CURIOUS CREATURES. 213 



faith, but now the materialism of the present age would 

 shatter, if it could, our cherished belief in these Marine 

 eccentricities, and would fain have us to credit that all 

 those that have been seen, were some of the Phocidae, 

 such as a " Dugong," or else they would attempt to 

 persuade us that a beautiful mermaid, with her comb 

 and looking-glass, was neither more nor less than a repul- 

 sive-looking " Manatee." 



Sir J. Emerson Tennent quotes in his " Natural 



History of Ceylon " from the description of one of the 

 Dutch Colonial Chaplains, named Valentyn, who wrote 

 an account of the Natural History of Amboyna. He 

 says that in 1663, a lieutenant in the Dutch army was 

 with some soldiers on the sea-beach at Amboyna, when 

 they all saw mermen swimming near the beach. He 

 described them as having long and flowing hair, of a 

 colour between grey and green. And he saw them again, 

 after an interval of six weeks, when he was in company 

 with some fifty others. He also says that these Marine 



