KERILAID (i.e., sea-maid), an imaginary' inhabitant of the sea. The upper parts of mermaids are represented as resembling those of a human being, generally of a female— although the merman is also sometimes heard of—whilst the body terminates in a tail like that of a fish. There is an evident affinity between the stories concerning mermaids and those concerning the sirens and tritons, perhaps also the nereids, of the ancients. The probability is that these stories have originated in the appearance of seals, r'al ruses, and perhaps still more of the herbivorous cetacea, in regions where they are rare, or to. persons unaccustomed to see them. "Large allowances must be made for the workings of an excited imagination, in situations of solitude and apprehension, on the -unexpected appearance of au extraordinary and unknown object." Many of the stories concerning mermaids belong to the northern parts of the world, where the herbivorous cetacea are of rare occurrence, and perhaps some of the solitary seals have often given occa.sion to them. But the herbivorous cetaceans do occasionally wander into the British and probably even into more northern seas. Sir James Emerson Tennent says
-concerning the dugong (q.v.): " The rude approach to the human outline, observed in the shape of the head of this creature, and the attitude of the mother while suckling her young, holding it to her breast with one flipper, while swimming with the other, holding the heads of both above water; and when disturbed, suddenly diving and displaying her fish-like tail—these, together with her habitual demonstrations of strong maternal -affection, probably gave rise to the fable of the mermaid; and thus that earliest inven tion of mythical physiology may be traced to the Arab seamen and the Greeka, who had watched the movements of the dugong in the waters of Mauaar." It is right, however, that we should bear in mind the possibility of the existence in the ocean of cetaceans not yet known to naturalists.—The mermaid is a not unfrequent heraldic bearing. In the heraldry of France, she is called a siren, and in Germany she is occasionally furnished with two fishy tails.