Chap. XII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 255 



and grayifh colour ; and that they could fee they had breafts. They 

 were, all above the waift, fhaped exadily as a human creature; but, 

 from thence downwards, they feemed to go tapering off to a point. 

 About fix weeks afterwards, near the fame place, the like appear- 

 ance was feen by the faid Smallen, and upwards of fifty people 

 that were with him. 



* Alkert Herport, in his Account of India, Fol. 147. fays. On 

 the 29th of April, at Taynan, near the New Work, in the f.e- 

 noon, a man appeared three times above water ; and, on im.iiediate 

 examination, nobody was miffing. In the afternoon, he appp-aed 

 in like manner three times, near to the bulwark, called Hollandia ; 

 his hair was long, and a mixture of green and gray colour. 



' In 1 71 2, it is faid a Mermaid, or Sea-Woman, was taken alive, 

 (near to the Ifland of Booro), which was fifty-nine inches, or five 

 feet long. She lived four days and feven hours, and then died, 

 as fhe would not eat any thing. She was never heard to articulate 

 any noife. It is faid, that one Samuel Falvers in Ambo) na pre- 

 ferved the body for fome time, and made out an exad defcriptlon 

 of it) by which it appears that her head was like a woman's, pro- 

 perly proportioned with eyes, nofe, and mouth ; only the eyes, 

 which were light blue, feemed to differ a little from thofe of the 

 human fpecies. The hair, that jufi; reached over the neck, appear- 

 ed of a fea-green and grayifii colour. She had breafts, lon^ arii^.s, 

 hands, and all the upper parts of the body, ahnoft as winte as a 

 woman's, but leaning fomewhat to the fea-gray. Hr-r body, be- 

 low the navel, appeared like the hinder part of a fiila. 



' It is well known that many writers have handed down to us an 

 account of what happened in the year 1403 or 1404. in the time of 

 a great ftorm in Europe. Many dikes in Hol'aiid were broken 

 down, betwixt Kampen and Edam, in the Zuyder Zee. A wild, 



'or 



