Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-06-21
MermnId,...TheIr Appearenee Al Sea.


Mermalds-..Their Appearance at Sea.
In 1877, according to Scottish maya
zine, the crew of a ship newly arrived
in the Thames river from the East
Indies, reported that in the island of
Mauritius they had partaken of q ner-
maid, the flesh of which was great
deal like veal. The mermaid weighed
three or four hundred weight-rather a
buxom specimen The head was par
ticularly large, and so were the features,
which differed but little from those Of q
man or woman. The story tells of two
of them, one with beard four or five
inches long, the other much more femi-
nine. "When they are first taken"
the narrator proceeds to say, (which is
often ON the ground, they cry and
grieve with great sensibility." About
the same time q story came from Vigo,
IN Sps..In, to the effect that some fisher
men on that coast had caught sort of
norman, five feet and half from
head to foot. The head was like that
of q goat, with along beard and mus
tache, black skin, somewhat hairy, a
very long neck, short arms, hands
longer and larger than they ought to be
in proportion, and long fingers, with
nails like claws, webbed toes, and fin
ct the lower part of the back,
! The magazines. for 1775 gave ain ac-
count of q mermaid which was captured
In the Levant and brought to London.
One of the learned periodicals gravely
told its readers that the mermaid had
the complexion and features of Euro.
pean, like those of young woman ;
that the eyes were light blue, the nose
small and elegantly formed, the mouth
small, the lips thin, shut the edges of
them round like those of a Goldfish >
that the teeth were small, regular, and
white that the neck was we'll rounded,
and that the ears were like those of the
eel, ''but placed like those of the human
4 species, with gllls for respiration, which
appear like curls." There was no hai1
on the head, but trolls, which, at dis
lance, might be taken for curls" There
was fin rising pyramidally from the
temples, forming a foretop, like that
of lady's head-dress. The bust was
nearly like that of young damsel, 6
proper orthodox mermaiden, but, alas
all below the waist was exactly like 6
fish. Three sets of fms below the
waist, one above the other, enabled he1
to swim. Finally, cit is said to have
an enchanting. voice, which it never ex
erts except before astorm." The writer
in the annual Register probably die
not see this mermaid, which the Gen
tlenadn's Magazine described as being
only three feet high. 1t was afterwarC
proved to be a cheat, made from the
skull of the angle shark. e. rt.ttt
A Welsh farmer named Reynolds
living at Pen-y-hold in 1882, saw {
something which he appears to have
believed to be mermaid he told the
story to DR.. George Phillips, who tolt
it to Mrs. Moore, who told it to young
lady pupil of hers, who wrote out al
account'of it for Mrs Morgan, who in
serted itin her "Tour to Milford Haven.
How much the story gained on its trav
els-like the Three Black Crows, or the
parlor game of Russian Scandal--wt
are left to find out for ourselves bu
its ultimate form was nearly as follows
One morning, just outside the cliff
Reynolds saw what seemed to him to bt
person bathing in the sea, with the
upper part of the body out of the water
On nearer view, it looked like the upper
part of a person in tub, youth, say
of sixteen or eighteen years of age
with nice white skin sort of brown
ish body and a tail were under the
water. The head and body were human
in form, but the arms and hands thicl
in proportion to length, while the nose
running up high between the eyes, ter
minated rathersharply. The ysteriou
being looked attentively at Reynolds
and at the cliffs, and at the birds fyinl
, in the air, with a wild gaze, but uttered
{ no cry. Reynolds went to bring som
, companions to see the norman or mer
maid, but when he returned it had dis
appeared. If We like to suppose tina
{ Reynolds had seen some kind of seal
: and that the narration had grown t
! something else ny repeating fror
: mouth to mouth, perhaps we shall nc
, bevery farwrong.-AUthe Year Roatno