THE AUSTRALIAN TOWN AND COUNTRY JOURNAL — MAY 15, 1886
MERMAID OR SIREN.
The existence of this animal, half woman and half fish, has long been talked of, believed and disbelieved, according to circumstances. Homer is the first who speaks of such wonders, which he styles Sirens ; but we do not find that he gives any description of their shape. However, Horace tells us in his art of poetry, that they are “Above, a lovely maid, a fish, below.” The sirens are said to have been three sisters, whose voices were so delightfully harmonious and enticing that no resistance could be made against their powerful charms, but ’twas death to hear the voices ; for they led the navigators and their ships to certain destruction among the rooks that bordered the dangerous coasts which they inhabited near the shores of Italy. Belief in the existence of mermaids has been current at different periods ; indeed, some years ago, several persons made depositions before a magistrate: that they had seen mermaids come out of the sea and sport on the rocks, but that they sprang into their element before they could be secured. A creature said to be a mermaid, was exhibited in London about the year 1828, but it was afterward discovered to be the body of a monkey artfully attached to the dried tail of a salmon. KANGAROO SHOOTER.
Australian Town and Country Journal. (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907), 15 May 1886. Trove. National Library of Australia.
