106 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



anatomized by Dr. Murie, and she lives in the printed 

 pages of the eighth volume of the Society's Proceedings. 



" We are told," says the Rev. Mr. Bingley, "that the mana- 

 tee is often tamed by the native inhabitants of America, 

 and that it delights in music." I wonder whether this 

 musical susceptibility is part of the mermaid myth, or 

 whether the animal is really, as some of the seals are re- 

 ported to be, fond of a tune. Perhaps Mr. Clarence Bart- 

 lett used to croon a soothing lullaby over his baby 

 mermaid in Surinam. Perhaps she lisped a song herself 

 in reply. Her forbears could accomplish great things by 

 such means, For are we not told that 



" Certain stars shot from their spheres 

 To hear the sea-maids' music " ? 



I suppose his pet was too young for him to ride ; but it is 

 said of a tame manatee which a governor of Nicaragua had 

 for twenty-six years, that it would carry people across the 

 lake on its back. It would also play familiarly with the 

 servants and children, crawling up to the house to do so 

 and to be fed. It is probable however that this is another 

 mermaid myth. At any rate the manatees at the Brighton 

 Aquarium in 1879 would never take food when they were 

 out of the water, and seemed very helpless when stranded. 

 Miss Agnes Crane, who described these Brighton mer- 

 maids, says that they did not seem at all at their ease out 

 of water, being apparently oppressed with their own bulk, 

 and always making off to the deepest corner of the tank 

 when the water was readmitted. 



The sirens of science and of flesh and blood have not 

 escaped persecution by man, perhaps in retribution for the 

 deceptions which their mythical sisters practised on too 

 susceptible mariners. But it is not for their beauty but 

 their blubber that they have been persecuted. As in 



