THE MERMAID. 209 



he places an account given by Besenius in his life of 

 Frederic II. (1577), of a mermaid that called herself 

 Isbrandt, and held several conversations with a peasant 

 at Samsoe, in which she foretold the birth of King 

 Christian IV., "and made the peasant preach repentance 

 to the courtiers, who were very much given to drunken- 

 ness." Equally " idle " with the above stories is, in his 

 opinion, another, extracted from an old manuscript still 

 to be seen in the University Library at Copenhagen, and 

 quoted by Andrew Bussaeus (1619), of a merman caught 

 by the two senators, Ulf Rosensparre and Christian Holch, 

 whilst on their voyage home to Denmark from Norway. 

 This sea-man frightened the two worshipful gentlemen so 

 terribly that they were glad to let him go again ; for 

 as he lay upon the deck he spoke Danish to them, and 

 threatened that if they did not give him his liberty " the 

 ship should be cast away, and every soul of the crew 

 should perish." 



" When such fictions as these," says Pontoppidan, " are 

 mixed with the history of the merman, and when that 

 creature is represented as a prophet and an orator ; when 

 they give the mermaid a melodious voice, and tell us that 

 she is a fine singer, we need not wonder that so few people 

 of sense will give credit to such absurdities, or that they 

 even doubt the existence of such a creature." The good 

 prelate, however, goes on to say that " whilst we have no 

 ground to believe all these fables, yet, as to the existence 

 of the creature we may safely give our assent to it," and, 

 " if this be called in question, it must proceed entirely from 

 the fatulous stories usually mixed with the truth." Like 

 Valentijn, he argues that as there are " sea-horses," " sea- 

 cows," " sea-wolves," " sea-dogs," " sea-hogs," &c., it is pro- 

 bable, from analogy, that " we should find in the ocean a 



VOL. ill. H. P 



