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for the truthful explorer to build up his imaginative superstructure 
upon. It is however, far more likely that the mermaid was 
evolved from a fish god or demon, and worshipped by primitive 
races of sea-going men, in order to be defended from the perils and 
dangers of the treacherous element upon which they had to gain 
their livelihood 
Sailors who believe in mermaids—if there are still any, that 
cherish the delighful old superstition—are not likely to think of 
tracing their belief back to the Assyrians and Egyptians; but an- 
tiquaries are willing to do so forthem. In a cold blooded way the 
footsteps of tradition are traced backwards, till even the beautiful 
fair-haired mermaid of ballad and legend is proved to be a descen- 
dant of the Philistine Dagon. One would have thought her more 
akin to Delilah, but the facts are against us. 
“ Dagon his name; sea-monster, upward man and downward 
fish.” 
Hieroglyphics and carvings teach us that such sea-monsters 
were by no means uncommon deities in those times. Probably 
the idea of a divinity who presided equally over the land and over 
the sea first suggested the myth. The Greeks, who beautified 
everything they touched though they did not always add to its 
dignity, played with this idea in many forms. As a rule, their 
love of beauty led them to reject the fishy extremity; their 
Oceanides, Nereids, and Naiads, are usually represented as lovely 
women. Sometimes, it is true, the tail takes the place of the 
feet; and with Triton this is always the case. It is Triton 
through whose ‘‘wreathed horn” the voice of the sea speaks. 
The Sirens, originally a species of harpy, afterwards developed 
into mermaids, and it is unquestionable that personal beauty was a 
part of their charm. The famed Scylla was a semi-human 
sea-monster—transformed into such, it is said, by the jealousy of 
Circe. We can trace similar fancies in the traditions of every 
land under the sun. They follow us into Mexico and Peru, 
Canada, Japan, India, Norway, Ireland. The Irish national 
emblem is a harp, one side of which is the bust of a woman; and 
Moore has given a poetical rendering to the tradition of its 
origin. 
Mr. Miller says that myths were originally a number of terms 
for abstract ideas, which, in early ages could not be expressed. 
As long as people thoweht it was necessary in the language of 
primitive times to associate with such words as dawn, day, night, 
earth, etc., some Jeing (beneficent or otherwise), we then see that 
the basis of these myths (which are just as much a part of early 
conjectural science as of early religion), is naturally the 
experience of the savage, as construed by himself. Man’s craving 
to know the “reason why,” is among the rude savages just as 
