254 FISHING GOSSIP. 



the feet and legs, which are very dangerous, if not 

 pulled out whole ; therefore when a worm begins to 

 appear out of the flesh, they tie the end of it to a 

 roller, and wrap it round gently by degrees. If it 

 break, the remaining part in the flesh often proves 

 fatal ; the whole would be a yard or more in length." 

 But we fancy we have given sufficient examples 

 of superstitions affecting water. We could easily 

 multiply them almost ad infinitum, even down to 

 rivers which, like "the Avon, near St. Vincent's 

 Eock, Cornwall," are "so full of diamonds, that a 

 man may fill whole baskets with them ;" we will 

 spare the recapitulation, however, and hasten on to 

 another genus which may perhaps be classed in some 

 future catalogue of the British Museum as 



"ODD FISH." 



Let us take Mermaids to begin with : 

 Dr Meyer assures us, " that in 1403 a mermaid 

 was cast ashore near Haerlem, who was brought to 

 feed upon bread and milk, taught to spin, and lived 

 many years. John Gerard of Leyden adds, that she 

 would frequently pull off her clothes, and run towards 

 the water ; and that she imitated speech, but it w r as 

 so confused a noise as not to be understood by any- 

 body ; she was buried in the churchyard because 

 she had learnt to make the sign of the cross." He 



