Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/528



time to time it uttered little cries like those of a mouse. It would not eat, though it was offered small fish, shells, crabs, lobsters, &c. After its death, some excrement was discovered in the vat, like the secretion of a cat.” The copy from which I have taken the representation for this work is thus coloured: hair, the hue of kelp; body, olive tint; webbed olive between the fingers, which each four joints; the fringe round the waist orange with a blue border; the fins green, face slate-grey; delicate row of pink hairs runs the length of the tail. With such a portrait we may well ask with Tennyson— “Who would be A mermaid fair, Singing alone, Combing her hair Under the sea In a golden curl, With a comb of pearl, On a throne?” The introduction to the book contains additional information.

The Advertissement de l’Editeur says:— “M. Baltazar Coyett is the first to whom the great discovery is due. Whilst governor, he encouraged the fishery of these fishes; and after having had about two hundred painted of those which were