250 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



who, long since set down as fabulous, are in these 

 days half confessed ; above all, if we are to place any 



a goose's foot ; her breasts were round and firm, and her skin was 

 covered with scales so white and so fine that, at a distance, they looked 

 like a perfectly white and smooth skin. She stated that the Tritons 

 and Sirens formed a submarine population, dwelling in caves inaccessible 

 to the diver, and lying on beds of sand, whereon they reposed and 

 lived.* 



Jean-Philippe-Abelinus states, in the first volume of his "Theatre 

 de I'Europe," that in the year 1619, some counsellors of the King of 

 Denmark were travelling from Norway to Copeahagen, when they saw 

 a Merman swimming about in the sea with a truss of herbs upon his 

 head. They threw him a bait with a hook concealed, and the Merman, 

 being greedy, took the piece of bacon, and was hauled on board ; but 

 directly he reached the deck he began to speak pure Danish, and to 

 threaten the crew with shipwreck. When he began to talk, the sailors 

 ■were greatly astonished ; but when he began to threaten they grew 

 frightened and threw him overboard, making the best apologies they 

 could. 'Tis true that, as this is the only example of a talking Merman 

 upon record, the commentators of Abelinus declare that he was not a 

 Triton, but a spectre. 



Johnston relates that in 1403 a Mermaid was captured in Holland. 

 She allowed herself to be dressed, and accustomed herself to eat bread 

 and milk. She learned how to spin, but remained dumb to the last. 

 Dimas Bosque, the physician to the Viceroy of the Island of Manar, 

 relates, in a letter which appears in Bartholo's " History of Asia," that 

 one day, as he was walking along the shore with a Jesuit, a band of 

 fishermen came running towards the holy father and entreated him to 

 come to their boat to behold a prodigy ; whereupon the Jesuit accepted 

 their invitation ; and Dimas Bosque accompanied them. In the boat 

 they found sixteen fishes with human faces (nine females and seven 

 males), which the fishermen had only just caught in their nets. They 

 took them to the shore and examined them closely. Their ears were 

 protrusive like our own, and they were cartilaginous, and covered with 

 a fine skin. Their eyes were exactly like eui-s as to form, colour, and 



* Once and for all, I must record it as my opinion that M. Revoil 

 has intended th's chapter as a je it cZ'cs^jr it, or perhaps as a record of 

 human credulity. 



