THE MERMAID. 



those of the Assyrians (Fig. 2, page 3) is remarkable. The 

 inscription, however, does not indicate this. The Chinese 

 characters in the centre — " Nin giyo " — signify " human 

 fish ; " those on the right in Japanese Hira Katia, or running- 

 hand, have the same purport, and those on the left, in Kata 

 Kana, the characters of the Japanese alphabet, mean '' Ichi 

 hint ike " — " one day kept alive.'' The whole legend seems 

 to pretend that this human fish was actually caught, and 

 kept alive in water for twenty-four hours, but, as the box on 

 which it is inscribed is one of those in which the Japanese 

 showmen keep their toys, it was 

 probably the subject of a 

 " penny peep-show," 

 - We need not travel from our 

 own countr}- to find the belief 

 in mermaids yet existing. It is 

 still credited in the north of 

 Scotland that they inhabit the 

 neighbouring seas : and Dr. 

 Robert Hamilton. F.R.S.E., 

 writing in 1839, expressed em- 

 phatically his opinion that there 



was then as much ignorance on this subject as had pre- 

 vailed at any former period.* 



In the year 1797, ^Ir. ^lunro, schoolmaster of Thurso, 

 affirmed that he had seen " a figure like a naked female, 

 sitting on a rock projecting into the sea, at Sandside Head, 

 in the parish of Reay. Its head was covered with long, 

 thick, light-brown hair, flowing down on the shoulders. 

 The forehead was round, the face plump, and the cheeks 

 ruddy. The mouth and lips resembled those of a human 

 being, and the eyes were blue. The arms, fingers, breast, 

 * Naturalist's Library, Marine Amphibia?, p. 291. 



. 15. — A ilERilAlD. From a 

 Japanes: picture. 



