DE MONSTRIS. 259 



best Japanese mermaid that I have seen. Some years 

 ago, a fishmonger in the old Hungerford market showed 

 me one of these mermaids, and was quite angry with 

 me when I praised the excellence of its manufacture. 

 He really believed that it was a genuine inhabitant of 

 the water, framing his belief on the fact that there was 

 no junction between the fish and the * maid.' Neither 

 was there. The Japanese taxidermist knew his busi- 

 ness too well to have any junction at all, the seeming 

 skin being nothing but papier mache, worked over 

 a model, and having fins, scales, teeth, and nails in- 

 serted in the proper places. 



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