THE MERMAID. 221 



this genus may have been carried by ice, or driven by 

 currents or weather, further south than it was met with by 

 its original describer, Steller. 



Turning to Ireland, we find the same credence in the 

 semi-human fish, or fish-tailed human being. It was 

 affirmed 



"That in the autumn of 1819. a creature appeared on the Irish 

 coast, about the size of a girl ten years of age, with a bosom as pro- 

 minent as one of sixteen, having a profusion of long dark-brown hair, 

 and full, dark eyes. The hands and arms were formed like those 

 of a man, with a slight web connecting the upper part of the ringers, 

 which were frequently employed in throwing back and dividing the 

 hair. The tail appeared like that of a dolphin." 



This creature remained basking on the rocks during an 

 hour, in the sight of numbers of people, until frightened by 

 the flash of a musket, when 



" Away she went with a sea-gull's scream, 

 And a splash of her saucy tail," * 



for it instantly plunged with a scream into the sea. 



From Irish legends we learn that those sea-nereids, the 

 " Merrows," or " Moruachs " came occasionally from the sea 

 gained the affections of men, and interested themselves in 

 their affairs ; and similar traditions of the " Morgan " (sea- 

 women) and the " Morverch " (sea-daughters) are current in 

 Brittany. 



In English poetry the mermaid has been the subject of 

 many charming verses, and Shakspeare alludes to it in his 

 plays no less than six times. The head-quarters of these 

 " daughters of the sea " in England, or of the belief in their 

 existence, are in Cornwall There the fishermen, many a 



time and 



"Oft, beneath the silver moon,f 



Has heard, afar, the mermaid sing," 



* Thomas Hood. ' The Mermaid at Margate.' 

 f John Leyden. 



