for the creature continued to make a musical noise during the two minutes he gazed at it, and, on perceiving him, disappeared in an instant. [Illustration: FIG. 13.--A JAPANESE ARTIFICIAL MERMAID.] The universality of the belief in an animal of combined human and fish-like form is very remarkable. That it exists amongst the Japanese we have evidence in their curious and ingeniously-constructed models which are occasionally brought to this country. I have one of these which is so exactly the counterpart of that which my friend Mr. Frank Buckland described, originally in _Land and Water_, and which forms the subject of a chapter in his 'Curiosities of Natural History,'[57] that the portrait of the one (Fig. 13) will equally well represent the other. The lower half of the body is made of the skin and scales of a fish of the carp family, and fastened on to this, so neatly that it is hardly possible to detect where the joint is made, is a wooden body, the ribs of which are so prominent that the poor mermaid has a miserable and half-starved appearance. The upper part of the body is in the attitude of a Sphinx, leaning upon its elbows and fore-arms. The arms are thin and scraggy, and the fingers attenuated and skeleton-like. The nails are formed of small pieces of ivory or bone. The head is like that of a small monkey, and a little wool covers the crown, so thinly and untidily that if the mermaid possessed a crystal mirror she would see the necessity for the vigorous use of her comb of pearl. The teeth are those of some fish--apparently of the cat-fish, (_Anarchicas lupus_). These Japanese artificial mermaids have brought many a dollar into the pockets of Mr. Barnum and other showmen. [57] Third Series, vol. ii. p. 134, 2nd ed. Somewhat different in appearance from this, but of the same kind, was an artificial mermaid described in the _Saturday Magazine_ of June 4th, 1836. Fig. 14 is a facsimile of the woodcut which accompanied it. This grotesque composition was exhibited in a glass case, some years previously, "in a leading street at the west end" of London. It was constructed "of the skin of the head and shoulders of a monkey, which was attached to the dried skin of a fish of the salmon kind with the head cut off, and the whole was stuffed and highly varnished, the better to deceive the eye." It was said to have been "taken by the crew of a Dutch vessel from on board a native Malacca boat, and from the reverence shown to it, it was supposed to be a representative of one of their idol gods." I am inclined to think that it was of Japanese origin. [Illustration: FIG. 14.--AN ARTIFICIAL MERMAID, PROBABLY JAPANESE.]