Part two of this fishy business.
Here are the next thirty-five alleged encounters in my crude file:
For this set: pretty thin evidence for classic merbeings. The artwork to the side is "nice" but with no story/report who can say? Cases #39 and #42 are rather good potentially, but there was no tail seen. I love the fact that the Native American lady labeled the being in #39 as a Spirit Being {Manitou} though.
It's bizarrely charming that "The Pirates of the Caribbean" feared Mermaids and ordered their ships to steer clear of their "known" haunts, but it would be better to have specific reports.
That would leave case #40 and case #41. #40 has a good start with a human top and eel-tail bottom, with some hand-washing of hair, but the stumpy arms and hands are off-putting. #41 is a claim or merbeings regularly seen at the site. They are classic as claimed, except for occasional small bald headedness and dark skin [leading one towards seals et al], but the claim of a very large forked tail might save the claim to a gray box.
For me, this set is pretty weak. Though I'll go with Blackbeard if he insists.
Cases #s 45 and 46 just ache to be referred to as poorly observed or poorly described water mammals of the seal, otter, sea-lion, etc variety. Case #48 isn't much better.
Case #44 would have potential but, once again, no fish-like bottom was seen.
Case #43 would be more pleasing to the mermaid searcher if the idiot who wrote the thing up didn't give himself a pseudonym which made him sound like a fool. Otherwise that is a classical mermaid case. Female top with breasts and long hair and a dolphin-shaped bottom.
Case #47 is more like a mermaid flap, with many sightings being reported in the area for the year 1814. This could be significant if someone would research it. Are any of these sightings clearly distinct from seals et al? It seems that they might be. The typical sighting seems to be of a classic female-top/ cuttlefish-tail bottom mermaid with long dark hair and white skin. Also two fishermen claimed to observe a merman-mermaid pair.
I like those possibilities and the one in case #49. In 49 we have a multi witnessed iconic female merbeing with dark brown hair, which she hand-combed with slightly webbed hands. Allegedly some Irish knucklehead [I'm of Irish descent, so I'm allowed to say that] raised a gun to shoot her, but she dove beneath the sea.
Some losers here and maybe a winner or two.
#53 and #54 are kills or captures which smack of aquatic [normal] misobserved or misdescribed mammals to me. I can't get excited about them.
Case #55 has a witness who seems to have seen nothing but the creature's back, and assumed that it was a mermaid.
Case #56 could have substance if it had any detail, but alas there is little there.
I'm intrigued by the report from Weddell's crew from the South Georgian island group. Too bad that he didn't see it himself, but this is an analogous case [witness-wise] to that of Henry Hudson's men. The reddish skin and the long green hair would have made a striking picture.
Once again, we just missed the boat in case #52. Everything we want is there: multiple witnesses, beautiful naked young female bathing herself and her dark hair [though short this time], seen for minutes at close range --- BUT no observation of her bottom half. The witnesses thought "mermaid" because she stayed effortlessly afloat for so long primping and then just dove below. Maybe that's good enough to wonder about a Naiad or such, but we really should see your fishtail, sweetheart, to label you a mermaid.
That leaves case #51, where an iconic merbeing is claimed to be observed swimming into the Boyne River. White skin, dark hair, long arms, and a fish tail. As the gender is not named, one gets the impression that the creature was some distance away, thus marring the case a bit.
Cases #57, 59, and 63 are way too brief, though they continue to reinforce the idea that these three areas are "merbeing hotbeds".
Case #61 is another capture. MAYBE we give it a little more of a chance because the merbeing was never really helpless, and ultimately went back into the sea.
Case #62 seems to be another North American Spirit Being type of encounter with a Manitou, but not a mer-person.
That leaves #58 and #60. 60 is dangerous for me because it comes from a mysterious source. The source that started me hunting is not mysterious as he is my colleague Albert Rosales, the fine fellow who runs the humanoid reports site --- a massive compilation of great value. Albert referenced a spanish-language site, which is findable but which does not tell you where the story came from. But if it has a decent provenance, then it could be a keeper data point, as it speaks of a beautiful mermaid with long blue hair.
Case #58 is unusual in that it comes from Australia. This was an iconic mermaid with a beautiful womanly top, and long flowing hair which she combed. She had the requisite fish bottom half, and lived [unusually] in a swampy area.
Last of the sets of seven for this blog entry.
With one exception, this is a particularly weak set. Cases #68, 69, 70 [the Orkneys cases] are woefully undetailed, despite that they buttress the claims that the Orkneys are a heavily visited area for persons of the mer-kind.
Case #65 has a creature which has to clumsily roll over and over to get back into the water. Not my sort of mermaid.
Case #67 despite the fisherman's attestation of it not being a seal, is described much like an aquatic biological mammal. Perhaps a fuller description could elevate this report.
Case #66 is quite a bit of fun, but sounds like "someone" I might describe as a different sort of paranormal sea entity than a merman. But ... not having much to go on vis a vis the relative humanness vs horsiness of the thing, I guess merman it is.
Case #64 is another Native American version of this mystery. Multiwitnesses of a water dwelling entity with long blonde hair and brown skin --- but no lower half description. The native american fishing guide thought that this was a water spirit, and I'll go with him, as the entity came right up to their boat.
So, what did we find? A lot of near-miss frustration it seems to me. Our beautiful lady seems to be remaining just out of reach in these reports, though tantalizingly nearby.
And that's probably what her intention is.
I'll try again to find her in a few days. Till then, Peace.
are these mermaid manifestations occured in mostly same places and at usually same time of the day ? are there known mermaid haunts / places that local or native people knew and avoid ? In my opinion , i agree with the native indians who said these all spririt beings , though i am intrigued on that british columbia mention , as it is an area known for many missing persons and it is an area dotted with watery bodies..
ReplyDeleteif i recall correctly , in one of your post you mentioned a youngster who walk along the beach at night and met with a very beautiful and naked mermaid, have a conversation with her and he noticed how surreal it is to be in conversation with a beautiful mermaid who appears to have no inhibition about her nakedness.. i forgot which post is that though
ReplyDeleteDear Professor,
ReplyDeleteThat was interesting how Blackbeard's crew saw the mermaids as omens of bad luck. I was reading a Micmac legend that said that those who had the knowledge of merpeople (aka: Halfway People) songs could predict the weather. Maybe terrible weather is the bad omen the pirates were referring to?--Mrs. C
"...seems to be remaining just out of reach in these reports, though tantalizingly nearby."
ReplyDeleteYeah, sort of like Bigfoot, right?
C'mon professor: Mermaids? Really?
If this is your level of commentary on a simple open-ended exploration of a long-term concern of the human race, and one which could have a paranormal [not biological] reality base, then take your closed-minded trolling derisive cheap-shots elsewhere. The fact that your mind is too constricted to even tolerate an exploration speaks far more about you than it does the subject of the exploration. No one is asking you to read any of this, let alone post worthless unproductive lazy remarks.
Delete