M E R 
of them was dead, and much ulcerated by the violence 
with which it had been driven on lhore, during a violent 
gale of wind on the preceding night; the other was how¬ 
ever conveyed to Douglas, where it was living when this 
account was fent to the editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
It was one foot eleven inches and three quarters in length, 
from the crown of the head to the extremity of the tail; 
five inches acrofs the Ihoulders ; its Ikin was of a very 
pale brown colour, and the fcales on the tail tinged with 
•violet; the hair, if it may be fo called, was of a light green 
call, attached to the crown of the head, only hanging 
loofe about the face, about four inches in length, very 
gelatinous to the touch, and fomewhat resembling the 
green fea-weed commonly growing on rocks; its mouth was 
fmall, and has no appearance of teeth. It delighted much 
in fwimming about in a large tub of fea-water, and fed 
chiefly on mufcles and other lhell-fifh ; it would alfo now 
and then fwallow fmall portions of milk and water, when 
given to it in a quill. 
Upon the whole, although we are ready to believe that 
the lea contains, among its numerous inhabitants, fome 
individuals which link, in the admirable chain of nature, 
the animal fpecies with the fifh; yet, we are obliged, out of 
refpect to truth, to place the mermaid among the fabu¬ 
lous and fancy-born creatures. As to the mermaids that 
have been really exhibited, and of which engravings, have 
been publilhed,” our opinion is this ; that fome deceit has 
been prafitifed by the exhibitors, and that the artifts, when 
employed by them, have given very flattering likeneffes. 
The fir ft we have mentioned was Ihown alive ; that was 
very ugly, but ftill it had the appearance of a human 
being, if we may credit the engraver. The other two, 
we believe, were dead, and of courfe dried and preferved, 
as it is called. Some of our readers may be old enough 
to have feen that which was exhibited in London in 1775 : 
if like the reprefentation we have copied from the Gen¬ 
tleman's Magazine, it was a beautiful creature indeed ; 
but its fize is not mentioned. The writer of this recol¬ 
lects having feen that which was exhibited in 1794 ; and 
the impreflion upon his mind is, that it was by no means 
fo perfeft and elegant a figure as reprefented in the Zoo¬ 
logical and Britannic Magazines ; but that it had rather 
the appearance of fomething made tip and put together 
to deceive. However, as the volumes we have quoted, 
where thefe reprefentations occur, are now become fcarce, 
we have collected them on a Angle Plate, that thofe who 
are curious may compare our judgment with their own. 
MERMERED'GIK, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Na- 
tolia : forty-four miles eaft of Smyrna. 
MER'MERUS, the name of one of the Centaurs. 
MERMO'SEN, a town and caftle of Bavaria: five miles 
fouth-weft of New-Getting. 
MERNS, or M ear ns. See Kincardineshire, vol. xi. 
ME'RO, a d iff: rift of Teneffe, in North America, on the 
banks of Cumberland-river, comprehending feven coun¬ 
ties and 32,178 inhabitants. 
ME'RO MO'TU, in law. See Ex Mero Motu, vol. vii. 
p. 91. 
ME'RO PO'INT, a point on the coaft of Peru, in the 
South Pacific Ocean, between Cape Blanco to the fouth- 
weft, and Tumber-river to the north-eaft, on the fouth- 
eaft fide of Guayaquil-bay. Lat. 3.40.S. 
MEROBALIN'EUM, J'. [from the Gr. ysfcv, a part, 
and Guhccttiov, a bath.] A kind of bath in which the pa¬ 
tient fits up to his middle. Phillips. 
MEROCE'LE, f. [from yt^oc, Gr. the thigh, and ksToj, 
a tumour.] In furgery, a crural or femoral rupture. 
MER'ODACH, j. [Heb. bitternefs.] The name of a 
man, the name of a Chaldee deity. 
