THE WORKER — MAY 16, 1908
Mermen and Mermaid.
It would seem (says the Sketch) that we must add yet another to the living races of mankind, and that those who go down to the sea in ships and traffic in distant waters may yet make discoveries that will create a sensation in the western world. It is well-known to students of the human body that man was at one time amphibious. It is said that traces of gills still exist in us, but it is left for the explorers of Nullepart Island to come upon a race of amphibians who, to all outward seeming, are men and women, although their bonds and feet terminate in claws, and they have remarkably ugly projecting front teeth, together with moustaches that recall the domestic cat. As far as can be gathered from those who have examined these forgotten products of a lost civilisation, they are equally happy in the water and on the land. They live upon fish, which they catch and eat raw. Their attitude towards strangers would seem to be not altogether aggressive, for they have submitted to the photographer, and have allowed their curious oral development to be studied by the officers of the ship that cast its anchor on the Island of Nullepart.
Worker. (Brisbane, Qid. : 1890 - 1955), 16 May 1908. Trove. National Library of Australia.
