Fish Stories of the Fathers 7 



father of Sennacherib, was discovered. He was an adven- 

 turous mariner (B. C. 720) who made a trip to Cyprus, dur- 

 ing which he threw overboard wooden gods, among which 

 was Hea. These were to invoke good luck; and Ashton 

 suggests that they were the first representations of mermen. 



Hindoo mythology is particularly rich in its reference to 

 fishes. Vishnu is seen in one of his avatars, or incarnations, 

 coming out of the mouth of a fish, and so vivid are these 

 myths, that they are the parent stock of many of the remark- 

 able superstitions which hold among the toilers of the sea 

 to-day. 



Aelian, with vivid imagination, described the inhabit- 

 ants of the sea about the island of Taprobana (Ceylon), 

 and described cetaceans in the form of satyrs. Gesner 

 shows an illustration of an interesting animal of this type, 

 which he claims was exhibited in Rome on the third of 

 November, 1523. Mermen, made up of the dried head 

 and torso of a monkey, joined to the body of a fish, have 

 been made for centuries in China, and are often seen in 

 " curiosity " shops. The writer once saw one of these 

 mermaids in a tank at Santa Monica, California, and most 

 of those who paid to see it took it for a genuine beast. It 

 is told that Linnaeus was once driven out of a town in Hol- 

 land, forced to escape by night, because he had expressed 

 doubt as to a mermaid of this sort, the pride of the good 

 mayor of the city. 



The clergy have been responsible for some good fish 

 stories, ancient and modern. Chaplain Valentyn, a Dutch- 

 man, in his history of Amboyna, 1663, a book on the whole 

 excellent and accurate, describes certain mermen seen in that 

 country. He refers to their long gray, and green, flowing 

 hair, which was observed by fifty people. Several mermen 

 were caught on the island of Amboyna, and a district visitor 

 to the church made a portrait of one, which he presented to 

 the governor. This is sufficient to disarm the most captious 

 critic. Valentyn also tells us that a fair dame, with the tail 



