THE AGE — JUNE 9, 1917
THE REAL MERMAID
Fishing at Little Aden, which is just opposite Aden, some fishermen found entangled in their net two monsters, which they at first thought were porpoises or sharks. On bringing them to the surface they fought with great fury, and badly damaged the net, and gave vent to half-human cries of rage and fear. After a hard struggle the fishermen knocked them on the head and got them on board. They were sold in Aden to an Indian tailor, who has a little shop just opposite the landing jetty. The tailor had them roughly stuffed and preserved, and hung them up in the back part of his shop, and charged 4 annas (4d.) each to visitors who wished to see them.
Major-General Sir George Younghusband, when he was recently Resident at Aden, in 1913, saw them. They were, male and female, with unmistakably human heads, faces, arms; whilst below they were formed like fishes, with a forked tail. The female’s breasts were, however, under the armpits. They were exactly in the lines of pictured mermaids, except that instead of being perfectly beautiful they were monstrously ugly. The male’s face was perfectly awful, probably the expression of hate and fear when he died. The female was not much better, and not at all the sort of lady one would sit about with on barren rocks. They had short hair, and the chin ran away into the neck; it was not so pronounced as in most humans. They had no gills, and
