DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0057
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CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF MERMAIDS.
Though the existence of this creature has been ques-
tioned by many persons, it has only been in consequence
of false accounts which have been mingled with the true.
The most ingenious and impartial investigators of natural
history, have now rescued the truth from a mixture of
error. Some of the latest writers have more consistently
called this creature the Sea Ape. In the sea of Angola,
we learn, that they are frequently caught, as the negroes
eat their flesh, which is said to eat like pork. When
taken, they are heard to shriek and cry like women.—
And in the Universal Dictionary, published by John
Theodore Jablonsky, we find the following description
of them :—Meer-man, Meer-weib, Meer-minne, that is?
Sea-man, Mer-maid, or Siren, called by the Indians, Am-
bisiangulo, otherwise Pesiengoni, and by the Portuguese,
Pezz Muger, is a fish found in the seas, and some rivers in
the southern parts of Africa and India, and in the Phili-
pine and Molucca islands, Brazil, North America, and Eu-
rope, in the North Sea. The length of this fish is eight
spans, its head is oval, and the face resembles that of a
man. It has an high forehead, little eyes, a flat nose, and
large mouth, but has no chin or ears. It has two arms,
which are short, but without joints or elbows, with hands
(which are not very flexible), connected to each other by
a membrane, like that of the foot of a goose. Their sex is
distinguished by the parts of generation. The females
have breasts to suckle their offspring ; so that the upper
part of their body resembles that of the human species,
and the lower part that of a fish. Their skin is of a
brownish grey colour, and their intestines are like those
of a hog. Their flesh is as fat as pork, particularly the
vol. i. g uppe
CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF MERMAIDS.
Though the existence of this creature has been ques-
tioned by many persons, it has only been in consequence
of false accounts which have been mingled with the true.
The most ingenious and impartial investigators of natural
history, have now rescued the truth from a mixture of
error. Some of the latest writers have more consistently
called this creature the Sea Ape. In the sea of Angola,
we learn, that they are frequently caught, as the negroes
eat their flesh, which is said to eat like pork. When
taken, they are heard to shriek and cry like women.—
And in the Universal Dictionary, published by John
Theodore Jablonsky, we find the following description
of them :—Meer-man, Meer-weib, Meer-minne, that is?
Sea-man, Mer-maid, or Siren, called by the Indians, Am-
bisiangulo, otherwise Pesiengoni, and by the Portuguese,
Pezz Muger, is a fish found in the seas, and some rivers in
the southern parts of Africa and India, and in the Phili-
pine and Molucca islands, Brazil, North America, and Eu-
rope, in the North Sea. The length of this fish is eight
spans, its head is oval, and the face resembles that of a
man. It has an high forehead, little eyes, a flat nose, and
large mouth, but has no chin or ears. It has two arms,
which are short, but without joints or elbows, with hands
(which are not very flexible), connected to each other by
a membrane, like that of the foot of a goose. Their sex is
distinguished by the parts of generation. The females
have breasts to suckle their offspring ; so that the upper
part of their body resembles that of the human species,
and the lower part that of a fish. Their skin is of a
brownish grey colour, and their intestines are like those
of a hog. Their flesh is as fat as pork, particularly the
vol. i. g uppe