The inhabitants of Reading, Newbury, Abingdon, and places adjacent, have been much astonished by the exhibition of "a real mermaid and merman," which are stated to have been caught alive by a Scotch fisherman on the Isle of Sandy, one of the Orkney islands. They are upwards of three feet in length, having very long arms, and are webbed between the fingers. The heads have very long thick curly hair, no ears, but gills like fish. The lower part from the breast is covered with scales, and the tail, finds, &c., are extremely large and strong. They are said to have been taken during a storm on the 2d of January. The Royal College of Surgeons has declared them to be well worthy of inspection.
Dublin Morning Register, 8th February 1840.
Deerness - The "Mermaid"
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| Taracliff Bay on the south side of Deerness. CC image Christopher Hilton |
A strange animal, it is said, has for the last few weeks been seen at
intervals near Southside, Deerness, Orkney. It comes very close to the
shore, and sits on a sunken rock. it has a little black head, a long
white neck, and white body, shaped like a human being's, with two long
arms which it waves about its head. The animal has never been seen out
of the water below the waist.
From the York Herald, August 20th, 1890.
A THOUGHTFUL MERMAID
A correspondent writes to the Daily Telegraph:-- What is said to
be a mermaid has been seen for some weeks, at stated times, at
Southside, Deerness. It is about six to seven feet in length, with a
little black head, white neck, and a snow-white body and two arms. In
swimming it appears just like a human being. At times it will come very
close inshore, and appear to be sitting on a sunken rock, and will wave
and work its hands. It has never been seen entirely out of water. Many
persons who doubted its genuineness now suppose it to be a deformed
seal. There are always people who doubt. It is an unfailing
characteristic of this scientific and sceptical age. It seems quite
clear that we have at last got a mermaid - as genuine as ever was - and a
most considerate mermaid too, to come waving and work its hands at the
very moment when Parliament has ceased to trouble.
From the Star (Guernsey), August 21st 1890. [A cynic indicating the "silly season" I think.]
STRANGE TALE FROM ORKNEY. The Mermaid Again.
A strange story of the mermaid comes from Birsay, Orkney. The other day a
farmer's wife was down at the seashore there, and observed a strange
marine animal sitting ont he rocks. As it would not move she went for
her husband. When she returned with her better half they both saw the
animal clambering amongst the rocks, about 4ft. of it being above water.
The woman, who had a splendid view of it, describes it as "a good
looking person," while the man says it was "a woman covered over with
brown hair."
At last the couple tried to get hold of it, when it took a header into
the sea and disappeared. The man is confident that he has seen the
fabled mermaid; but people in the district are of opinon that the animal
must belong to the seal tribe. An animal of similar description was
seen by several people at Deerness two years ago.
From the Evening Express, 16th April 1892.
REAPPEARANCE OF THE ORKNEY MERMAID.
The famous mermaid which appeared at Deerness about two years ago was
thought to have disappeared, as a strange fish was found in a decomposed
state during the winter. It has, however, again made its appearance,
having been seen last week by lobster men, who were working their
creels. It had a little black head, entirely white body, and long arms.
What sort of a marine monster it really is is not known, but many
strange stories are current regarding it.
From the Dundee Courier, May 3rd, 1892.
The Deerness "Mermaid" Shot.
Mr Reid, of Braebuster, was on Tuesday taken out and left of a rock at Deerness, in the north of Scotland, near where the mermaid has so often been seen. After a short watch, the creature began sporting about within 30 yards of him. Mr Reid got a shot at it, and was sure that it was wounded. It went off westward, but shortly afterwards returned to its old haunt, where it sank in deep water. It is thought it has been killed, and if this surmise turns out to be correct, hopes are entertained that the body will be recovered by dredging.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 23rd June 1892.
A CURIOSITY.
Some excitement has been created among metropolitan speculators in
natural history by telegrams which have been received from a place
called Deerness, in the Orkney Islands, announcing that a huge monster,
which may be the Sea Serpent, has made its appearance there and created
great alarm among the inhabitants. As this is an unusual time for the
prodigy making its presence known, it is believed that there may be some
truth in the telegrams; at all events a gentleman connected with a
museum in London wired to Deerness offering a large sum for the monster,
alive or dead. In the hope of gaining this reward a large number of the
islanders went out on Sunday, armed with guns, ropes, and harpoons, in
the hope of being able to catch it, but, unfortunately, for them, the
mysterious sea-serpent did not come up to time. Some people may say that
this was owing to the fact that in Scotland public-houses are closed on
Sunday, while others will see in its abstention from any public display
on the first day of the week a polite homage to Scotch sabbatarian
susceptibilities during its stay in Caledonian waters. At all events,
another telegram came to hand stating that the monster duly made its
appearance in the morning and caught a large conger-ell, on which it
breakfasted in sight of several crofters, who were, unfortunately,
unable to catch it. The villagers and fishermen are, however, confident
that if it only stays long enough on their coast they will be able to
capture it and send it on to London.
