Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon Part 6

[Footnote 2: aeLIAN, _Nat. Hist._, lib. xvi. ch. xviii.]

The Portuguese cherished the belief in the mermaid, and the annalist of the exploits of the Jesuits in India, gravely records that seven of these monsters, male and female, were captured at Manaar in 1560, and carried to Goa, where they were dissected by Demas Bosquez, physician to the Viceroy, and "their internal structure found to be in all respects conformable to the human."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Hist, de la Compagnie de Jesus_, quoted in the _Asiat.

Journ._ vol. xiv. p. 461; and in FORBES' _Orient. Memoirs_, vol. i. p.

421.]

The Dutch were no less inclined to the marvellous, and they propagated the belief in the mermaid with earnestness and particularity. VALENTYN, one of their chaplains, in his account of the Natural History of Amboina, embodied in his great work on the Netherlands' Possessions in India, published so late as 1727[1], has devoted the first section of his chapter on the Fishes of that island to a minute description of the "Zee-Menschen, Zee-Wyven," and mermaids. As to the dugong he admits its resemblance to the mermaid, but repudiates the idea of its having given rise to the fable, by being mistaken for one. This error he imagines must have arisen at a time when observations on such matters were made with culpable laxity; but now more recent and minute attention has established the truth beyond cavil.

[Footnote 1: FRAN. VALENTYN, _Beschryving van Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien_, &c. 5 vol. fol. Dordrecht and Amsterdam, MDCCXXVII. vol. iii. p. 330.]

For instance, he states that in 1653, when a lieutenant in the Dutch service was leading a party of soldiers along the sea-sh.o.r.e in Amboina, he and all his company saw the mermen swimming at a short distance from the beach with long and flowing hair, of a colour between gray and green--and six weeks afterwards, the creatures were again seen by him and more than fifty witnesses, at the same place, by clear daylight.[1]

[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Beschryving, &c._, vol. iii. p. 331.]

"If any narrative in the world," adds VALENTYN, "deserves credit, it is this; since _not only one but two mermen_ together were seen by so many eye-witnesses. Should the stubborn world, however, hesitate to believe it, it matters nothing; as there are people who would even deny that such cities as Rome, Constantinople or Cairo, exist, merely because they themselves have not happened to see them."

But what are such incredulous persons, he continues, to make of the circ.u.mstance recorded by Albert Herport in his account of India[1], that a sea-man was seen in the water near the Church of Taquan, on the morning of the 29th of April 1661, and a mermaid at the same spot the same afternoon?--or what do they say to the fact that in 1714, a mermaid was not only seen but captured near the island of Booro? "five feet Rhineland measure in height, which lived four days and seven hours, but refusing all food, died without leaving any intelligible account of herself."

[Footnote 1: Probably the _Itinerarium Indic.u.m_ of ALBRECHT HERPORT.

Berne, 1669.]

Valentyn, in support of his own faith in the mermaid, cites numerous other instances in which both "sea-men and women" were seen and taken at Amboina; especially one by an office-bearer in the Church of Holland[1], by whom it was surrendered to the Governor Vanderstel.

[Footnote 1: A "krank-bezoeker" or visitant of the sick.]

Of this well-authenticated specimen he gives an elaborate engraving amongst those of the authentic fishes of the island--together with a minute ichthyological description of each for the satisfaction of men of science.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MERMAID (From VALENTYN)]

The fame of this creature having reached Europe, the British Minister in Holland wrote to Valentyn on the 28th December 1716, whilst the Emperor, Peter the Great of Russia, was his guest at Amsterdam; to communicate the desire of the Czar, that the mermaid should be brought home from Amboina for his Imperial inspection.

To complete his proofs of the existence of mermen and women, Valentyn points triumphantly to the historical fact, that in Holland in the year 1404, a mermaid was driven during a tempest, through a breach in the d.y.k.e of Edam, and was taken alive in the lake of Purmer. Thence she was carried to Harlem, where the Dutch women taught her to spin; and where, several years after, she died in the Roman Catholic faith;--"but this,"

says the pious Calvinistic chaplain, "in no way militates against the truth of her story."[1]

[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Beschryving, &c_., p. 333.]

Finally Valentyn winds up his proofs, by the acc.u.mulated testimony of Pliny [1], Theodore Gaza, George of Trebisond, and Alexander ab Alexandro, to show that mermaids had in all ages been known in Gaul, Naples, Epirus, and the Morea. From these and a mult.i.tude of more modern instances he comes to the conclusion, that as there are "sea-cows,"

"sea-horses," and "sea-dogs;" as well as "sea-trees" and "sea-flowers"

which he himself had seen, what grounds in reason are there to doubt that there may also be "sea-maidens" and "sea-men!"

[Footnote 1: _Nat. Hist_. l. ix. c. 5, where Pliny speaks of the Nereids.]

_List of Ceylon Mammalia._

A list of the Mammalia of Ceylon is subjoined. In framing it, as well as the lists appended to the other chapters on the Fauna of the island, the princ.i.p.al object in view has been to exhibit the extent to which the Natural History of the island had been investigated, and collections made up to the period of my leaving the colony in 1850. It has been considered expedient to exclude a few individuals which have not had the advantage of a direct comparison with authentic specimens, either at Calcutta or in England. This will account for the omission of a number that have appeared in other catalogues, but of which many, though ascertained to exist, have not been submitted to this rigorous process of identification.

The greater portion of the species of mammals and birds contained in these lists will be found, with suitable references to the most accurate descriptions, in the admirable catalogue of the collection at the India House, published under the care of the late Dr. Horsfield. This work cannot be too highly extolled, not alone for the scrupulous fidelity with which the description of each species is referred to its first discoverer, but also for the pains which have been taken to elaborate synonymes and to collate from local periodicals and other sources, (little accessible to ordinary inquirers,) such incidents and traits as are calculated to ill.u.s.trate characteristics and habits.

QUADRUMANA.

Presbytes cephalopterus, _Zimm_.

ursinus, _Blyth_.

Priamus, _Elliot & Blyth_.

Thersites, _Blyth_.

Macacus pileatus, _Shaw & Desm_.

Loris gracilis, _Geoff_.

CHEIROPTERA.

Pteropus Edwardsii, _Geoff_.

Leschenaultii, _Dum_.

Cynopterus marginatus, _Ham_.

Megaderma spasma, _Linn._ lyra, _Geoff_.

Rhinolophus _affinis_, _Horsf_.

Hipposideros murinus, _Elliot_.

speoris, _Elliot_.

armiger, _Hodgs_.

vulgaris, _Horsf_.

Kerivoula picta, _Pall_.

Taphozous longima.n.u.s, _Har_.

Scotophilus Coromandelicus, _F. Cuv._ _adversus_, _Horsf_.

Temminkii, _Horsf_.

Tickelli, _Blyth_.

Heathii.

CARNIVORA.

Sorex coerulescens, _Shaw_.

ferrugineus, _Kelaart_.

serpentarius, _Is. Geoff._ monta.n.u.s, _Kelaart_.

Feroculus macropus, _Kel_.

Ursus l.a.b.i.atus, _Blainv_.

Lutra nair, _F. Cuv_.

Canis aureus. _Linn._ Viverra Indica, _Geoff_., _Hod_.

Herpestes vitticollis, _Benn_.

griseus, _Gm_.

Smithii, _Gray_.

fulvescens, _Kelaart_.

Paradoxurus typus, _F. Cuv._ Ceylonicus, _Pall_.

Felis pardus, _Linn._ chaus, _Guldens_.

viverrinus, _Benn_.

RODENTIA.