2o6 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



was ot a ' sea-grey * colour, stood well up out of the water, and seemed 

 to have on its head a kind of fisherman's cap made of moss. All the 

 ship's crew saw it also. Although its back was towards them, it 

 perceived that they were approaching too near, and dived suddenly 

 beneath the surface, and was seen no more." 



To complete his proofs of the existence of mermen and 

 merwomen, Valentijn, in his subsequently published work, 

 points triumphantly to the historical fact that in Holland, 

 in the year 1404, a mermaid was driven, during a tempest, 

 through a breach in the dyke of Edam, in West Friesland, 

 and was taken alive in the lake of Purmer. Some girls 

 going in a boat to milk their cows observing her in the 

 shallow water, and embarrassed in the mud, took her home, 

 dressed her in female attire, and taught her to spin.* 

 Thence she was taken to Haarlem, where she lived for 

 several years, always showing a strong inclination for 

 water, and where, several years after, she died in the 

 Roman Catholic faith ; " but this," says the pious Calvin- 

 istic chaplain, " in no way militates against the truth of her 

 story." The worthy minister citing the authority of 

 various writers as proof that mermaids had in all ages been 

 known in Gaul, Naples, Epirus and the Morea, comes to 

 the conclusion that as there are " sea-cows," " sea-horses," 

 " sea-dogs," as well as " sea-trees," and " sea-flowers," which he 

 himself had seen, there are no reasonable grounds for doubt 

 that there may also be " sea-maidens " and " sea-men." 



In an early account of Newfoundland,! Whitbourne 

 describes a "maremaid or marernan," which he had seen 

 " within the length of a pike," and which " came swimming 

 swiftly towards him, looking cheerfully on his face, as it had 

 been a woman. By the face, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, ears, 

 neck and forehead, it appeared to be so beautiful, and in 



* Panval's Delices de Hollande. 



f Whitbourne's ' Discourse of Newfoundland.' 



