THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

a girl of ten years of age. Her hair,
_ which was long and profuse, was of a
dark brown color; her eyes were full,
dark and piercing; and her hands and
arms formed almost exactly like those
of the human species, with a slight web
connecting the upper part of the fingers,
which were frequently occupied in throw-
ing back her flowing locks, as they fell
over her face. For nearly an hour she
remained in this spot, during which time
some three hundred persons had assem-
bled to see her. She did not show any
signs of intelligence in her face. On the
contrary, the spectators represented her
as having a very vacant and unmeaning
look, which seemed to indicate that she
had rather the mind of a fish than of a
woman. Her lower extremity resembled
the tail of a dolphin.

I tell you the story, young friend, just
as it is told in the French volume, al-
ready alluded. to.
what it is worth, which, you will proba-
bly say, is little enough. For myself, I
find it very difficult to swallow the story.
«But were those who first set it afloat
impostors? Did they mean to deceive,
or did they really believe they had seen
such a strange animal as they describ-
ed?” I think they were sincere—that
they saw a marine animal of a rare spe-
cies, and of a very odd and curious
appearance; but that—unintentionally,
perhaps—they mixed up a good deal of
superstition and error in their estimate
of the animal. I guess they saw through
Gulliver’s spectacles, at the time. That
is the best light in which we can view
the matter, at any rate.

In the year 1723, three ferrymen in
Norway asserted, under oath, that they
had seen a merman, and that they were

You may take it for

 

 

not more than fifty feet from him at the
time. In appearance, he resembled an
old man, with strong limbs and broad
shoulders, and had short, curled, black
hair, which did not reach below the ears.
He stood in the same place nearly ten
minutes, exposed as far downward as
the breast, and the tail was of a taper-
ing form, like that of a common fish.
The ferrymen, after a while—so they

said—began to be alarmed, and they

retreated; when the animal made a kind

of roaring noise, and sank below the sur-
face, out of sight.
I wonder if these ferrymen h2d aot

been drinking too freely of wine, or

something of that sort. If they had, it

is no wonder they saw such a monster.

Stranger sights than this have been
seen, thousands of times, by those who
had their heads full of such spirits as
dance around the intoxicating glass. I
know a man, who gets about half or
three-quarters drunk every day, regu-
larly, and then he sees all manner of
odd-looking creatures, that ever lived
on the earth, or the waters under the
earth, besides multitudes of monsters
which never lived anywhere, except in
his brain and in other similar situations.

But about these mermaid stories:
there are scores of them afloat, similar
to the two I have told, and there are a
good many more of this sort in the
French book from which these were
taken. However there are none which
seem to warrant us in believing that
there is, or ever was, such a race as the
mermaid; though some of them afford
pretty strong evidence of the existence
of a marine animal of very strange ap-
pearance, which has, as yet, never found
a place in natural history.