Mermaids not only seen, but caught

Mermaids are mysterious creatures of the seas, rivers and lakes, which are from ancient times of concern for people with its mystery: who they are – sentient beings, like ourselves, or just animals? And do they exist really?

In the memoirs of some missionaries you can read about attempts to catch a mermaid. So, a missionary belonging to the order of Capuchins, said that seen from the deck of a ship sailing in the Congo, like mermaids and mermen (sea men) were collected in shallow water algae from the bottom. The ship dropped anchor, and the sailors slipped down the network, but underwater inhabitants noticed them and deftly avoided the trap.

Caught mermaid

Italian missionary from Pavia father Francis, in 1701. visited Angola, initially didn't believe the locals when they told him about mermaids living in the waters of their lake. Then the natives caught one of them on the net and has brought the preacher as proof of his truthfulness. Missionary thoroughly examined and described in detail a mermaid, adding that a day later after being caught she was dead. The question about whether these creatures have a soul left to father Francis open, but he was very important because, among other things, the Angolans were hunting mermaids and used their meat as food. So who do they actually eat: fish or people?

In 1560г. the Church has never been close to the answer to this question. Then off the coast of the Islands of Mannar, near Ceylon Dutch sailors at the same time caught a seven mermaids!.. Find in these parts the fathers-the Jesuits seized the opportunity and tried to figure out whether these creatures are humans, endowed with an immortal soul. Researchers have long debated, but never came to a definite conclusion.

Much more fortunate personal physician to the Dutch Viceroy in Goa M. Bosca, who was there. Antimirova mermaids, caught near Mannar, he concluded that these beings are around to these people – both externally and in its internal structure. I suppose that the dear doctor was not cut to the quick, as all mermaids are placed in large water containers, and died a few days later...

The same sad fate has befallen other "underwater people", as soon as they get in captivity. In 1682г. near the Italian town of Rapallo (near Genoa), was caught by the so-called "sea people", and many citizens were able to examine it closely. One witness wrote that during the day the prisoner was repeatedly seated on a chair, and this suggests that his body is quite flexible and has joints (unlike fish). "Sea people" lived only a few days and in all that time, nothing ate and did not drink, and just cried and uttered plaintive cries...

At the beginning of 1738г. in the newspaper "London daily post" reported: in the Bay near the town of Topsham (Devon) caught a mermaid. Later it was shown to the public in Exeter, Bristol and bath. No one knows how long this poor creature had lived in captivity and that it was then.

According to the testimony, has come down to us from the past, mermaids in the seas met not so rare, but people thought them extraordinary beings. It is not surprising that, when 1531г. in the waters of the Baltic sea have caught a mermaid, it is immediately sent as a gift to the king of Poland Sigismund II. The ruler and his court with his own eyes a prisoner, but, unfortunately, not for long: she died in captivity on the third day...

Mermaids in captivity

In 1430г. in Holland washed away the dam, and the sea flooded large areas, causing residents had to travel by boat. One morning the girls from the small town of Edam went thus to milk the cows. In shallow water they saw a mermaid, stuck in the mud. The girls took her in a boat and then brought to his home. Mermaid is left to live with them and lived for... 15 years! To say it is, however, not learned, but learned to wear a dress, is, as a person and to knit. In addition, good Catholic girls taught their pupils to worship the Holy cross, and this gave rise to bury her in a Christian way.

But if this mermaid were only recording, another survived even a portrait, wrote that "the famous sue Gauthier". In 1758. in Paris the mermaid exposed for all to see, placing it in a large aquarium at the fair at Saint-Germain. Wrote the witness, the prisoner was fed fish and bread. She was very mobile and had fun splashing in the water. Resting mermaid in a vertical position. The appearance had a vile and ugly. (It's hard to disagree when looking at the picture of Gauthier.)

I should say that the descriptions of the mermaids are not too different, despite the fact that eyewitnesses share centuries or thousands of kilometres of distance.

Mermaids caught are often released

In an English chronicle referred to "sea man" in 1187g. caught, in the County of Suffolk. It is unknown how much time he spent in captivity, but then somehow escaped from captivity. The fugitive rushed into the waves, and never saw him again. But it happens sometimes, when the fishers were released caught "sea people."

In 1619г. two Danish Royal adviser sailed to Sweden from Norway. Suddenly, they saw aboard some sort of humanoid creature, floating alongside their vessel. The sailors hid in a slice of bacon a hook attached to a durable twine, and threw the bait into the water. Got her "sea man" was pulled onto the deck. But it so loudly shouting and screaming this was so intimidating that the scared sailors hastened to relieve his prisoner back into the water.

Sometimes the fishermen released an unexpected catch. Once this happened near one of the Shetland Islands. Edinburgh journal reported that a fishing net got mermaid. She was a grayish color, without any scales on the tail. Fishermen holding for some time his captive in the boat, decided that it is better to get rid of. After all, if then at sea happen a misfortune, blame those who tortured the unfortunate creature...

Probably, so did six of their colleagues from the island of Yell, which 1833г. had to meet a mermaid. She was entangled in a net, which was pulled out by fishermen. They then said, the growth of the mermaids was about three feet. On the body was absent gills, as well as the tail – scales. The prisoner did not resist people and only a pitifully moaned. After keeping her for three hours in the boat, the fishermen released the mermaid in the sea. Diving, she immediately went to the depths.

Mermaid Russia

In Russia sometimes, too, catching mermaids – "the river" or "meadow" of stories, tailless. In a recording made in 1891. according to the peasants, it was said that once upon a time (they know it from old people) in the village brought two mermaids. These creatures looked like a woman with long hair. Saying nothing, they only wept bitterly. When the mermaids were released, they sang, played and ran off into the woods.

At the time, Dahl also wrote a story about one such capture. Events took place in the village, which the peasants called a Monastery which stood on the shore of a large lake. Once upon a time the men pulled the nets out of the lake of the child. When it dipped into the water, the child frolicked and played, and when brought into the house languished and wept. A man caught a strange kid one day said to him: look, I'm not going to torment you anymore, let go back, only and you uslugi me. I will put on evening network, and you drive on them fish more. Sitting on the hearth the child trembled, his eyes sparkled with joy. The man was placed on the lake of a strong network, put the kid in a tub, brought ashore and dumped in the lake. And in the morning came to inspect the network, and it is full of fish!

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See mermaids in our days, but less and less, and only catch... whether they gradually die out in the waters that are so hard to poison our civilization, or become more cautious, seeing how perfect the technologies for catching marine animals has. And maybe to blame something else: we no longer believe in mermaids, to write about them poems and songs, as our ancestors did, and therefore forever lost touch with their world, perhaps only contact with our physical reality. However, there are researchers who seriously deal with this problem, and they have evidence that "water people" really exist...

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»