From the Huddersfield Chronicle, June 25th, 1892.
An unsuccessful attempt was made last week to shoot the rare seal, which has become known over the county as the Deerness "mermaid". It was at first thought that the seal had been hit if not killed, but on the following day it reappeared at its old haunts apparently uninjured. Commenting upon the attempt the Scottish Leader says: - Contrary to expectations the Deerness "mermaid" appears to have survived the bullets aimed at it by the ruthless marksmen of Orkney. The curious creature has reappeared safe and sound, and has been seen swimming to and fro in its usual place. A paragraph from the district declares that another attempt is to be made to shoot the "mermaid" the first fine day. It is to be hoped that before then the unequivocal and ouspoken expression of public opinion will take effect, and that there will be no attempt at repeating an act of such gross and wanton brutality as the murder of the strange visitant to the Deerness shores. Perhaps the S.P. C.K. might do worse than keep their eyes open. The "mermaid" wants protection quite as badly as many a more ordinary animal, and the indiscriminate potting and maiming the poor beast assuredly comes within the category of cruelty.
Orkney Herald, and Weekly Advertiser and Gazette for the Orkney and Zetland Islands - 29th June 1892.
THE ORKNEY "MERMAID."
News has reached Kirkwall that the mermaid has again made her appearance
at Deerness, Orkney. The creature has arrived at the same place now
many years in succession, where it remains all summer, disappearing in
the winter, and returning again with fine weather. Last year a large sum
of money was offered for its capture, and sportsmen tried to kill it.
As it struck out to sea immediately it was fired at, and was never again
seen till now, it was thought it had been wounded or killed.
Naturalists who have got a full description of the "mermaid" think it is
an ocean seal, but for the people of Deerness, who have watched it
closely for years, say it has few if any of the seal's habits, and
maintain it swims like a human being. At the present time it may be
observed daily, being very partial to bright sunshine, but it rarely
appears on dull days.
From the Nottinghamshire Guardian, May 6th, 1893.
A Desirable Interview.
Mr Andrew Lang protests against the recent attempt made by some local
sportsmen to shoot a mermaid in the Orkneys. The proper way to
investigate a mermaid, he says, is to send a handsome young Orcadian to
the mermaid's cave, and then to hear from him what happened, as far as
he may honourably divulge the course of events.
Inverness Courier, 2nd June 1893.
REAPPEARANCE OF THE ORKNEY MERMAID.
The Orkney mermaid has caused a further sensation by appearing in her
old haunts at Deerness, acompanied by a young one. During the past
fortnight (says the Scotsman) both the old and the young one
have been seen frequently in the vicinity by different people. The
young one is of a white colour, and swims in the same fashion as the
old one, by throwing its arms out in front of the head and bringing
them in towards the side. The prevailing opinion amongst naturalist is
that both are seals of a rare kind; but the Deerness people, who have
closely watched the old one for three or four summers in succession,
declare that it has none of the habits of the "sealgh," and has never
been seen sunning itself on the rocks, as seals do. Last summer an
attempt was made to shoot the strange visitant, when it disappeared;
but this summer no one has tried to molest it.
From the Evening Express, 27th June 1893.
Two Aberdonians, an uncle and nephew, who have been at Deerness during
the past fortnight on holidays, had quite an adventure the other day
with the mermaid. They were among the rocks hunting for crabs when they
saw the mermaid and the young one coming straight towards them. The
faces of the sea nymphs were so human-like and their bodies so large
that the Aberdonians took flight, and scrambled up the dangerous cliffs
to get a place of safety. Here they had a side view of the strange
creatures, and describe them as having the appearance of monster
Newfoundland dogs. The Aberdonians now declare that, whatever the
creatures may be - mermaid or otherwise - they never saw their like
before.
Edinburgh Evening News, 28th July 1893.
A sea monster resembling the description given of the Deerness "mermaid" has been disporting itself these last few days in the south side of Mill bay. Whether it is her ladyship from Deerness on a visit, or a relative, has not yet been determined.
