MERMAID, or MERMAN, a sea-creature frequently talked of and supposed to be half human half fish. However naturalists may doubt of the existence of mermen or mermaids, there is abundance of testimony in its favour; but the authenticity and value of that testimony presents a different question. In the year 1187, Lary informs us that 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 to 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. d'Angleterre, p. i. p. 403.) In the year 1430, after a huge tempest, which broke down the dykes in Holland, and made way for the sea into the meadows, some girls of the town of Edam in West Friesland, having gone in a boat to milk the cows, perceived a mermaid embarrassed in the mud, with very little water. They took it into their boat, and brought it with them to Edam, dressed it in woman's apparel, and taught it to spin. It fed like one of them, but could never be brought to attempt speech. Some time afterwards it was brought to Haarlem, where it lived for some years, although still shewing an inclination to the water. (Delices de Hollande.) In Pontopidan's Natural History of Norway, we have also accounts of mermaids, but not more remarkable nor any way better attested than the above, to which we have given a place, merely to shew how far the folly and extravagance of credulity have sometimes been carried by weak minds.