XIV INTRODUCTION 



herself, or be suggestive of the enterprise of her 

 owner, or the prowess of her captain and his crew. 

 Frequently it was the idolatrous image of some 

 mythological sea-god or goddess, or of nothing 

 more exalted in marine rank and title than a 

 common mermaid, or a low-born Triton, professing 

 to play soul-stirring music out of a sea-shell that 

 could not possibly have many notes in it, nor 

 those few sweet. 



How I did delight in those wooden figure- 

 heads, that went to sea with one set smile for 

 calm and storm ; that through day and night, for 

 weeks and months, w^ould beckon across wide 

 wastes of waters to something that they never 

 sighted, or make w\arlike gestures at a foe they 

 never met ! 



It was very interesting, too, to find a figure- 

 head come home that I knew had gone to sea 

 newly got up, or in fresh war-paint. It had a 

 travel-worn, washed-out, sea-sick look about it 

 that appealed powerfully to the feelings of a sym- 

 pathetic boy ! 



When fiofureheads were "dismissed the Ser- 

 vice," or were retired as being no longer able- 

 bodied, or had lost a limb at sea — for some of 

 them were above having a sham wooden leg or 

 arm — they used to appear in the suburban allot- 

 ment gardens of small sea-captains, and there spend 

 their declining years at the foot of mimic masts 



