NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. tfti 



ferebat. Quare, ut dicam quod fentio, quaedam prseter rei veri- 

 tatem a pi&oribus addita effe puto, ut res mirabilior haberetur *, 

 crediderim igitur monftrum hoc humanam formam ea modo re- 

 ferre, quo pars capitis ranarurn, quia pofl caput partes erant utriri- 

 que elatse hominum omoplatis refpondentes ; mufculifque inove- 

 bantur, qui cuculli Monachorum figuram repraefentant, qualis in 

 nobis fpe&atur. Secundus mufculus omoplatas movens, fcilicet 

 eas partim ad fe attrahens 3 partim attollens, cuculli Monachorum 

 forma aptiffime referens. Ad haec, non fquamis fed cute dura ru- 

 gofa veluti cortice conte&um putarim, quemadmodum de Leone 

 marino dicemus.' 7 



As this account confounds Norway with the Sound, and Mal- 

 moe, which the Dutch call the Elbow, I conclude this ftrange 

 Fifh here fpoken of to have been juft the fame with that which 

 Arild Hvitfeld in vita Chrift. iii, ad anno 1550, fpeaks of. He 

 fays it was caught in Orefund, and brought to Copenhagen, and 

 there buried by his majefly's order, becaufe the head refembled 

 that of a human creature, with cropped hair, and covered with a 

 monk's hood. There is yet a difference obferved in this Mer- 

 man or Mer-maid's lower parts, and the tail. Thefe are repre- 

 fented, in mod of the drawings, with fins, like other Fifh, and 

 with a flat and divided tail, fomething like that of the PorpefTes; 

 from this that print of a Sirene, which Thorn* Barthol. gives us 

 in Hiftoriar. Anatomicar* centur* II. N° ix. p* 188. differs en- 

 tirely, for the lower extremity is there reprefented with a round 

 protuberance, without the leaft fign of a fin, or any thing like 

 the tail of a Fifh. 



The anatomy of a Mer-maid's hand, which the faid author re- 

 prefents, and which he had in his poiTeffion, together with a rib 

 of this creature, are, without doubt, the fame that Ol. Jacobseus 

 in his Muf. Reg. p. 15. takes notice of, and where he does not 

 queflion the exiflence of this creature, any more than the former 

 writer. Bartholine, in the before-mentioned place, quotes the 

 teftimony of feveral foreign writers, and concludes the fubjecl in 

 p. 191. with thefe words: a Tanta de Sirenum forma apud anti- 

 quos recentiorefque differentia eft, ut mirum non fit, pro fig- 



* This writer has the greateft reafon to fufpect the painter of impofition, for paint- 

 ing it in that manner. Ambrofius Parasus, Lib. xxv. cap. 34. and alfo Gafp. Schott. 

 Lib iii. cap. 3. betrays a good deal of affectation in comparing this animal with a 

 prieft in his iacerdotal habit, or to a Jewifh high-prieft in his pontificals. In the 

 General Collection of Voyages and Travels, Tom. vii. feci. 4. p. 226, this creature 

 is reprefented among the animals of the ocean that are caught at the Cape of Good- 

 Hope. It is figured there like a common Sirene, or Mer-maid, with only this dif- 

 ference, t;hat on the arms there are feveral fins. 



Part II. D d d mentis 



