MERMAID, or MERMAN, a sea-creature frequently talked of, supposed half human and half a fish.
However naturalists may doubt of the reality of mermen or mermaids, we have testimony enough to establish it; though, how far these testimonies may be authentic, we cannot take upon us to say. In the year 1187, as Laray informs us, such a monster was fished up in the county of Suffolk, and kept by the governor for six months. It bore so near a conformity with man, that nothing seemed wanting to it but speech. One day it took the opportunity of making its escape; and plunging into the sea, was never more heard of. Hist. de Angleterre, P. I. p. 403.
In the year 1430, after a huge tempest, which broke down the dikes in Holland, and made way for
Mermaid, the sea into the meadows, &c. some girls of the town of Edam in West-Friesland, going in a boat to milk their cows, perceived a mermaid embarrassed in the mud, with a very little water. They took it into their boat, and brought it with them to Edam, dressed it in women's apparel, and taught it to spin. It fed like one of them, but could never be brought to offer at speech. Some time afterwards it was brought to Haarlem, where it lived for some years, though still showing an inclination to the water. Parival relates, that they had given it some notion of a Deity, and that it made its reverences very devoutly whenever it passed by a crucifix. Delices de Hollande.
In the year 1560, near the island of Manar, on the western coast of the island of Ceylon, some fishermen brought up, at one draught of a net, seven mermen and mermaids; of which several Jesuits, and among the rest F. Hen. Henriques and Dimas Bosquez, physicians to the viceroy of Goa, were witnesses. The physician, who examined them with a great deal of care, and made dissection thereof, asserts, that all the parts both internal and external were found perfectly conformable to those of men. See the Hist. de la compagnie de Jesus, P. II. T. IV. n° 276. where the relation is given at length.
We have another account of a merman, seen near the great rock called Diamond, on the coast of Martinico. The persons who saw it, gave in a precise description of it before a notary. They affirmed that they saw it wipe its hand over its face, and even heard it blow its nose.
Another creature of the same species was caught in the Baltic in the year 1531, and sent as a present to Sigismund king of Poland, with whom it lived three days, and was seen by all the court. Another very young one was taken near Rocca de Sintra, as related by Damian Goes. The king of Portugal and the grand master of the order of St James, are said to have had a suit at law to determine which party these monsters belong to.
In Pontopidan's Natural History of Norway, also, we have accounts of mermaids; but not more remarkable or any way better attested than the above.