"Once upon a time, in the season of opening buds, and the singing of birds, and the whistling of the breeze among the wild flowers, the people of our nation were much terrified at seeing a strange creature, much resembling a man, riding along the adjacent waves upon the back of a fish. He had upon his head long green hair, much resembling the coarse weeds which the mighty storms of the month of falling leaves root up from the bottom of the ocean, and scatter along the margin of the feathery strand where we now dwell. Upon his face, which was shaped like that of a porpoise, he had a beard of the colour of ooze. Around his neck hung a string of great sea-shells, upon his forehead was bound another made of the teeth of the cayman, and in his hand was a staff formed of the rib of a whale. But, if our people were frightened at seeing a man who could live in the water like a fish or a duck, how much more were they frightened when they saw, that from his breast down he was actually a fish, or rather two fishes, for each of his legs was a whole and distinct fish. And, when they heard him speak distinctly in their own language, and still more when he sang songs sweeter than the music of birds in spring, or the whispers of love from the lips of a beautiful maiden, they thought it a being from the Land of Shades, a spirit from the happy fishing grounds beyond the lake of storms, and ran into the woods like startled deer. And this was his song: SONG OF THE MAN-FISH. I live in the depths of brine, Where grows the green grass slim and tall, Among the coral rocks; And I drink of their crystal streams, and eat The year-old whale, and the mew; And I ride along the dark blue waves On the sportive dolphin's back; And I sink to rest in the fathomless caves, Beyond the sea-shark's track. I hide my head, in the pitiless storm, In caverns dark and deep; My couch of ooze is pleasant and warm, And soft and sweet my sleep. I rise again when the winds are still, And the waves have sunk to rest, And call, with my conch-shell, strong and shrill, My mate to the Salt Lake's breast.