Orkney Herald, 27th September 1893.
THE DEERNESS MERMAID.
The Deerness mermaid has again reached her old summer quarters at
Deerness, Orkney, having arrived about a month earlier this year than
usual. This is now the fifth season the strange creature has been
observed at Deerness. In previous years it never arrived before April
26th, and has even been as late as the 2nd and 3rd of May. This time its
movements have been carefully watched by a number of people in the
vicinity, and they all declare they have never seen anything in the sea
to which they could compare it.
From the Nottinghamshire Guardian, April 28th, 1894.
A Kirkwall correspondent says: - The famous Deerness mermaid has again
appeared in its old haunt, and was watched on Tuesday by many people. It
went in a circle for about ten minutes, and came up in the same place
again and again. It was only about a hundred yards from the shore.
Spectators thought it to be a seal swimming on its back. A number of
strangers from Aberdeen were on shore, and witnessed the strange fish in
its gambols from the high banks. The strange appearance was freely
discussed, but opinions differed very widely as to the size or species
of the animal.
Buchan Observer and East Aberdeenshire Advertiser, 25th June 1895.
Sir, - Referring to your article in to-day's Scotsman [?] above, I
may say I was resident in Orkney for several years, and had the
pleasure of seeing this wonderful mermaid. The enclosed description of
the creature (Which is a copy of a letter I sent to a local paper at the
time) may be of interest to some of your readers.
This mermaid has taken up its quarters in the same spot year after year.
Some two or three years ago a farmer in the neighbourhood shot it, but
although it was apparently hit and rushed seawards at a great rate, it
soon returned. A large sum of money (I forget the amount) for it, if
captured alive, was offered by a Glasgow naturalist.
A Kirkwall gentleman, of a scientific turn of mind, informed me that the
mermaid was a bladder-nosed seal, whatever that may be. - I am, &c.
Jas. Stewart.
The following is the description referred to:-
The general colour is black, except the under parts of the neck and
body, which parts appeared to me to be of a greyish-white colour. The
sides of the neck are also white and covered with dark spots. The head
is large and tapering towards the mouth, resembling in shape that of a
polar bear. (This does away with the prevalent idea that the animal is
an ordinary seal.) The neck is of great thickness, and I should say the
length of the creature is not less than seven feet, and very probably it
may measure more. When on the surface of the water, it occasionally
turned on its back, keeping itself afloat by moving its arm like
flippers much in the same manner as a man swimming on his back. This
gives it the appearance of having a very long neck and a small head, and
it has frequently been described as having such. As a rule it showed
itself for about a minute, and then slowly sank from sight to reappear
in the course of a quarter of an hour or so. On one occasion it dived
under water head-first in the manner locally known as a "scarf's dive,"
the back and lower flippers being in turn exposed to view. For the
benefit of those who may wish to see this "marine monster" in its native
element. I may state that the most favourable time to get a glimpse is
on a clear warm day and at high water, with the wind (if any) from the
north.
The Scotsman, 29th June 1895.
"Palace Hotel, Aberdeen, July 2, 1895.
Dear Dr Stewart, - I am here on my way home after a ten days' wanderings
among the Orkney and Shetland Islands. Having had to wait for letters
at Kirkwall for a day or two last week, I crossed to Deerness in the
hope of getting a sight of the 'mermaid' that has been haunting a
sheltered bay in that part of the island since the beginning of June. I
wandered along the shores for an hour or two; having all my eyes about
me, as you may guess; but her ladyship of submarine palaces and coral
caves did not show herself; and as I could only remain near the spot for
a single day, I had to be content with such hearsay evidence of her
existence as I could pick up from two very intelligent islanders whom I
met accidentally, and who told me their story in such a simple,
straightforward way, that it was clear to see that they at least were
persuaded in their own minds of the truth of all they had to tell me.
One of these men saw the mermaid on two different occasions. The first
time she was slowly swimming along, head and shoulders above water, at a
distance which he guessed to be two hundred yards away. On the second
occasion, however, she was quite near the shore, not more than fifty or
sixty yards away. His companion was with him on this latter occasion,
and of course also saw her; and he agreed in his friend's description of
her, which was as follows:-
"' The creature is a female, the sex being indicated by the mammae
or breasts, which are distinctly seen when it raises itself half-way
out of the sea, and when it swims or floats on its back, which last
position all the observers agree it often assumes. The head and face are
human-like, only that the jaws are described as protruding
considerably, so that seen in profile, the face is liker that of a pug
dog or ape than a human being's. The hair is black ; not long, but very
abundant, as is seen wehen the creature shakes its head on coming to the
surface after a long dive. Its shoulders are dark or tawny; its throat
and breast, white. It uses its arms in swimming just as a human being
does. It has not been heard to utter any sound. So far as the body can
be seen, its size and bulk is that of a girl of 12 or 14 years of age. I
asked if the creature flourished anything like a tail when in the act
of diving? The reply was that it did not, because in disappearing under
water, it could not properly be said to dive at all. Its way was to
slowly sink out of sight, as if back downwards; its face being the last
part of it to disappear.'
