Chap. XII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 257 



' Georglus Trapanzantius fays he faw from the fea-fliore fuch a 



* Mermaid, very handfome, appear feveral times above water. In 



* Epirus, he fays, there appeared a Sea Man, who, for fome time, 



* watched near a fpring of water, and endeavoured to catch young 



* women that came there ; he was with mucli difficulty at length 



* caught himfelf ; but they could never get him to eat.. 



* Ludovicus Vives relates, that, in his time, a Sea-man was ta- 



* ken in Holland, and was carefully kept for two years ; that he 



* began to fpeak, or, at lead, to make a kind of diiligreeable noife 

 ' in imitation of fpeech ; that he found an opportunity, and got into 

 ' the fea. The Portuguefe fpeak of Mermaids as a common thing 



* on the coaft of Zofala and Mofambique. 



* Janius fays, in his time, at Swart Wall, near the Brile, the 



* fkeleton of a Triton was hanging in the middle of the church. 



' To this purpofe, a friend of mine tells me, he was informed by 



* a filherman, that, when he was a boy at Moflenfluys, near to Tou 



* they caught, in the night time, a Mermaid, half an ell long, that 



* was perfectly like to a woman ; it died foon. He declared he had 



* often feen things taken out of a cod-fifh which had that appear- 



* ance. 



• A gentleman of good character in the Hague told me, in the 



1719, that he faw a very perfe(5t fkeleton, at the houfe of a Da- 



nifh envoy, which, he faid, had been caught near to Copenhagen. 



' And Voffius fays, that there was once five or fix caught near Co- 



' penhagen ; and the fkeleton of one caught in the year 1644 is to 



*• be feen there. 



Vol. IIL K k • Joan 



