Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-12
Some of the Ancient Legends and
Strange Beliefs About
THE FAIRER SEX AND THE OCEAN.
Beautiful Eymphs Dwelling in Coral Caves
Beneath the Waves.
WOMEN MAKE FIRsT-cLAss SAILORS
WRITTEN FOR TIE p1sPArcH.l

godoeSses OF the sea were all powerful,
sharing with Neptune the dominion over its
waters. The chosen patroness of sailors in
Greece was Athene, a female goddess.
Derceto, Isis, Thetis, Juno, Artemus, Ino
and Doris, among the Greeks, and Syrians,
Skathi and Rau among the Mortimer, and
other inferior female deities, possessed more
or less power over the waves, according to
legendary myths. There was additionally
a multitude of feminine beings sporting in
the foaming waves, such as the Oceanids,
the Nereids, the Hindoo Apsaras, the Ger
man Mixes, which were the ancestors of the
modern mermaids. Female deities of the
sea are not unknown in our days. The
Chinese have favorite marine goddess,
Loong- Moo, and Ke-Mung and Ma-Chua
are also venerated by sailors.
Ancient myths also represent woman as the
offspring of the salt foam. Venus arose from
its blue waves, and Lakshuii, Hindoo
goddess, had a similar origin. A certain
tribe of Arizona Indians revere grand
mother goddess of the sea" who, they say,
brought mankind and speech with her from
the bottom of the ocean. It is usually a
male being who, coming from the sea
depths, brings with him the sciences and
arts. Audaman Islanders say the first
woman came from the sea. The Virgin
Mary is to Catholic sailors all-powerful at
sea. Her chapels line the coast OF Southern
Europe, and are filled with tablets, inscrip-
tions, pictures and gifts made by pious sail
ors in times of distress and danger. Eras-
mus, in his ''Shipwreck," says: "In ancient
times, Venus took care of mariners because
she was supposed to be born of the sea, and
because she left off taking care of them the
Virgin Mother was put in her place." In a
hymn to the Virgin in use in Catholic
churches she is called "Star of the Sea"
and is asked to calm the waves. According
to old legends, Saint Christine was thrown
into the sea, with a stone about her neck.
The cord broke, the stone sank and the
saint walked ashore. Saint Anne is the
patroness of Canadian sailors. Saint Hele-
ma calmed a storm at sea, and other canon
lied women are fabled to have certain power
over the deep.
BORN OF THE SEA.
Woman Is still more closely connected
with the sea in other legends. Hesiod
makes the ocean offspring Of Mother Earth
and Father Uranus. According to Polyne-
sian myths, Tame is mother of the sea, as
well as of fresh water and of the winds.
Sailors in Brittany call the sea grand
mother" while in Spain they allude to it as
''godmother. When the sea is smooth and
tranquil Portuguese sailors call it "the
ladies' sea" and Breton boatmen call it
"ladies' weather." A bay on the coast of
Persia is called Bahr-el-Benat (girls' bav),
and Spanish discoverers called the tropical
sea, when the gentle trade winds blow, the
''ladies' gulf" (Gulfo de las damas.)
In many popular legends women dwell at
true of the old goddesses of the sea, of the
Greenland myths, an old woman lives at
the bottom of the ocean, guarded by seals,
and sends forth the animals of the sea.
Mermaids have beautiful palaces to which
they sometimes decoy men. Sometimes,
on the contrary, the men of the sea carry
away earthly brides, who sometimes leave
them in the lurch, like the forsaken mermaids
of the beautiful ballad.
In Russian story, Sadko marries daugh-
ter of the Tsar Moskoi, King of the Sea,
and lives in golden palace at the bottom
of the ocean. An ancestral god of the
japanese was reported also to have married
the daughter Of the King of the Tides. An
Irish legend reports the same of the SEMI
historical King Diarmid. One of the most
bizarre of these stories of men detained be-
meath the waves is one formerly told that
the officers of the Royal George, Admiral
ship, that sank at her anchors
at Spithead, were detained in the wreck BY
the spell cast over them by Portsmouth
women, for whom they had manifested great
The magic of these diabolical
sirens was broken when the hulk was de-
stroYed bY an electrical mine
A tradition of Colonsay Island recited
that a certain MacPhail was carried off BY
a mermaid, whom he afterward deserted.
And ever as the year returns
The charm-bound sailors know the lay,
For sadly still the mermaid mourns
The lovely chief of ColonsSy."
Such tales are numerous. There are
many localities on the eastern coast of the
where such beings are said to lurk,
ready to drag down the unwary sailors for-
whom especially they seem to have predi-
lection.
THE SAILORS WIFE.
The sea itself, however, is sometimes
cruel to women. An old Breton legend
asserts that a group of rocks in a certain
locality are certain young girls who derided
a maritime saint whose chapel is near the
spot Tennyson, in "Enoch Arden" por-
trays the desolate condition of the wife of
the absent mariner, and there is often truth
in the Tamil saying: "The wife of the
sMpmaster is in lucky situation so long as
the ship is safe; if it is lost, she must beg"
Witches and such uncanny females had
great power over the sea. Certain Druid
esses on the Isle la Sein, off the French
coast, were anciently reported to have great
power over the waves. Lapland witches
were especially noted in former days for this
power. "O'ous. I'll marry Lapland
witch as soon, and live upon selling
winds and wrecked vessels" SAYS
One of the characters in an old English play: |
There were many famous English witches
who were said TO have caused storms at sea.
In King james II, of Scotland's day, Ag-
nes Sampson conspired with others to wreck |
that monarch's ship, and raised a storm by
throwing a cat into the sea. Many others,
ike the witch in Macbeth" possessed |
power over the elements, and Scott tells of
Bessie Mile who drove prosperous trade |
IN winds as late as 1914. These same ladies |
sailed about in selves and eggshells.
Virgil makes the ships of his hero turn to
emsle nymphs.
Now wondrousl as they beat the foaming
flood
rhe timber softens into flesh and blood.
he yards and oars now arms and legs design;
4 trunk. the hull; the slender keel, spine;
The Prov. female face: and by degrees
The gaiieys rise-green daughters of the seas" |
Notwithstanding physical dread of the |
ea, fashion makes of women persistent sea |
FATHERS, and some doubtless believe in the
many absurd things frequently said about |
he wonderful efficacy of sea water. In
ormer days sea baths were believed to puri-
y from sins, and modern traveller tells us
hat Sidonian women still assemble on a
ertain beach to dance and to bathe in the
ca for the purpose of washing away their
ins. On the shores of the Red Sea, widows
.et rid Of theirsuperfuous grief by sea bath
after the funeral, accompanied
" their female friends. In many islands of
)eeauica infants are bathedin the sea by
heir mothers as soon as convenient alter
firth.
ISLANDS INHABITED By WOMEN.
A widespread legend existed of islands in
he ocean inhabited only by women, like the
1omeric Isles of Circe and Calypso. Jason
nd the ArgOnauts found women only at
1eunoH. Arab geographers in the Middle