Such was the description of the mermaid as I picked it up at Deerness;
and a gentleman with whom I afterwards foregathered at Kirkwall assured
me that my description, and that which he had had a few days before from
a woman whohad seen the creature on several occasions, tallied so
closely as to be practically the same. Our friend, Mr Soutar, whom I met
at Thurso, when I told him my story, at once exclaimed, 'Send it on to
Nether-Lochaber; he is sure to have something interesting to say on the
subject,' and there, my dear doctor, you have it precisely as I got it.
For a fortnight after you recieve this, my address will be the Windsor
Hotel, Victoria Street, London. - With much respect and kindest regards,
believe me always, faithfully yours,
J. Bruck Erskine."
Inverness Courier, 6th September 1895.
The descriptions supplied by those who have seen the "Deerness Mermaid" never vary. The creature has a black head, shaped not unlike a pear, tapering in towards the body; long white arms, which it throws outwards when in the act of swimming; and a white breast. What appears to be a dark brown mane extends along the whole back. Several persons have resolved to try and shoot the monster, in the belief that it would be worth a small fortune for exhibition purposes.
Stonehaven Journal, 4th July 1895.
Exhibition of a Mermaid. Or Turnip. Durham (1849)
A strolling showman, who was exhibiting a "Mermaid" at Durham, was taken into custody the other day, a constable, an unbelieving dog, having conceived that the mermaid was not real, wanting all those charms which (as Tennyson makes his Mermaid sing) could so fire the inmates of the deep that
"The great sea-snake under the sea,
From his coiled sleeps in the central deeps,
Would slowly trail himself seven-fold
Round the hall where I sate, and look in at the gate,
With his large calm eyes, for the love of me."
When uncovered the Durham mermaid, shown for "the small charge of a penny," was found to consist of a skin stuffed with cotton rags, and a face fashioned out of a fresh turnip.
Inverness Courier, 29th November 1849.
"The great sea-snake under the sea,
From his coiled sleeps in the central deeps,
Would slowly trail himself seven-fold
Round the hall where I sate, and look in at the gate,
With his large calm eyes, for the love of me."
When uncovered the Durham mermaid, shown for "the small charge of a penny," was found to consist of a skin stuffed with cotton rags, and a face fashioned out of a fresh turnip.
Inverness Courier, 29th November 1849.
Tales of mermaids from Mull and Barra.
Nowhere else, perhaps, has an honest belief in the existence of Mermen and Mermaids been held so long, and held so firmly, as among the Highlanders and Hebrideans of the West of Scotland. Besides meeting with her in many a Gaelic song and many a fireside tale, the Mermaid is still - and quite as prominently in the folk-lore of the Western littoral as in that of the Outer Islands - is still a central figure round whom clusters quite a large body of legend, so amusingly quaint and harmless that, once the subject is started at a winter's nights' ceilidh, one listens and listens until in a measure persuaded that every word is true; and when on after reflection and in a more prosaic mood we have leisure to re-call and review it all, it is almost with regret that we begin to realise that we have been listening not to fact but fiction - fiction, too, of a character often so weird and wild and wonderful that it could only have had birth amongst such a highly imaginative people as the Celts of the Hebridean archipelago and the neighbouring mainland.
We once heard a native of Mull tell, and tell it with all seriousness, how his grandfather, while still a very handsome young fellow, one day disappeared, and was lost to his family and friends for a period of thirteen months. He had gone to gather shell-fish in a sandy bay some considerable distance from his home; and when he did not return at night, search was made for him next day, and for several days thereafter, but all in vain. Nothing could be seen or heard of him; and at last his friends were forced to the conclusion that venturing on a rock to gather dulse, of which he was known to be fond, a tidal wave had swept him off his feet, and, as he could not swim, that he was drowned.
