss for the small sum of one shilling--the price at which these Handbooks are uniformly published--is necessarily limited. I have, therefore, thought it better to endeavour to make each chapter as complete as possible than to crowd into the space allotted to me a greater variety of subjects less fully and carefully discussed.

I have the pleasure of acknowledging the kind assistance I have again received in the matter of illustrations. I gratefully appreciate Mr. Murray's permission to use the woodcut of Hercules slaying the Hydra, taken from Smith's 'Classical Dictionary,' and those of the golden ornaments found by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenae, and figured in the very interesting book in which his excavations there are described. I have also to thank the proprietors of the _Illustrated London News_, the _Leisure Hour_, and _Land and Water_, for the use of illustrations especially mentioned in the text.

HENRY LEE.

SAVAGE CLUB;
_Sept. 4th, 1883_.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

THE MERMAID 1

THE LERNEAN HYDRA 48

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS 59

THE "SPOUTING" OF WHALES 62

THE "SAILING" OF THE NAUTILUS 76

BARNACLE GEESE--GOOSE BARNACLES 98

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIG. PAGE

A MERMAID. _From a picture by Otto Sinding_ _Frontispiece_

1. NOAH, HIS WIFE AND THREE SONS, AS FISH-TAILED DEITIES. 2
_From a gem in the Florentine Gallery. After Calmet_

2. HEA, OR NOAH, THE GOD OF THE FLOOD. _Khorsabad_ 3

3. DAGON. _From a bas-relief. Nimroud_ 4

4. DAGON: HALF MAN, HALF FISH. _From Lamy's 'Apparatus 5
Biblicus'_

5. DAGON. _From an agate signet. Nineveh_ "

6. FISH AVATAR OF VISHNU. _After Calmet and Maurice_ 6

7. ATERGATIS, THE GODDESS OF THE SYRIANS. _From a 8
Phoenician Coin_

8. VENUS RISING FROM THE SEA, SUPPORTED BY TRITONS. _After 9
Calmet_

9. VENUS DRAWN IN HER CHARIOT BY TRITONS. _From two 10
Corinthian Coins_

10. DITTO. 11

11. SEAL, DRAWN AS A FISH. _From the Catacombs at Rome_ "

12. MERMAID AND FISHES OF AMBOYNA. _After Valentyn_ 17

13. A JAPANESE ARTIFICIAL MERMAID 27

14. AN ARTIFICIAL MERMAID. _Probably Japanese_ 28

15. PORTRAIT OF A MERMAID SAID TO HAVE BEEN CAPTURED IN JAPAN 29

16. THE DUGONG. _From Sir J. Emerson Tennent's 'Ceylon'_ 43

17. THE MANATEE 45

18. FIGURE OF A CALAMARY, FROM THE TEMPLE OF BAYR-EL-BAHREE 50

19. FIGURE OF AN OCTOPUS ON A GOLD ORNAMENT FOUND BY DR. 51
SCHLIEMANN AT MYCENAE

20. DITTO. 52

21. DITTO. 53

22. DITTO. "

23. HERCULES SLAYING THE LERNEAN HYDRA 57

24. THE PHYSETER INUNDATING A SHIP. _After Olaus Magnus_ 64

25. A WHALE POURING WATER INTO A SHIP FROM ITS BLOW-HOLE. 64
_After Olaus Magnus_

26. SPERM WHALES "SPOUTING" 65

27. THE PAPER NAUTILUS (_Argonauta argo_) SAILING 76

28. DITTO. RETRACTED WITHIN ITS SHELL 81

29. DITTO. CRAWLING 86

30. DITTO. SWIMMING 87

31. SHELL OF THE PAPER NAUTILUS (_Argonauta argo_) 88

32. SHELL OF THE PEARLY NAUTILUS (_Nautilus pompilius_) 89

33. THE PEARLY NAUTILUS (_Nautilus Pompilius_) AND SECTION OF 90
ITS SHELL

34. THE GOOSE-TREE. _From Gerard's 'Herball'_ 104

35. DITTO. _Fac-simile from Aldrovandus_ 110

36. DEVELOPMENT OF BARNACLES INTO GEESE. _Fac-simile from 111
Aldrovandus_

37. SECTION OF A SESSILE BARNACLE. _Balanus tintinnabulum_ 113

38. PEDUNCULATED BARNACLE. _Lepas anatifera_ 115

39. A SHIP'S FIGURE-HEAD PARTLY COVERED WITH BARNACLES 116

40. WHALE BARNACLE. _Coronula diadema_ 117

41. A YOUNG BARNACLE. _Larva of Chthamalus stellatus_ 118

SEA FABLES EXPLAINED.

