nts believed as part of the physical
world, was a different being from the deity. He was the classical
Merman. The term _Nereid_ was used confusedly to express the female of
the Triton, or the Mermaid.

The passage, in his "Natural History," where Pliny speaks of the Triton,
indicates that the existence of such an animal was not universally
admitted. It is prefaced thus:--"The vulgar notion may very possibly be
true, that whatever is produced in any other department of Nature may be
found in the sea as well." We are then told that a deputation of persons
from Olisipo, (the present Lisbon,) that had been sent for the purpose,
brought word to the Emperor Tiberius that a Triton had been both seen
and heard in a certain cavern, blowing a conch-shell, and that he was of
the form in which Tritons are usually represented.

This is so simple and meagre as to read like an extract from some diary
or annals; and the mere existence of such a passage seems to be good
evidence that something, at the least, like a Triton, was certainly
seen. For Pliny was sufficiently near to this time to know whether such
a deputation had come to Rome, and would scarcely have volunteered a
falsehood; so that the deputation may reasonably be granted. Then the
distance from Lisbon to Rome was so great, particularly in that
ante-railroad time, and the general interest in the Merman so little,
that it does not seem possible a deputation should be sent that distance
"for the purpose" only of presenting this information, unless the proof
of the object seen was of the most convincing character to those by whom
the deputation was sent.

It is to be regretted that Pliny did not give at more length the
statement of this early scientific commission. He does not leave the
subject immediately, however, but says,--

"I have some distinguished informants of equestrian rank, who state that
they themselves once saw in the Ocean of Gades a sea-man which bore in
every part of his body a perfect resemblance to a human being; and that
during the night he would climb up into ships, upon which the side of
the vessel where he seated himself would instantly sink downward, and,
if he remained there any considerable time, even go under water."

Gades was Cadiz, and the Ocean of Gades was that part of the Atlantic
lying south and west of Spain and west of Africa. The statement of the
Merman's boarding a ship is, a little singularly, to be found as well in
the ballad of the