The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1907-12-01
MERMA|DS Of LEGEND
Sea Women That Were Vouche5
For by Ancient Writers.
ORIGIN OF THE DELUSlON

There Is decided fascination about
the mermads OF legend Considering
! their traditional form. II does not seen
! quite ccrnin whether they can be In
cludcd iAiong the fair "humanlties" OF
old religion but 1t would lie extremely
interesting TO see one. In all serious
ness tie 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 historical accounts
that we have OF mermaids and the he
roic attempts at rationallstlc explana
tion. The fancy has taken trmcr hold
on popular imagination than many OF
the old legends. or course they are
recognized us noneXistcnt: but. unlik"
the majority OF Psychological beings
they are invested colloquially with
sort Of humorous reality.
A History OF the Netherlands" gives
clrcumstnntial account OF great
tempest which washed ashore nea.
/ Haarlem "sea woman" as she was
swimming about. she was captured
ana clcansed from the "sea moss that
had grown about her" and became
humanizcd creature. except that she
was always trying TO escape into the
water And II is added. MANY persons
worthy of credit have justified in their
writings that they had scene her in the
said towne OF Ilaarlem." In the six
captured seven mcrmen and mer
maids" several priests and physicians
tcstifying TO the fact and the latter
leaving ii on record that after exam
nation aud dissection they found the
external aud internal structures resem
bled those OF human beings Hudson
the famous navigator, declared thai
his ships company had seen n mer
maid. the upper part OF her body llk"
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.
tury, records the appearance Of
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 las for the meremaidens
It is NO fabulous tale that goeth Of
them. for locke how painters draw
them, SO TINY are indeed"
II seems hard after all these weighty
testimonies that we should be assured
that the historical" mcrmalds were
only dugongs or manatees, seals or
Sea- lions. especially as 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 rationalistic
| scientists as explaining the delusion
but one is at n loss TO understand how
this can account for the clrcumstan
| tial descriptions that have come down
TO us. Coeyals of those old writers
have proved TO us by their paintings
that they held very much the same
views rs 10 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
a pretty woman. Yet there is general
ly the Implication Of comeliness In the
verbal pictures tile Old writer's give
OF their mermaids. though Columbus.
who reported that he had seen two or
three. admitted that lie saw no beauty
ia them. The seal explanation PERTAINS
does the least violence 10 ones tradi
| tonal ideas. rs, whatever may br
thought Of its resemblance 70 u wo
man, II is In itself graceful and its face
and eyes are pleasing.
There is nj any rate, rather sug
! gestiyc coincidence IN the view thai
the mermaid of fiction IL the seal o,
/ fact, for closely allied If not Identical
| with mermaids were the seal maid
ems Of thousand fables. The nc
| cepted tradition was that these maid
ems assumed the form Of seals. which
they could relinquish at any moment
| Icy di'esting themselves of the seal
skins only II while they were dis
/ porting themselves In quasi human
guise their seal intcguments were sto
en- or hidden they would have to re.
main as "maldcns" and could not re
sumo the form OF seals. We know on
the authority OF many song and
legend that Willingly or unwillingly
man has been
married 90 mermaid
At the bottom 0f the deep blue sea"
but In the case Of the fortunate pur
loiner OF n seal madeus troublesome
disguise there was no need for sub
marine descent. She could quite com
fortlby live on land and. indeed. had
10 unless she found her sealskln again
though always longing. like the mer
maid Of HaarleuI, TO become a sea
dwe!ler once more. There is therefore
unquestionably a certain poetic pro
priety In the scientific Identification Of
The mermaid with the seal. Iondon