THE MERMAID.

Next to the pleasure which the earnest zoologist derives from study of the habits and structure of living animals, and his intelligent appreciation of their perfect adaptation to their modes of life, and the circumstances in which they are placed, is the interest he feels in eliminating fiction from truth, whilst comparing the fancies of the past with the facts of the present. As his knowledge increases, he learns that the descriptions by ancient writers of so-called "fabulous creatures" are rather distorted portraits than invented falsehoods, and that there is hardly one of the monsters of old which has not its prototype in Nature at the present day. The idea of the Lernean Hydra, whose heads grew again when cut off by Hercules, originated, as I have shown in another chapter, in a knowledge of the octopus; and in the form and movements of other animals with which we are now familiar we may, in like manner, recognise the similitude and archetype of the mermaid.

But we must search deeply into the history of mankind to discover the real source of a belief that has prevailed in almost all ages, and in all parts of the world, in the existence of a race of beings uniting the form of man with that of the fish. A rude resemblance between these creatures of imagination and tradition and certain aquatic animals is not sufficient to account for that belief. It probably had its origin in ancient mythologies, and in the sculptures and pictures connected with them, which were designed to represent certain attributes of the deities of various nations. In the course of time the meaning of these was lost; and subsequent generations regarded as the portraits of existing beings effigies which were at first intended to be merely emblematic and symbolical.

_From a Gem in the Florentine Gallery. After Calmet._]

Early idolatry consisted, first, in separating the idea of the One Divinity into that of his various attributes, and of inventing symbols and making images of each separately; secondly, in the worship of the sun, moon, stars, and planets, as living existences; thirdly, in the deification of ancestors and early kings; and these three forms were often mingled together in strange and tangled confusion.

Amongst the famous personages with whose history men were made acquainted by oral tradition was Noah. He was known as the second father of the human race, and the preserver and teacher of the arts and sciences as they existed before the Great Deluge, of which so many separate traditions exist among the various races of mankind. Consequently, he was an object of worship in many countries and under many names; and his wife and sons, as his assistants in the diffusion of knowledge, were sometimes associated with him.

According to Berosus, of Babylon,--the Chaldean priest and astronomer, who extracted from the sacred books of "that great city" much interesting ancient lore, which he introduced into his 'History of Syria,' written, about B.C. 260, for the use of the Greeks,--at a time when men were sunk in barbarism, there came up from the Erythrean Sea (the Persian Gulf), and landed on the Babylonian shore, a creature named Oannes, which had the body and head of a fish. But above the fish's head was the head of a man, and below the tail of the fish were human feet. It had also human arms, a human voice, and human language. This strange monster sojourned among the rude people during the day, taking no food, but retiring to the sea at night; and it continued for some time thus to visit them, teaching them the arts of civilized life, and instructing them in science and religion.[34]

[34] Berosus, lib. i. p. 48.

In this tale we have a distorted account of the life and occupation of Noah after his escape from the deluge which destroyed his home and drowned his neighbours. Oannes was one of the names under which he was worshipped in Chaldea, at Erech ("the place of the ark"), as the sacred and intelligent fish-god, the teacher of mankind, the god of science and knowledge. There he was also called Oes, Hoa, Ea, Ana, Anu, Aun, and Oan. Noah was worshipped, also, in Syria and Mesopotamia, and in Egypt, at "populous No,"[35] or Thebes--so named from "Theba," "the ark."

[35] Nahum iii. 8.

The history of the coffin of Osiris is another version of Noah's ark, and the period during which that Egyptian divinity is said to have been shut up in it, after it was set afloat upon the waters, was precisely the same as that during which Noah remained in the ark.

