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monster. Another will say perhaps, ‘‘ Yes, itis true that it sells the 
papers, andit is a curious fact, that all through the summer, we 
haven’t heard of him once, for the simple reason that the Home 
Rule Bill has kept him away.” 
Well, gentlemen, you can of course enjoy your various opinions ; 
personally, I shall ‘sit upon the fence,” as the Americans say, 
and observe that I don’t know what to believe. However, it is 
generally conceded that he is about a quarter of a mile in length, 
that he has jaws capable of swallowing one of our little fishing 
crafts, and that he is about as thick round the body as the mast of 
a man-of-war. All accounts vary in details however, as to the 
colour of his hair, the number of his teeth, and as to the re- 
marks he makes on his appearing. Some say he roars and 
bellows, others not; and in fact there are so many different ver- 
sions as to his personality, that I think we may well dismiss him 
from our minds, marked, as an eminent lawyer used to mark some 
of his briefs, with a large D.C., which being interpreted, meant 
** Doubtful Case.”’ 
We next have to deal with a myth, which can scarcely be 
called a monster, inasmuch as it is of the gentler sex, and 
although ladies are privileged to call the male genus homo a mon- 
ster, when she doesn’t happen to precisely attain the object for 
which she has planned (say a sealskin jacket for instance), yet 
the aforesaid genus homo must reply in very homeopathic doses of 
verbiage. Pardon me for this digression, but really when approach- 
ing ladies as the gentleman said to the bear, ‘‘ you do have to be so 
very particular.”’ 
Well then, this lady isa mermaid, and her origin is shrouded in 
considerable obscurity. Ofa fair and delightful complexion, with 
golden hair and azure eyes, with a soft cooing voice and a 
languishing look, she sits upon a rock, gazing into her mirror, 
combing her locks the while, and drawing imprudent mariners to 
a closer inspection. Alas! they do not perceive the scaly, 
horrible coils of the lower half of her body. Fish like, and yet 
snake like, it moves to and fro in the water, much as a cat does 
when watching fora mouse. Nearer and nearer draws the ill- 
fated barque, crash goes her stout stern post on the hidden rock, 
and the sea siren with a shrill note of triumph, seizes her prey, 
dragging down the unfortunate mariners to a deathly bridal 
_ chamber in the cool green recesses of the sea-washed caves on the 
floor of the ocean bed, 
It is asserted that the dugong or the seal may have lent con- 
siderable colour to the mermaid myth, its flippers being somewhat 
like hands, and the tail being of the necessary shape and colour. 
Its head also is very human-like in appearance, the eyes soft and 
gentle, and its whole appearance tending to give sufficient basis 