One early morning thirteen months afterwards, the young man reappeared in his native hamlet, to the no small astonishment of everyone, as may be believed. His story was that having filled his creel (craoileag) with shell-fish, he lay down, the day being very hot, under the shadow of a rock above highwater mark and slept. When he awoke, he was amazed to find himself in the company of two very beautiful females, one of whom asked him if he was thirsty? He replied that having been eating dulse and raw cockles for dinner he really was very thirsty, and that he must now go in search of a spring or to the nearest stream in order to have a good drink, after which he would take his creel on his back and go home. Upon this the lady who had just addressed him produced a large confaluted shell full to its lips of iridescent pink with some pleasuant liquor, which, at her request, and thirsty as he was, he drank with delight, and instantly fell asleep again; shortly afterwards to awaken in a cave, the floor whereof was of silveriest sand, and its walls resplendent with all sorts of precious stones and gems, into which the ladies must have carried him when he was in a state of unconsciousness after drinking the deliciously cool and potent draught from the many-whorled shell. Fed by his beautiful hostesses on the richest and rarest food, and abundantly supplied with all manner of pleasant drinks, the young man (whose name, by the way, was Hector Mackirnon) led a delightfully luxurious and dreamy life in that cave for thirteen months and a day (Tri' miosan deng r's latha), until one day he ventured to follow his hostesses, who told him they were going to bathe in a silvery-sanded and sheltered creek some half-a-mile away from the grand cave, with its gem-studded walls and roof, which was their home. He followed them at a distance, taking care not to be seen; and, to his astonishment, as soon as they reached the shore, they assumed each a mermaid form ad plunged into the sea. He returned straightway to the cave, and when the ladies returned in the evening he taxed them with not being females proper of the human race at all, but fish-tailed mermaids foul and scaly; and instantly the cave, its beautiful inmates, andall its splendours vanished at once, and forever, as if the whole had been a dream; and he found himself seated on a rock close by the shore of the bay on which he had been gathering shell-fish "thirteen months and a day" before. He went home, and was received with joy by his family and friends; and to his dying day he persisted in sticking to the cave-and-mermaid story as the true and only cause, on that particular occasion, of his prolonged absence from his native township.
On the Western mainland there are still a few families left, the survivors of a sept of a very distinguished clan, who have long been known to Gaelic genealogists as Sliochd na Maighdein, or, more fully, Sliochd na Maighdein Mhara - that is, the descendants of the sea maiden or mermaid. The story is that a mermaid, whilst temporarily in human form, was captured by a man who was b y himself for several days and nights on an uninhabited island killing seals. The man took the captured maiden home. She was very amiable and very beautiful, and became the mother of a fmily of several sons and daughters. The popular belief in the mermaid origin of this sept was largely corroborated by the curious fact that the children born to them were frequently web-fingered - a malformation so rare as to be altogether unknown in that district except amongst this Sliochd na Maighdein race.
The midwife of that district, a woman of superior intelligence, whom we cross-examined on the subject many years ago, assured us that she had repeatedly seen children born of parents of this sept whose fingers were webbed up to the middle joint, and in one instance all the way up to within half an inch of the tips of the fingers of both hands. As often as she noticed this anomaly in a newly born child, her habit was to slit the web-membrane with a pair of scissors, the operation being comparatively painless as she averred, and the result that when the child grew up it was only on a very close inspection of the inside of the fingers that any trace of such a membrane ever having existed could be detected. We knew a female of this race who was said to have been born with webbed fingers, but the connecting membrane having been scissored by the attendant nurse soon after she was born, there was nothing, now that she had attained to the stature of perfect womanhood, to be seen about the fingers from which one could guess that there had ever been any other connection than the normal juxtaposition between them.
For a long time people of this sept were proud rather than otherwise when allusion was made to their mermaid descent; but within comparatively recent years they began to act as if ashamed of it, and readily to take offence if any reference was made to their traditional pedigree. At a local market not many years ago, a man of the Sliochd na Maighdein race turned upon a drover who had jocularly asked him if any mermaid wives were still to be picked up along his strip of seaboard - turned upon the drover, and gave him then and there such a thrashing as probably made the facetious cattledealer extremely cautious as to when and where it would be safe to venture on such jokes in future.
