Mermaids have often been mentioned in legends and folklore stories, each giving an individual twist to the identity and characteristics of the organism. Some have supposed them to be devils or spirits in regard to the whooping noise that they make.". In the case of one such myth—the presence of mermaids—the story of how the legend came to be is almost as interesting as the myth itself! THE DUGONG.From Sir J. Emerson Tennent's 'Ceylon'. Mermaids were sought after by collectors and showmen alike to draw crowds, as P.T. Even the British Museum down the road boasts having its own mermaid. While manatees can be very graceful in the water, they typically weigh in at over 1000 pounds and their faces are not easy to mistake for a woman’s face. Myths in the Museum: The Dugong and the Mermaid, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT Tel: +44 (0) 20 7679 2000. 15 myths, legends and facts about mermaids – A mermaid is a female creature which is half-human and half-fish. Today it is confined in exceedingly small numbers to restricted areas in a range that spans the waters of 37 countries throughout the Indo-Pacific region, including 
Sri Lanka's Gulf of Mannar. Photographer Brian Skerry reveals the creatures once believed to be mermaids. An illustration of a Dugong. Martin's Game of Thrones franchise, the dire wolf is far more than a popular legend. Words Richard Boyle "Over the tranquil sea of the Gulf of Mannar the morning breeze blew fresh. Found in warm Indo-Pacific waters, dugongs can … Mermaid Myth Dugong Cruise, Monkey Mia Introduction Spend the afternoon on the 60 foot catamaran “Shotover” in search of the mysterious dugong; the only wildlife sailing cruise in Australia to offer scheduled “mermaid” (dugong) watching cruises. as they say they saw her, but her body as big as one of us. There’s a 2.7-meter-long skeleton of a big underwater creature in the Grant Museum of Zoology, right when you enter the main room. The dugong is an aquatic animal and has a tail like a mermaid. Filed under Current Engagers, Jen Datiles, Museum Collections, Myths in the Museum, Tags: Grant Museum, museums, Myths in the Museum, natural history, UCL Researchers in Museums, […] is the third segment in the Myths in the Museum series; you can go back and read about the dugong and mermaid, and the narwhal and […], […] Myths in the Museum: The Dugong and the Mermaid […], Myths in the Museum: The Iron-Eater and the Ostrich Egg, Multispectral Imaging of Leonardo da Vinci Drawings, ‘Writing the Law’ Launches at Lambeth Palace Library, Student Engagers Win ‘Oscars of Science Journalism!’. The dugong, or ia tekwa in the Lau language, is a taboo animal for the people of Bailangi and Buni tribes. Myth Stories about Mermaids. Now I just heard on TV (the Spike show "MANswers, not the most reliable of sources, perhaps) that the female dugong has genitals most similar to the human female, and they either implied or said outright that sailors would doink them. The myth of humanlike water spirits has perpetuated over the centuries. The manatee might not have fooled some sharper-eyed sailors, and it probably wasn't the reason that mermaid legends (in general) were born. Because Sailors used to mistake them for mermaids. As the animal dives, the nostrils close automatically, and it can remain submerged for upwards of five minutes. The tropical, sheltered waters provide a highly desirable habitat for a number of marine creatures, making it one of the richest coastal regions in Asia. ...It is not surprising that early mariners who caught a glimpse of this strange creature began to speculate on its identityThe mermaid, a beautiful girl to her waist but a fish from the waist down, and her male counterpart, the merman, are still among the most popular of legendary creatures, especially in Northern Europe. I’ve always heard that manatees and dugongs were the source of the siren and mermaid myths. The Indonesian legend of the sea mermaid originates from Syria. In Sri Lanka it is commonly referred to as "sea-pig" (elsewhere as "sea-cow" even "sea-camel"), a translation of both the Sinhala name muda ura and Tamil name kadel pardi. Rarely exceeding three metres in length, it belongs to Sirenia, an order of aquatic mammals with forelimbs modified as flippers and a horizontally-flattened tail. Mermaid has a very beautiful face, long and curly hair, with alluring voice. Words Richard Boyle "Over the tranquil sea of the Gulf of Mannar the morning breeze blew fresh. The word mermaid comes from the words mer (sea) and maid (girl). The Little Mermaid. So it is of interest that during the past the Island and its surrounding sea, especially the Gulf of Mannar, were firmly linked with mermaid-lore and sightings of mermaid-like creatures. The idea of mermaid-like creatures might not have totally originated with manatees; it could just be that manatees -- when spotted -- fit the bill. The equivalent term in Old English was merewif. The Truth And The Myth About Mermaid. Photographer Brian Skerry reveals the creatures once believed to be mermaids. Though common today as a dance in its own right... Over the tranquil sea of the Gulf of Mannar the morning breeze blew fresh. There’s a 2.7-meter-long skeleton of a big underwater creature in the Grant Museum of Zoology, right when you enter the main room. It was a scene of breathless beauty, a glory of the firmament that whispered to the heart of man: It is God.". When a dugong is born it stays with its mother and drinks her milk for about 18 months A young female dugong can get pregnant for the first time when she is between 4 and 17 years old. An entity born from the imagination of man, it is but a legend. Shark Bay is one of the world’s largest and most secure population of this endangered mammal species. A lesser known cousin of the manatee, the dugong (Malay for “lady of the sea”) is said to have inspired ancient mermaid legends. The Evening Independent, 30 March 1984, pp. Christopher Columbus reported seeing