Merodach was an ancient king of Babylon, who was 
placed among the gods, and worfhipped by the Babylo¬ 
nians. Jeremiah, (ch. 1 . ver. 2.) fpeaking of the ruin of 
Babylon, fays, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Mero¬ 
dach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images 
fare broken in pieces. We find certain kings of Babylon, 
M E E 355 
in whofe names that of Merodach is contained : for exam¬ 
ple, Evil-merodach and Merodaeh-baladan. Evil-merodach 
was the fon of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, and had for 
his fucceflor the wicked Belfhazzar. Merodaeh-baladan, 
fon of Baladan king of Babylon, having heard that He- 
zekiah had been cured rniraculoufly, (Ifa. xxxix.) and 
that the fun had gone backwards to give him an afiurance 
of his recovery, fent himprefents, and made him compli¬ 
ments upon the recovery of his health. Ptolemy calls 
him Mardoc-enipndns; and fays, that he began to reign at 
Babylon twenty-lix years after the beginning of the era of 
Nabonaffar, that is, in the year of the world 2283. 
MER'OE, in ancient geography, an ifland of Ethiopia, 
beyond Egypt, in the Nile ; with a cognominal town, the 
metropolis of the Ethiopians. 
The Jefuits have endeavoured to prove, that the pro¬ 
vince of Gojam in Abyfiinia is the Meroe of the ancients 5 
but this is ftrongly contefted by Mr. Bruce, who is of opi¬ 
nion, that it mult be looked for fomewhere between the 
fource of the Nile and its union with the Atbara. The 
latter, he thinks, is very plainly the Aftaboras of the an¬ 
cients ; and Pliny fays, that this ftream enclofes the left 
fide of Meroe as the Nile does the right, in which cafe we 
rnuft luppofe him looking fouthward from Alexandria, 
othervviie the words would not apply. 
We are told by Diodorus Siculus, that Meroe had its 
name from a lifter of Cambyfes king of Perlia, who died 
there in the expedition undertaken by that prince againft 
the Ethiopians. His army perilhed with hunger and thirft 
in the deferts beyond Meroe, which could not have hap¬ 
pened if they had reached Gojam, which was one of the 
molt plentiful countries in the world. A further proof 
that Gojam cannot be the ancient Meroe is, that the latter 
was enclofed between the rivers Nile and Aftaboras, while 
Gojam is almoft entirely furrounded by the Nile. If the 
ancients were acquainted with Gojam, they mult alfo 
have been acquainted with the fountains of the Nile, 
which we know they were not. Piiny fays that Meroe, 
the molt conliderable of all the illands of the Nile, was 
called Aftaboras, from the name of its left channel, which 
cannot be fuppofed any other than the junftion of the 
Nile and Atbara. He informs us moreover, that the fun 
was vertical twice in the year, viz. when proceeding north¬ 
ward he entered the 18th degree of Taurus, and when re¬ 
turning he came to the 14th degree of Leo ; but this could 
never be the cafe with Gojam, which lies in about 10 de¬ 
grees north latitude. 
Again, the poet Lucan deferibes Meroe by two circum- 
ftances which cannot apply to any other than the penin- 
fula of Atbara. One is, that the inhabitants were black ; 
which was the cafe with the Gymnofopliifts and firft inha¬ 
bitants, and which has been the cafe with all the reft down 
to the Saracen conqueft ; but the inhabitants of Gojam, 
as well as the other Abylfinians, are fair, at leaft greatly 
different in complexion from the blacks; they are alfo 
long-haired, and nobody imagined that they ever had 
philofophers or fcience among them, which was eminent¬ 
ly the cafe with the ancient inhabitants of Meroe. The 
other circumltance is, that the ebony-tree grew in the 
ifland of Meroe, which at this day grows plentifully in 
the peninfula of Atbara, and part of the province of 
Kuara, but not in Gojam, where the tree could not fub- 
fift on account of the violent rains which take place dur¬ 
ing fix months of the year. Mr. Bruce mentions another 
circumftance quoted from the poet Lucan, which likewile 
tends to prove the identity of Meroe and Atbara ; viz. 
that, though there are many trees in it, they afford no 
fliade. This our traveller found by experience, when re¬ 
turning from Abyfiinia through Atbara. “ The country 
(fays he) is flat, and has very little water. The forefts, 
though thick, afforded no fort of fhade, the hunters for 
the fake of their fport, and the Arabs for deftroying the 
flies, having fet fire to all the dry grafs and fiirubs ; which, 
palling with great rapidity in the direftion of the wind 
from eaft to weft, though it had not time to deftroy the 
trees., 