It is a very old tradition in the Outer Hebrides that a mermaid was for many years domesticated in the family of Macneil of Barra. She had been captured when very young - a baby mermaid; and being kindly treated soon became reconciled to her lot, and grew up to be a very comely female in her upper parts, although still retaining her fishy tail, which is described as glittering with silvery scales, mar shlios bradain - like the flank of a salmon. She was very fond of milk, of which she was always ready to drink as much as she could get. Her favourite food was fish, which she ate raw. When she went to bathe, which she did frequently, she caught fish for herself, some of which she ate while swimming about in the water; and the rest she laid on the beach, to be carried by the woman who happened to be attending upon her. Flesh meat she was never known to taste, nor did she eat bread or vegetables. She had no speech, except a sort of meaningless murmur; although she understood much of what was said to her. She learned to knit, and on one occasion was much pleased when she saw that a pair of hose which she had knitted were being worn by the son of the chief. After thus living in a semi-domesticated sort of way for years, she disappeared one stormy night, ann am faoiltich an earraich- in the season of the vernal equinox - and was never seen again. Such is the story of the Barra mermaid as told by Arhibald Macneil, fisherman, Oban, himself a native of Barra, and a highly intelligent seannachie.
As often as we read or hear of the appearance of a mermaid it is always somewhere within the temperate zone, and usually in a bay or creek of a seaboard more or less influenced by the kindly waters of the great Gulf Stream. The only instance known to us of the appearance of a mermaid well within the Arctic Ocean is that mentioned in the account of Hudson's voyage in search of the North-West passage in 1608. When off the north-west of Greenland, in latitude 75 deg., we are told that "a mermaid came close to the ship's side, looking earnestly on the men. From the navill upwards her back and breasts were like a woman's; her body as big as one of us; her skin very white, and long hair hanging down behinde, of colour black." Whilst the famous navigator and his crew were intently gazing at the highly intelligent countenance of their strange visitor, and admiring her graceful movements in the water, "a greate wave sudenly arose which washed her awaye."
But what, now it is time to ask, is this creature that for several seasons, as it appears, has been haunting the south-eastern shores of the middle islands of the Orkneyan archipelago? If it be not a veritable mermaid - and it has always to be kept in mind that there is nothing unscientific or inherently absurd in entertaining a belief in the existence of such an anthropoid of the deep - if it be not a mermaid, all as described, what is it? It has been suggested that it is a bladdernose or hooded seal (Cystophora Cristata), but seal of any kind it cannot be, if the description of it, in which so many observers agree, be correct. The Deerness visitor has its mammae or paps on the breast as in the human female, and these are described by all the observers as a prominent characteristic; whereas in the seal tribe the lacteal supply for the young is presented through teats placed along the abdomen. Amongst marine mammalia the only creatuers, so far as we know, that have mammae on the breasts like the human female are the dugong (Halicore Dugong), and the manatee or sea-cow (Manatus Petulans). The Deerness visitor, however, cannot well be a dugong, for that mammal is only found in the East African and Indian Ocean; and one cannot conceive how it could possibly find its way year after year to the Orkney archipelago.
It is possible that the creature may be a manatee, of which there are two species - Manatus Americanus, chiefly found along the Atlantic shores of North America; and this, by the way, may be the creature taken for a Mermaid by Hudson and his crew in the north of Baffin's Bay. The other species of manatee is the Manatus Senegalensis, so called because it chiefly haunts the West African shores from a little north of the Senegal southwards by the Ivory Coast to the Bight of Benin. The manatee has the habit of rearing itself erect - standing up, so to speak - in the sea, and sometimes with its baby (it has never more than one at a birth) held tightly to its breasts with its flippers or arms; and seen in such an attitude and thus suckling its young, it is not diffiult to understand how it should have given rise to the Mermaid fable.
If the Deerness visitor is a manatee, it is much more likely to be the Americanus than the Senegalensis - much more likely that it crossed the Atlantic from the North American shores than that it found its way to the Orkneys from the shores of Senegambia. And if the description of the creature be at all correct as to the particulars referred to, a manatee, we take it, it must be; unless, indeed, it be a specimen of the real, actual, mermaid of legend and song, regarding whose existence, as in the case of the great sea serpent, it is perhaps wisest for the present to keep an "open mind."
We had hoped to be able to include two other communications on other subjects in this paper; but the Deerness mermaid, as will be seen, required all the space at our disposal, if she was to have anything like justice done to her. The communications omitted, however, shall have a place in our next.
Inverness Courier, 6th September 1895
We once heard a native of Mull tell, and tell it with all seriousness, how his grandfather, while still a very handsome young fellow, one day disappeared, and was lost to his family and friends for a period of thirteen months. He had gone to gather shell-fish in a sandy bay some considerable distance from his home; and when he did not return at night, search was made for him next day, and for several days thereafter, but all in vain. Nothing could be seen or heard of him; and at last his friends were forced to the conclusion that venturing on a rock to gather dulse, of which he was known to be fond, a tidal wave had swept him off his feet, and, as he could not swim, that he was drowned.
