Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1907-11-27
MERMA1DS OF LEGEND
Sea Women That Were vouched
For by Ancient Writers.
ORIGIN OF THE DELUsIoN.
These Traditional Creatures Were
Probably Dusonss and Msnstees.
Seal Maidens of FabIe-Mermaids Of
Fiction and the Seal of Fact.

There = a decided fascination about
the mermaids OF legend. Considering
their traditional form. it does not seem
quite certain whether they can be In
Guided among the fair ''humanities'' OF
old religion. but IL would be extremely
Interesting to see one. In all serious
ness the truths and poetry underlying
and inherent In the old myths are well
worth attention. but apart from these
there is something distinctly entertain
ing in the quasi-historIcaI accounts
that we. have OF mermaids and the he
roic attempts at rationalistic explana-
ton. The fancy has taken firmer hold
on popular imagination than many of
the old legends. OF course they are
recognized as nonexistept; but, unlike
the majority of NEUROLOGICAL beings.
they are invested co1loquially with a
sort OF humorous reality.
A History OF the Netherlands gives
circumstantial account of a great
tempest which washed ashore near
HARLEM n sea woman" as she was
swimming about She was captured
and cleansed from the "sea moss that
had grown about her. and became n
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 of Ceylon some sailors
captured seven mermen and mer-
maids" several priests and ply sfcians
testifying to the fact and the latter
leaving IL 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 n mer-
maid. 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 a human
/ being" The Norwegian Bishop Pontip.
/ pidan, who wrote in the eighteenth cen.
fury, records the appearance Of Z
mermaid which was deposed to on oath
4 10y the observers" And not TO multi
( ply quotations proving the belief ever
OF the learned i'm the actual existence
, OF the mernaids. Pliny asserts author
itatively that las for the meremaIdens
IL is no fabulous tale that >goeth oi
them, for locke how painters draw
thcm. so thay are indeed"
II seems hard after all these weight,
testimonies that we Should be assure,
that the historical mermaids wer
only dugongs or manatees, seals o
sea lions. especially as some OF thes
interesting creatures measure som
eighteen feet I'm length and are by n
means attractive in appearance. Some
thing In the shape OF the head and tn
breast Is relied on by the nationalist
scientists as explaining the delusior
but one is at n loss TO understand hoy
this can account for the circumstau
tial descriptions that have come dow,
TO us. Coevals OF those old writer
have proved 10 us by their painting
that they held very much the sam
views us 10 what constitutes feminin
beauty rs we have. and we shout
certainly not discover in the dugonC @
manatee anything whatever to sugges
IN the very faintest degree the idea c
a pretty woman. Yet there is genera
ly the implication OF comeliness In III
verbal pictures the old writer's Civ
OF their mermaids. though Columbu.
who reported that he had seen two c
three, admitted that he saw no beaut
in them. The seal explanation perhar
does the least violence TO ones trad
uonal IDEAS, as. whatever may b
thought OF it's resemblance TO n W,
man. il is in itself graceful and its fac
and eyes are pleasing.
There Is. ut any rate, n rather sus
gestive coincidence in the view thu
the mermaid OF fiction is the seal q
fact. for closely allied if not identities
with mermaids were the seal maiC
ems" OF n thousand fables. The az
cepted tradition was that these mait
ems assumed the form OF seals, whic
they could relinquish Mt any momer
10y diveSting themselves OF the sea
skins. Only II while they were iii.
porting themselves In quasi huma
GuiSe their seal integuments We're sto
; en- or hidden they would have TO +,
main as ''maidens'' and couits not +,
sumo the form OF seals. We know O
the authority of many a song an
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 pu