Mermania: The Little Book of Mermaids. Rachel Federman

somehow in the face they look like men’.

      Moonlight,

      CASTING AN ALLURING GLOW ON AQUATIC MAMMALS, MAY HAVE HELPED DECEIVE TIRED SEA TRAVELLERS EAGER FOR A GLIMPSE OF ENCHANTMENT.

      MOST REPORTED SIGHTINGS OF

       mermaids

      probably mistook manatees, dugongs,

      AND THE NOW-EXTINCT SEA COWS FOR THEIR ENCHANTED COUNTERPARTS. AND AT LEAST ONE CREATIVE EXPLORER (WILLIAM SCORESBY IN 1820) SAW

      a mermaid figure in a walrus.

      ‘Dugong’

      COMES FROM A MALAY WORD THAT MEANS

      ‘lady of the sea’.

      The world’s

      biggest mermaid

      WAS SAID TO BE 610 METRES (2,000 FEET)

      long from head to tail.

      Are mermaids good or bad?

      IN SOME STORIES, MERMAIDS APPEAR AS GENTLE, ROMANTIC FIGURES, ABLE TO

       grant wishes, heal, foretell the future,

      AND WARN SAILORS AND FISHERMEN OF IMMINENT DANGER.

      IN OTHER TALES, MERMAIDS ARE

      dangerous.

      THEY LURE SHIPS TO CRASH ON THE ROCKS OR USE THEIR SWEET SINGING VOICES AND RAVISHING LOOKS TO

      tempt men into their underwater domain

      IN ORDER TO DROWN OR CAPTURE THEM.

      IN HIS NATURAL HISTORY, WRITTEN IN THE FIRST CENTURY CE

      Pliny the Elder

      DOCUMENTED SIGHTINGS OF MERMAIDS

      riding upon other marine creatures.

      ‘AND AS FOR THE MERMAIDS CALLED

      Nereides,

      IT IS NO FABULOUS TALE THAT GOETH OF THEM: FOR LOOKE HOW PAINTERS DRAW THEM, SO THEY ARE INDEED:

      only their body is rough and scaled all over,

      EVEN IN THOSE PARTS WHERE THEY RESEMBLE A WOMAN.’

      Gliding silently in boats made from sealskin,

       Inuit whale hunters

      MAY HAVE APPEARED TO BE HALF SEA CREATURES.

      IN HIS NATURAL HISTORY OF AMBOINA (1727),

      Dutch naturalist

      FRANÇOIS VALENTIJN MENTIONED

      the capture of a ‘monster resembling a siren’.

      The combs that

      mermaids

      HOLD ARE MADE OF FISH BONES.

      THE TOP HALF OF A MONKEY SEWN ONTO A FISH TAIL WAS A POPULAR FEATURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY SIDESHOWS, DUPING AUDIENCES INTO BELIEVING THEY WERE SEEING THE REMAINS OF A

      real mermaid.

      IN 1842, P.T. BARNUM DISPLAYED ONE SUCH CREATURE – THE SO-CALLED

      Fiji mermaid,

      WHICH HE CLAIMED TO HAVE BOUGHT FROM A JAPANESE FISHERMAN – AT HIS AMERICAN MUSEUM IN NEW YORK CITY.

      On his second voyage

      SEARCHING FOR A NORTHWEST PASSAGE ABOVE RUSSIA, SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY

      English explorer

      Henry Hudson recorded a mermaid sighting on 15 June 1608.

      Here are the notes from his log book:

      ‘THIS MORNING ONE OF OUR COMPANIE LOOKING OVER BOORD SAW A MERMAID … FROM NAVILL UPWARD, HER BACK AND BREASTS WERE LIKE A WOMAN’S (AS THEY SAY THAT SAW HER) HER BODY AS BIG AS ONE OF US; HER SKIN VERY WHITE; AND LONG HAIRE HANGING DOWN BEHINDE, OF COLOUR BLACKE; IN HER GOING DOWNE THEY SAW HER TAYLE, WHICH WAS LIKE THE TAYLE OF A PORPOSSE AND SPECKLED LIKE A MACRELL.’

      In 1830 a funeral was held to commemorate a

       mermaid

      WHOSE DEAD BODY WASHED UP ON THE BEACH AT CULLA BAY ON BENBECULA, ONE OF SCOTLAND’S WESTERN ISLES.

      A 1900 account

      TRACED HER DEATH TO AN ATTACK AT SGEIR NA DUCHADH A FEW DAYS EARLIER.

      It is said her body is buried there near the sea.

      LOOK CLOSELY AT THE MAP OF THE

      ‘New World’

      FROM 1562, CALLED THE AMERICAS, OR A NEW AND PRECISE DESCRIPTION OF THE FOURTH PART OF THE WORLD.

      two mermaids

      CAN BE SEEN, FLOATING CLOSE TO A SHIP NEAR THE TIP OF TODAY’S SOUTH AMERICA.