One early morning thirteen months afterwards, the young man reappeared in his native hamlet, to the no small astonishment of everyone, as may be believed. His story was that having filled his creel (craoileag) with shell-fish, he lay down, the day being very hot, under the shadow of a rock above highwater mark and slept. When he awoke, he was amazed to find himself in the company of two very beautiful females, one of whom asked him if he was thirsty? He replied that having been eating dulse and raw cockles for dinner he really was very thirsty, and that he must now go in search of a spring or to the nearest stream in order to have a good drink, after which he would take his creel on his back and go home. Upon this the lady who had just addressed him produced a large confaluted shell full to its lips of iridescent pink with some pleasuant liquor, which, at her request, and thirsty as he was, he drank with delight, and instantly fell asleep again; shortly afterwards to awaken in a cave, the floor whereof was of silveriest sand, and its walls resplendent with all sorts of precious stones and gems, into which the ladies must have carried him when he was in a state of unconsciousness after drinking the deliciously cool and potent draught from the many-whorled shell. Fed by his beautiful hostesses on the richest and rarest food, and abundantly supplied with all manner of pleasant drinks, the young man (whose name, by the way, was Hector Mackirnon) led a delightfully luxurious and dreamy life in that cave for thirteen months and a day (Tri' miosan deng r's latha), until one day he ventured to follow his hostesses, who told him they were going to bathe in a silvery-sanded and sheltered creek some half-a-mile away from the grand cave, with its gem-studded walls and roof, which was their home. He followed them at a distance, taking care not to be seen; and, to his astonishment, as soon as they reached the shore, they assumed each a mermaid form ad plunged into the sea. He returned straightway to the cave, and when the ladies returned in the evening he taxed them with not being females proper of the human race at all, but fish-tailed mermaids foul and scaly; and instantly the cave, its beautiful inmates, andall its splendours vanished at once, and forever, as if the whole had been a dream; and he found himself seated on a rock close by the shore of the bay on which he had been gathering shell-fish "thirteen months and a day" before. He went home, and was received with joy by his family and friends; and to his dying day he persisted in sticking to the cave-and-mermaid story as the true and only cause, on that particular occasion, of his prolonged absence from his native township.
On the Western mainland there are still a few families left, the survivors of a sept of a very distinguished clan, who have long been known to Gaelic genealogists as Sliochd na Maighdein, or, more fully, Sliochd na Maighdein Mhara - that is, the descendants of the sea maiden or mermaid. The story is that a mermaid, whilst temporarily in human form, was captured by a man who was b y himself for several days and nights on an uninhabited island killing seals. The man took the captured maiden home. She was very amiable and very beautiful, and became the mother of a fmily of several sons and daughters. The popular belief in the mermaid origin of this sept was largely corroborated by the curious fact that the children born to them were frequently web-fingered - a malformation so rare as to be altogether unknown in that district except amongst this Sliochd na Maighdein race.
The midwife of that district, a woman of superior intelligence, whom we cross-examined on the subject many years ago, assured us that she had repeatedly seen children born of parents of this sept whose fingers were webbed up to the middle joint, and in one instance all the way up to within half an inch of the tips of the fingers of both hands. As often as she noticed this anomaly in a newly born child, her habit was to slit the web-membrane with a pair of scissors, the operation being comparatively painless as she averred, and the result that when the child grew up it was only on a very close inspection of the inside of the fingers that any trace of such a membrane ever having existed could be detected. We knew a female of this race who was said to have been born with webbed fingers, but the connecting membrane having been scissored by the attendant nurse soon after she was born, there was nothing, now that she had attained to the stature of perfect womanhood, to be seen about the fingers from which one could guess that there had ever been any other connection than the normal juxtaposition between them.
For a long time people of this sept were proud rather than otherwise when allusion was made to their mermaid descent; but within comparatively recent years they began to act as if ashamed of it, and readily to take offence if any reference was made to their traditional pedigree. At a local market not many years ago, a man of the Sliochd na Maighdein race turned upon a drover who had jocularly asked him if any mermaid wives were still to be picked up along his strip of seaboard - turned upon the drover, and gave him then and there such a thrashing as probably made the facetious cattledealer extremely cautious as to when and where it would be safe to venture on such jokes in future.
