The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1907-12-13
MERMA|DS OF LEGEND
Sea Women That Were vouched
For by Ancient Writers.
ORIGIN OF THE DELUsIoN.


Fiction and the Seal of Fact.
There is decided fascination about
the mermads of legend. Considering
their traditional form, it does not seem
quite certain whether they can be In
cluded among the fair. ''humanities" Of
old religion. but 1t would be extremely
interesting to see one In all serious
ness the truths and poetry underlying
and inherent in the old myths are we'll
worth attention, but apart from these
there Is something distinctly entertain
Ing in the quasi-historical accounts
that we have of mermaids and the he
roic attempts at rationallstic explana-
ton. The fancy has taken firmer hold
on popular imagination than many of
the old legends. OF course they are
recognized as nonexistent; but, unlike
the majority of NEUROLOGICAL beings,
they are invested colloquially with
sort of humorous reality.
History Of the Netherlands" gives
crcumstantial account of a great
tempest which washed ashore near
Haarlem ''sea woman" as she was
swimming about. She was captured
and cleansed from the "sea moss that
had grown about herr and became a
humanized creature, except that she
was always trying to escape into the
water. And it Is added, MANY persons
worthy of credit have justified in their
writings that they had scene her in the
said towne of Harlem" In the six
teenth century off Ceylon some sailors
captured ''seven mermen and mer-
maids" several priests and physicians
testifying to the fact and the latter
leaving 1t on record that after exami-
nation and dissection they found the
external and internal structures resem.
bled those of human beings. Hudson,
the famous navigator, declared that
his ships company had seen mer-
maidi the upper part of her body like
woman, skin very white and long
black hair. An old Iceland history
tells of one near Greenland, "the neck
and head in all respects like human
Icing" The Norwegian Bishop, Pontip-
pidan, who wrote in the. eighteenth GEN.
tury, records the appearance Of a
mermaid which was deposed to on oath
by the observers" And not to multi
ply quotations proving the belief even
of the learned In the actual existence
Of the mermaids, Pliny asserts author
itatively that "as for the meremaidens
it is no fabulous tale that goeth of
them, for locke how painters draw
them, so thay are indeed"
1t seems lard after all these weighty
testimonies that we should be assured
that the historical mermaids were
. only dugongs or manatees, seals or
sea lions, especially MS some of these
interesting creatures measure some
eighteen feet In length and are by no
means attractive In appearance. Some
thing in the shape of the head and the
breast is relied on by the rationalistie
scientists as explaining the delusion,
but one is at loss to understand how
this can account for the circumstan-
tial descriptions that have come down
to us. Coevals Of those old writers
have proved to us by their paintings
that they held very much the sarle
views as to what constitutes feminine
beauty as we have. and we should
certainly not discover in the dugong or
manatee anything whatever to suggest
In the very faintest degree the idea Of
pretty woman. Yet there is general
ly the implication of comeliness In the
verbal pictures the old writer's give
of their mermaids, though Columbus.
who reported that he had seen two or
three, admitted that he saw no beauty
III them. The seal explanation perhaps
does the least violence to ones tradi-
tional ideas, as, whatever may be
thought of its resemblance to wo-
man, it is In itself graceful and its face
and eyes are pleasing.
There is, at any rate, rather sug-
gestive coincidence in the view that
the mermaid of fiction Is the seal OF
fact, for closely allied If not identical
with mermaids were the seal maid
ens' of q thousand fables. The ac-
cepted tradition was that these maid
ems assumed the form of seals, which
they could relinquish at any moment
by diyesting themselves of the seal
skins. Only il while they were dis
porting themselves in quasi human
guise their seal integuments were stol
en- or hidden they would have to re
main Us ''maidens" and could not re
sumo the form Of seals. We know or
the authority Of many song ant
legend that willingly or unwillingly {
man has been
married to a mermaid
At the bottom Of the deep blue sea"
but in the case of the fortunate pur
loiner Of a seal maiden's "troublesom,
disguise" there was no need for sub
marine descent She could quite com
fortably live on land and, indeed, hat
to unless she found her sealskin again
though always longing. like the mer
maid of HARLEM, to become Sc;
dwelIer once more. There is therefor
unquestionably certain poetic pro
priety in the scientific Identification o
the mermaid with the seal. Londol
Globe.
Remuneration.
tT 49, IL haov, ernn6 friend n