XI 

 WHALES AND MERMAIDS 



Ix the time of Alexander the Great and afterwards under 

 the Seleucidse, the ancient Greeks became acquainted 

 with the north-western part of India. Then and there 

 they heard many strange tales, which, as usual (especially 

 when two different races and languages are concerned), 

 lost nothing in the telling. Among other things, they 

 heard that the seas about Ceylon were peopled with 

 mermaids. In this case, as in the case of so many other 

 wonderful tales, there was a certain amount of truth 

 underlying the fiction ; for those seas are peopled by 

 creatures (as big or bigger .than human beings), which 

 have a habit of raising themselves up vertically out of 

 the water, when they present a very startling appear- 

 ance to an unscientifically critical eye. Astonished 

 travellers beheld beings with rounded, human-looking 

 heads, showing their body down to the bust out of the 

 water, displaying a pair of rounded prominent breasts, 

 and not seldom holding a baby in their arms. After 

 remaining some time in this attitude, they would suddenly 

 dive, and then a tail like a fish's became exposed to 

 view. Small wonder, then, that sailors should imagine 

 they were beholding creatures half woman and half fish, 

 for the vivacity of a sailor's imagination is proverbial. 



But the creature thus seen is as different in temper 

 and habits from the fabled mermaid as it is in body. 