It is a very old tradition in the Outer Hebrides that a mermaid was for many years domesticated in the family of Macneil of Barra. She had been captured when very young - a baby mermaid; and being kindly treated soon became reconciled to her lot, and grew up to be a very comely female in her upper parts, although still retaining her fishy tail, which is described as glittering with silvery scales, mar shlios bradain - like the flank of a salmon. She was very fond of milk, of which she was always ready to drink as much as she could get. Her favourite food was fish, which she ate raw. When she went to bathe, which she did frequently, she caught fish for herself, some of which she ate while swimming about in the water; and the rest she laid on the beach, to be carried by the woman who happened to be attending upon her. Flesh meat she was never known to taste, nor did she eat bread or vegetables. She had no speech, except a sort of meaningless murmur; although she understood much of what was said to her. She learned to knit, and on one occasion was much pleased when she saw that a pair of hose which she had knitted were being worn by the son of the chief. After thus living in a semi-domesticated sort of way for years, she disappeared one stormy night, ann am faoiltich an earraich- in the season of the vernal equinox - and was never seen again. Such is the story of the Barra mermaid as told by Arhibald Macneil, fisherman, Oban, himself a native of Barra, and a highly intelligent seannachie.
As often as we read or hear of the appearance of a mermaid it is always somewhere within the temperate zone, and usually in a bay or creek of a seaboard more or less influenced by the kindly waters of the great Gulf Stream. The only instance known to us of the appearance of a mermaid well within the Arctic Ocean is that mentioned in the account of Hudson's voyage in search of the North-West passage in 1608. When off the north-west of Greenland, in latitude 75 deg., we are told that "a mermaid came close to the ship's side, looking earnestly on the men. From the navill upwards her back and breasts were like a woman's; her body as big as one of us; her skin very white, and long hair hanging down behinde, of colour black." Whilst the famous navigator and his crew were intently gazing at the highly intelligent countenance of their strange visitor, and admiring her graceful movements in the water, "a greate wave sudenly arose which washed her awaye."
But what, now it is time to ask, is this creature that for several seasons, as it appears, has been haunting the south-eastern shores of the middle islands of the Orkneyan archipelago? If it be not a veritable mermaid - and it has always to be kept in mind that there is nothing unscientific or inherently absurd in entertaining a belief in the existence of such an anthropoid of the deep - if it be not a mermaid, all as described, what is it? It has been suggested that it is a bladdernose or hooded seal (Cystophora Cristata), but seal of any kind it cannot be, if the description of it, in which so many observers agree, be correct. The Deerness visitor has its mammae or paps on the breast as in the human female, and these are described by all the observers as a prominent characteristic; whereas in the seal tribe the lacteal supply for the young is presented through teats placed along the abdomen. Amongst marine mammalia the only creatuers, so far as we know, that have mammae on the breasts like the human female are the dugong (Halicore Dugong), and the manatee or sea-cow (Manatus Petulans). The Deerness visitor, however, cannot well be a dugong, for that mammal is only found in the East African and Indian Ocean; and one cannot conceive how it could possibly find its way year after year to the Orkney archipelago.
It is possible that the creature may be a manatee, of which there are two species - Manatus Americanus, chiefly found along the Atlantic shores of North America; and this, by the way, may be the creature taken for a Mermaid by Hudson and his crew in the north of Baffin's Bay. The other species of manatee is the Manatus Senegalensis, so called because it chiefly haunts the West African shores from a little north of the Senegal southwards by the Ivory Coast to the Bight of Benin. The manatee has the habit of rearing itself erect - standing up, so to speak - in the sea, and sometimes with its baby (it has never more than one at a birth) held tightly to its breasts with its flippers or arms; and seen in such an attitude and thus suckling its young, it is not diffiult to understand how it should have given rise to the Mermaid fable.
If the Deerness visitor is a manatee, it is much more likely to be the Americanus than the Senegalensis - much more likely that it crossed the Atlantic from the North American shores than that it found its way to the Orkneys from the shores of Senegambia. And if the description of the creature be at all correct as to the particulars referred to, a manatee, we take it, it must be; unless, indeed, it be a specimen of the real, actual, mermaid of legend and song, regarding whose existence, as in the case of the great sea serpent, it is perhaps wisest for the present to keep an "open mind."
We had hoped to be able to include two other communications on other subjects in this paper; but the Deerness mermaid, as will be seen, required all the space at our disposal, if she was to have anything like justice done to her. The communications omitted, however, shall have a place in our next.
Inverness Courier, 6th September 1895
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