Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/533

 r saw a Siren in that country, I reply that, whilst making the circuit of our churches in the Molucca Isles (which is done twice in the year by the pastors who understand the language of the country), and navigating in an orambay, or species of galley, between the villages of Holilieuw and Karieuw, distant from one another about two leagues by water, it happened, whilst I was dozing, that the negro rowers uttered a shrill cry of astonishment, which aroused me with a start; and when I inquired the cause of their outcry, they replied unanimously that they had seen clearly and distinctly a monster like a Siren, with a face resembling that of a man, and long hair like that of a woman floating down its back; but at their cry it had replunged into the sea, and all I could see was the agitation of the water where this Siren had disturbed it by diving.

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One of the most remarkable accounts of a mermaid is that in Dr. Robert Hamilton’s “History of the Whales and Seals,” in the “Naturalist’s Library,” he himself vouching for its general truth, from personal knowledge of some of the parties. “It was reported that a fishing-boat off t