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To say that what
sailors have mistaken for beautiful women were dugongs or manatees is
ridiculous. If they couldn’t see
better than that they shouldn’t have been running a ship! These articles come
from “Mermaids” Ace Fantasy books, New York. The spelling in these articles is original.
Calypso
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From Ireland: Circa 887
“a mermaid was cast ashore by the sea in the country of
Alba…she was whiter than the swan all over”
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The year 1018: Another Irish story
“A mermaid was taken by the fisherman of Weir of
Lisarglinn in Ossory, and another at Port-Lairge.:
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The year 1147:
Knights going to the Second Crusade were in the Bay of Biscay,
“annoyed” by sirens, “who made a
horrible noise of wailing, laughing and jeering, like the clamour of insolent
men in a camp” …
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In the twelfth century, “A monster was seen near Greenland…approximated
in all respects to be a human being down to the waist, thereafter she
resembled a fish. The hands seem to be
long, and the fingers united like a web like that on the feet of water
birds.”
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The year 1403 Holland. In a great
storm, the dike sprung a leak and flooded the vicinity of Edam, where the cheese comes from. “A mermaid floated in” but could not float
out, and was taken up by kindly Dutch homemakers who fed her and clothed her
and taught her to “kneel down…before the crucifix, she never spake, but lived
dumbe and continued alive…fifteen years then she died.”
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The year 1523:
“The third day of November, there was seen at Rome this sea-monster, the bignesse of a child of five
yeeres old, like to a man even to the navel, except the ears; in the other
parts it resembled a fish...” The source here is a famous and respected
Ambrose Pare, the Surgeon General of France, and a pioneer in treating wounds
and wounded.
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The year 1614:
One Captain Whitbourne relates: “Of a morning early as I was standing
by the waterside in the Harbour of St. Johns [Newfoundland]…I espied verie swiftly a woman, by the face, eyes,
nose, mouth. chine, eares, necke and forehead; It seemed so beautiful and in those parts
so well proportioned…the shoulders and back of a man, and from the middle to
the hinder part, pointing in proportion like a hooked arrow…whether it be a
Mermaide or no, I know not; I leave it for others to judge…”
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The year 1614: Captain John Smith, the same who met
Pocahontas, was: “a-sailing in the West
Indies, saw something
“Swimming with all possible grace near the shore. The upper part of her body resembled that
of a woman…she had large eyes, rather too round, a finely-shaped nose (a
little too short), well-formed ears, rather too long. And her green hair imparted to her an
original character by no means attractive… [But] from below the waist the
woman gave way to the fish:
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The year 1619: A merman is captured off the coast of Norway by two senators, names Ulf Rosensparre and Christian
Holh, and then released. Perhaps he
could vote!
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The year 1670:
Rev. Lucas Debes, Provost of the Lutheran churches in the Faroes Island
of Denmark. “There was seen… by many
of the inhabitants…a Mer-maid close to the shore…She had long hair on her
head, which hung down to the surface of the water all round about her. She held a fish…in her right hand.”
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The year 1550:
Orefund Denmark: A creature
taken from the sea was brought, either dying or already dead, to the king,
and it’s head “resembled that of a human creature with cropped hair…” This differs from the usual very long hair…
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