SIREN. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



289 



Siren. 



COMEDY OF ERRORS, iii. 2, 47. 



THE mermaiden hight Siren, and is a sea-beast wonderly 

 shapen, and draweth shipmen to peril by sweetness of 

 song. And some men say that they arc fishes of the sea 

 in likeness of women. Sirens be great dragons flying with 

 crests, as some men trow. And some men feign that there 

 are three Sirens somedeal maidens, and somedeal fowls with 



' 



( 

 claws and wings, but the sooth is, that they were strong 



whores, that drew men that passed by them to poverty 

 and to mischief. And in Arabia be serpents with wings, 

 that be called Sirens, and run more swiftly than horses, 

 and do fly with wings, and their venom is so strong that 

 death is felt sooner than ache or sore. And Siren is a 

 beast of the sea, wonderly shapen as a maid from the navel 

 upward, and a fish from the navel downward, and this 

 wonderful beast is glad and merry in tempest, and sad and 

 heavy in fair weather. With sweetness of song this beast 

 maketh shipmen to sleep, and when she seeth that they be 

 asleep, she goeth into the ship, and ravisheth which she 

 may take with her, and bringeth him into a dry place, and 

 the rest is indecent]. Bartholomew (Berthelet\ bk. xviii. 97. 



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