256 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IT. 



* or fea-woman, was drove from thence, through a breach in the 

 ' dike, into the Parmer Sea, and there taken by the boors of Edam^ 



* to which place they brought her, cleared her of fea-ware, and put 



* cloaths on her. The people of Harlem heard of it, and re- 

 ' quefted to have her ; which was granted. She had, in the mean 

 ' time, learned to eat viduals ; and they afterwards taught her to 

 ' fpin. She lived many yeai'S, and, as the priefts faid, had been ob- 



* ferved to pay reverence to the holy crofs. She was allowed at her 

 ' death a Chriftian burial. Many writers declare that they had fpo- 



* ken to people who had feen the fea-woman. 



* Pliny (Book ix. Chap. 5.) fays that the ambafladors to Auguftus 

 ' from Gaul, declared that fuch fea-women were often feen in their 

 ' neighbourhood. 



* It is worthy of notice, what Alexander of Alexandria (Book iii. 



* Chap. I. Genial. Dier.) fays of fuch fea people : He was informed by 



* Draconitas Bonlfacius, a Neopolitan nobleman, a man of great 

 ^ honour, that, when he ferved in Spain, he faw a Sea-Man pre- 



* ferved in honey, which wa« fent to the king from the neighbour- 



* hood of Mauritian ; that it looked like an old man-, with a very 



* rough head and beard, of a fky-blue colour, much larger than the 



* common run of men ; and that there were fmall bones in the fins, 



* with which he fwam. This he related as a thing known to every 

 ' one in that part of the woi Id. 



* Theodoras Gaza relates, That, when he was in the Morea, fuch 

 ' a Woman was drove on that coaft by a violent ftorm ; that he fav7 



* her, and fhe was very well looked ; that fhe fighed, and feemed 



* very much concerned when a number of people came round her ; 



* that he had pity on her, and caufed the people ftand at a diftance ; 

 ' that fhe profited by the opportunity, and, by the help of her fins 

 ^ and rolling, fhe got into the water and got off. 



* Georgius 



