Pontoppidan, a credulous author indeed, yet willing to take a comprehensive view of doubtful subjects, affirms, that if the existence of European mermaids be called in question, it proceeds entirely " from the fa bulous stories being generally mixed with the truth." Hundreds of persons, of credit and reputation in the diocese of Bergen, maintained, with the strongest as surances, that they had seen this creature, sometimes at a distance, sometimes quite close to their boats, standing upright. It was formed like a human being clown to the middle, but they could not see the rest. Nevertheless, Pontoppidan could find only a single person who had actually seen and handled one out of the water. His informer, a clergyman, said, that in the year 1719, a merman had been cast up dead on the shore, along with other fish. It was much longer than any others described. "The face resembled that of a man, with mouth, forehead, eyes. The nose was flat, and, as it were, pressed down to the face, in which the nostrils have ever been very visible. The breast was not far from the head ; the arms seemed to hang to the side, to which they were joined by a thin skin, or membrane. The hands were, in appearance, like to the paws of a sea-calf." .Natural History of .V:Jr way, vol. ii. p. 190, 191. Pontoppidan observes, that the most recent account of the animal related to the year 1723, when three ferrymen affirmed on oath, that one had been seen by them at the distance of not more than 7 or 8 fathoms. In appearance, it resembled an old man with strong limbs and broad shoulders : its skin was coarse, and very hairy. The head was small in proportion to the body, and had short curled black hair, which did not reach below the ears. The face was meagre, the eyes deep sunk, and the beard black. It stood in the same place half a quarter of an hour, exposed down to the breast, and the tail was remark ed to taper like that of a fish. The men, beginning to be alarmed, retreated, when the animal, inflating its cheeks, made a kind of roaring noise, and plunged into the water. One of the same ferrymen affirmed, that 20 years before, he had seen a mermaid with long hair and large breasts. Pontoppidan adds, that a creature is often caught on the hooks of fishermen, which he inclines to call the offspring of the merman, some being as large as a child of three years old. One had been taken recently, which, in the upper parts, resembled a child, but the rest of it was like a fish. Vol. ii. p. 195.
Torfaus maintains, that mermaids are seen near the southern coast of Iceland ; and according to Olafsen, two have been taken in the surrounding seas ; the first in the earlier periods of the history of that island, and the second in 1733. The latter was found in the belly of a shark. Its lower parts were consumed, but the upper were entire. This creature was as large as a boy eight or nine years old ; the head shaped like that of a roan, with a very prominent occiput ; and the fore head broad and round. The ears were situated far back, and had large lobes. On the head was long stiff black hair, hanging down to the shoulders. pretty much resembling the focus filrformis. Tile skin above the eyelids was greatly wrinkled and bald ; and throughout the body, of a clear olive colour. The eyes resembled those of a cod ; and both the cutting teeth and grinders were long, and shaped like pins. The arms were of the natural proportion, and each of the five fingers connected by a large web. The neck was short, the shoulders high, and the breast and back exactly resembling those of a man. Olafsen considers the pecularitics of this animal to be demonstrated in the hair, teeth, and fingers. But, from the rapid
change taking place in the stomach of a shark, and the great distance it can speedily traverse, he is almost inclined to believe that these were human remains. Yet the islanders were differently impressed ; for all firmly credited this creature to be the marmenill, by which name the mermaid is known among them. Olaf sen Voyage en Islande, tom. iii. p. 223.
The attention of the public has been more lately at tracted to accounts of mermaids, supposed to have been seen on the coast of Scotland and Iceland. According to old historians, some remarkable animals were taken on the coast of England, which were called " a triton, or man fish ;" but no accurate and authentic description has been transmitted, from which we are enabled to deter mine regarding their nature. In the course of last century, also, a plate was engraved, we have under stood, of a marine animal, by the same denomination, which was taken about the year 1746 or 1747. It is generally credited, among the inhabitants of the north ern coast of Scotland, that the mermaid inhabits the neighbouring seas; and Mr. Munro, schoolmaster of Thurso, affirms, that about the year 1797 he observed a figure, like a naked female, sitting on a rock projecting into the sea, at Sandsidc Head, in the parish of Reay. Its head was covered with long thick light brown hair, flowing down on the shoulders. The forehead was round, the face plump, and the cheeks ruddy; the mouth and lips resembled those of a human being ; and the eyes were blue. The arms, fingers, breasts, and abdomen, were as large as those of a full-grown female. This creature was apparently in the act of combing its hair with its fingers, which seemed to af ford it pleasure ; and it remained thus occupied dur ing some minutes, when it dropped into the sea. The observer did not remark whether the fingers were webbed. On the whole, he infers that this was a marine animal, of which he had a distinct and satis factory view, and that the portion seen by him bore a narrow resemblance to the human form. But for the dangerous situation it had chosen, and its appearance among the waves, he would have supposed it a wo man.—Twelve years later, and not very distant from the same spot, as we conjecture, several persons ob served what was supposed a mermaid. It floated at the distance of only a few yards from them, and re mained in sight about an hour. Nothing except the face was at first visible ; and as the sea run high, the creature sunk gently under the waves, and then re-ap peared. The head was very round ; the hair thick and long, of a green oil cast ; and it appeared trouble some when thrown over the creature's face by the waves. As they receded, it removed its hair with both its hands, which, as well as the arms and fingers, were very long and slender. The last were not webbed. The forehead, nose, and chin, were white, and the whole side face of a bright pink colour ; the throat was also white, slender, and smooth ; and the smoothness of the skin, on which neither hair nor scales were observed, particularly attracted attention. The face seemed plump and round ; the eyes, of a light grey colour, were small, as also the nose. The mouth was large ; and, from the jaw bone, which was straight, the face was apparently short. One of the arms was frequently extended over the head of the animal, as if to frighten a bird, which, horeting about it, seemed to distress it much. When this had no effect, the creature turned round several times successively. Both here, and in the former in stance, the sun shone bright, and the objects were suf ficiently near the observers.