Dagon, also--sometimes called Odacon--the great fish-god of the Philistines and Babylonians, was another phase of Oannes. "Dag," in Hebrew, signifies "a male fish," and "Aun" and "Oan" were two of the names of Noah. "Dag-aun" or "Dag-oan" therefore means "the fish Noah." He was portrayed in two ways. The more ancient image of him was that of a man issuing from a fish, as described of Oannes by Berosus; but in later times it was varied to that of a man whose upper half was human, and the lower parts those of a fish. The image of Dagon which fell upon its face to the ground before "the ark of the God of Israel," was probably of this latter form, for we read[36] that in its fall, "the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold: only the _stump_ (in the margin, "_the fishy part_") of Dagon was left to him." This was evidently Milton's conception of him:

"Dagon his name; sea-monster, upward man
And downward fish."[37]

[36] 1 Samuel v. 4.

[37] 'Paradise Lost,' Book i. l. 462.

In some of the Nineveh sculptures of the fish-god, the head of the fish forms a kind of mitre on the head of the man, whilst the body of the fish appears as a cloak or cape over his shoulders and back. The fish varies in length; in some cases the tail almost touches the ground; in others it reaches but little below the man's waist.

_After Calmet and Maurice._]

In one of his "avatars," or incarnations, the god Vishnu "the Preserver," is represented as issuing from the mouth of a fish. He is celebrated as having miraculously preserved one righteous family, and, also, the Vedas, the sacred records, when the world was drowned. Not only is this legend of the Indian god wrought up with the history of Noah, but Vishnu and Noah bear the same name--Vishnu being the Sanscrit form of "Ish-nuh," "the man Noah." The word "avatar" also means "out of the boat." In fact the whole mythology of Greece and Rome, as well as of Asia, is full of the history and deeds of Noah, which it is impossible to misunderstand. In all the representations of a deity having a combined human and piscine form, the original idea was that of a person coming out of a fish--not being part of one, but issuing from it, as Noah issued from the ark. In all of them the fish denoted "preservation," "fecundity," "plenty," and "diffusion of knowledge."[38] As the image was not the effigy of a divine personage, but symbolized certain attributes of Divinity, its sex was comparatively unimportant, although it is possible that, combined with the fecundity of the fish, the idea of Noah's wife, as the second mother of all subsequent generations, according to the widely-spread and accepted traditions of the deluge, may have influenced the impersonation.

[38] Some writers are of the opinion that the legend of Oannes
contains an allusion to the rising and setting of the sun, and that
his semi-piscine form was the expression of the idea that half his
time was spent above ground, and half below the waves. The same
commentators also regard all the "civilizing" gods and goddesses
as, respectively, solar and lunar deities. The attributes
symbolized in the worship of Noah and the sun are so nearly alike
that the two interpretations are not incompatible.

Atergatis, the far-famed goddess of the Syrians, was also a fish-divinity. Her image, like that of Dagon, had at first a fish's body with human extremities protruding from it; but in the course of centuries it was gradually altered to that of a being the upper portion of whose body was that of a woman and the lower half that of a fish. Gatis was a powerful queen of Sidon, and mother of Semiramis. She received the title of "Ater," or "Ader," "the Great," for the benefits she conferred on her people; one of these benefits being a strict conservation of their fisheries, both from their own imprudent use, and from foreign interference. She issued an edict that no fish should be eaten without her consent, and that no one should take fish in the neighbouring sea without a licence from herself. It is not improbable that she and her celebrated daughter, who is said by Ovid and others to have been the builder of the walls of Babylon, were worshipped together; for that Atergatis was the same as the fish-goddess Ashteroth, or Ashtoreth, "the builder of the encompassing wall," we have, amongst other proofs, a remarkable one in Biblical history. In the first book of Maccabees v. 43, 44, we read that "all the heathen being discomfited before him (Judas Maccabeus) cast away their weapons, and fled unto the temple that was at _Carnaim_. But they took the city, and burned the temple with all that were therein. Thus was _Carnaim_ subdued, neither could they stand any longer before Judas." In the second book of Maccabees xii. 26, we are told that "Maccabeus marched forth to _Carnion_, and to the temple of _Atargatis_, and there he slew five and twenty thousand persons." In Genesis xiv. 5, this city and temple are referred to as "_Ashteroth Karnaim_."

