for the truthful explorer to build up his imaginative superstructure 

 upon. It is however, far more likely that the mermaid was 

 evolved from a fish god or demon, and worshipped by primitive 

 races of sea-going men, in order to be defended from the perils and 

 dangers of the treacherous element upon which they had to gain 

 their livelihood 



Sailors who believe in mermaids — if there are still any, that 

 cherish the delighful old superstition — are not likely to think of 

 tracing their belief back to the Assyrians and Egyptians ; but an- 

 tiquaries are willing to do so for them. In a cold blooded way the 

 footsteps of tradition are traced backwards, till even the beautiful 

 fair-haired mermaid of ballad and legend is proved to be a descen- 

 dant of the Philistine Dagon. One would have thought her more 

 akin to Delilah, but the facts are against us. 



" Dagon his name ; sea-monster, upward man and downward 

 fish." 



Hieroglyphics and carvings teach us that such sea-monsters 

 were by no means uncommon deities in those times. Probably 

 the idea of a divinity who presided equally over the land and over 

 the sea first suggested the myth. The Greeks, who beautified 

 everything they touched though they did not always add to its 

 dignity, played with this idea in many forms. As a rule, their 

 love of beauty led them to reject the fisby extremity; their 

 Oceanides, Nereids, and Naiads, are usually represented as lovely 

 women. Sometimes, it is true, the tail takes the place of the 

 feet ; and with Triton this is always the case. It is Triton 

 through whose " wreathed horn " the voice of the sea speaks. 

 The Sirens, originally a species of harpy, afterwards developed 

 into mermaids, and it is unquestionable that personal beauty was a 

 part of their charm. The famed Scylla was a semi-human 

 sea-monster — transformed into such, it is said, by the jealousy of 

 Circe. We can trace similar fancies in the traditions of every 

 land under the sun. They follow us into Mexico and Peru, 

 Canada, Japan, India, Norway, Ireland. The Irish national 

 emblem is a harp, one side of which is the bust of a woman ; and 

 Moore has given a poetical rendering to the tradition of its 

 origin. 



Mr. Miller says that myths were originally a number of terms 

 for abstract ideas, which, in early ages could not be expressed. 

 As long as people thoupJu it was necessary in the language of 

 primitive times to associate with such words as dawn, day, night, 

 earth, etc., some being (beneficent or otherwise), we then see that 

 the basis of these myths (which are just as much a part of early 

 conjectural science as of early religion), is naturally the 

 experience of the savage, as construed by himself. Man's craving 

 to know the " reason why," is among the rude savages just as 