Fig. 7 is a representation of Atergatis on a medal coined at Marseilles. It shows that when the Phoenician colony from Syria, by whom that city was founded, settled there, they brought with them the worship of the gods of their country.

_From a Phoenician coin._]

Atergatis was worshipped by the Greeks as Derceto and Astarte. Lucian writes[39]:--"In Phoenicia I saw the image of Derceto, a strange sight, truly! For she had the half of a woman, and from the thighs downwards a fish's tail." Diodorus Siculus describes (lib. ii.) the same deity, as represented at Ascalon, as "having the face of a woman, but all the rest of the body a fish's." And this very same image at Ascalon, which Diodorus calls Derceto, or Atergatis, is denominated by Herodotus[40] "the celestial Aphrodite," who was identical with the Cyprian and Roman Venus. Of all the sacred buildings erected to the goddess, this temple was by far the most ancient; and the Cyprians themselves acknowledged that their temple was built after the model of it by certain Phoenicians who came from that part of Syria.

[39] 'Opera Omnia,' tom. ii. p. 884, edit. Bened. de Dea. Syr.

[40] Lib. i. cap. cv.

_After Calmet._]

Thus the worship of Noah, as the second father of mankind, the repopulator of the earth, passed through various phases and transformations till it merged in that of Venus, who rose from the sea, and was regarded as the representative of the reproductive power of Nature--the goddess whom Lucretius thus addressed:

"Blest Venus! Thou the sea and fruitful earth
Peoplest amain; to thee whatever lives
Its being owes, and that it sees the sun:"

and to whom refers the passage in the Orphic hymn:

"From thee are all things--all things thou producest
Which are in heaven, or in the fertile earth,
Or in the sea, or in the great abyss."

Under this latter phase--the impersonation of Venus--the fish portion of the body was discarded, and the cast-off form was allotted in popular credence to the Tritons--minor deities, who acknowledged the supremacy of the goddess, and were ready to render her homage and service by bearing her in their arms, drawing her chariot, etc., but who still possessed considerable power as sea-gods, and could calm the waves and rule the storm, at pleasure.

FIG. 9. FIG. 10.

VENUS DRAWN IN HER CHARIOT BY TRITONS. _From two Corinthian coins._]

Figs. 9 and 10 are from two Corinthian medals, each shewing Venus in a car or chariot drawn by Tritons, one male, the other female. On the obverse of Fig. 9, is the head of Nero, and on that of Fig. 10, the head of his grandmother Agrippina.[41]

[41] It is worthy of note that the fish was also adopted as an
emblem by the early Christians, and was frequently sculptured on
their tombs as a private mark or sign of the faith in which the
person there interred had died. It alluded to the letters which
composed the Greek word [Greek: Ichthys] ("a fish") forming an
anagram, the initials of words which conveyed the following
sentiment: [Greek: Iesous], Jesus; [Greek: Christos], Christ;
[Greek: Theou], of God; [Greek: gios], Son; [Greek: Soter],
Saviour. But it doubtless bore, also, the older meaning of
"preservation" and "reproduction," of which the fish was the
symbol, and betokened a belief in a future resurrection, as Noah
was preserved to dwell in, and populate, a new world. In 'Sea
Monsters Unmasked,' page 55, I gave a figure, copied by permission
from the _Illustrated London News_, of a rough sculpture in the
Roman catacombs, of Jonah being disgorged by a sea-monster. Near to
it was found, on another Christian tomb, one of these designs of
the "fish;" and it is not a little curious that, whereas the animal
depicted as casting forth Jonah is not a whale, but a sea-serpent,
or dragon, the _ichtheus_ in this instance is apparently not a
fish, but a seal.

The article referred to appeared in the _Illustrated London News_ of
February 3rd, 1872, and the woodcut (fig. 11), an electrotype of
which was most kindly presented to me by the proprietors of that
paper, was one of the sketches that accompanied it.

From the very earliest period of history, then, the conjoined human and 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.

[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.