mermaids near Haiti in 1493, and the English explorer Henry Hudson (namesake of New York’s Hudson River) gave a vivid description of the mermaid his crew apparently saw off the coast of Greenland in 1608: “From the navill upward her backe and breasts were like a woman’s, This contradicts the older tradition, expressed so eloquently by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595): Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back,Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song, And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid's music. They protect and preserve marine life. As Rita Dal Martello has written on our blog before, dugongs and manatees both belong to the animal genus Sirenia, and share the common name ‘sea cow’. Journal of Museum Ethnography, (27): 98-116. September 2013. This was allowed to be submitted to the members of the Philosophical Society, when it proved to be the Dugong,” as written in England’s Magazine of Natural History. Known as the guardian of the water. Being a slow-moving vegetarian that prefers localized habitats in shallow waters around bays and inlets, and with no means of defence, the dugong is a victim of pollution, accidental netting, and indiscriminate fishing. NG Live! 15 myths, legends and facts about mermaids – A mermaid is a female creature which is half-human and half-fish. Dugongs, manatees (Trichechus spp.) Was it for real? tayle of a porposse, and speckled like a macrell.”, An 1817 coloured engraving of mermaids. skin very white, and long haire hanging downe behind of colour Dugongs mostly feed at night, especially in areas where there is human interference with their activities. ", According to John Shaw, author of Speculum Mundi (1635), the song of the mermaid was not as tuneful as was popularly supposed, "But above all the Mermaids and Men-fish seem to me the most strange fish in the waters. That it is shy, elusive, and thus cannot be easily observed, adds to the problem. Mit einer ausführlichen Erklärung. Pliny the Elder dedicated an entire chapter of his 1st century book The Natural History to write on the forms of tritons and nereids, describing that “in them, the portion of the body that resembles the human figure is still rough all over with scales.” In the pacific island nation of Palau, where a 3,000-year-old cave drawing of dugongs was found, legends of young women transforming into sea creatures have been passed down over the years; the word dugong, in fact, derives from Malay for ‘lady of the sea’. ... We believed that dugong was once a human, according to the legend." Sri Lanka cannot afford to lose the dugong, 
the mermaid of the Gulf of MannarSo perfectly located are these openings that no other part of either the head or body breaks the water's surface when a surreptitious breath is taken. Read more about the study, and other animals thought to be pure myth. Barnum famously did with the ‘Feejee Mermaid’. The Gulf of Mannar was well frequented by sailing craft from time immemorial, so it is not surprising that early mariners who caught a glimpse of this strange creature began to speculate on its identity. It was in such a rapturous fashion that the late Dr Richard Spittel, Sri Lanka's renowned wildlife conservationist, anthropologist, 
and surgeon, once described the Gulf of Mannar, a unique corner of the Indian Ocean nestling between northern 
Sri Lanka and the south-eastern tip of India. The Dugong: Mermaid Myth, Modern Reality . It’s not surprising, then, that sailors spotted these animals from their ship’s deck. They are conventionally depicted as beautiful with long flowing hair. The manatee—along with its Pacific Ocean counterpart, the dugong—comes from the order sirenia. The dugong skeleton making waves (Grant Museum, Z33). And yet the mermaid is not recognized formally as a true marine creature. The way that dugongs rest, with their heads above the waves, may have been the inspiration for the myth of the mermaid. I’ve always heard that manatees and dugongs were the source of the siren and mermaid myths. Mermaids have often been mentioned in legends and folklore stories, each giving an individual twist to the identity and characteristics of the organism. By Jen Datiles, on 21 July 2018. A Mermaid by John Waterhouse, 1900. For ages, it has been forbidden to eat dugong. We’re Finalists for a Science Journalism Award! On my first Saturday shift as a PhD museum engager, a 7-year-old boy stopped to point and ask his mom what this monster was, and why it had hands. Unlike their Western counterparts, the Japanese ningyo, in general, are much less attractive. Ask most children and adults, this would be their first memory of a mermaid. The drastic reduction in the range of the dugong, as well as its uncertain survival as a species, is due mainly to its vulnerability. The Viceroy's physician who dissected the carcasses in Goa is quoted as having pronounced their internal structure to be "in all respects conformable to the human". These shy and endangered marine mammals are thought by some to be the inspiration for the mermaid myth and can be found in the whole Indo-Pacific region. Seeing the reality in a personal myth could also be just as confronting. The answer, it turns out, is stuffed papier-mache, wire, fish teeth, scales, carved bone and wood! A recent study in Nature has discovered how genetically distinct this prehistoric carnivore actually was. Valentyn, a Dutch chaplain, gives detailed descriptions of them in his account of the Netherlands Possessions in the Indian Subcontinent (1727). The blue unruffled sheet stretched to the low horizon where it met the vast immensity of the pastel sky, with its soft cloud masses as motionless as in a picture. Since then, people of the two tribes have refrained from eating dugong. They resemble a walrus, related to the elephant, called a sea-cow and growing to three metres and weighing up to 400 kilograms. The myth of sirens, which goes back to the civilization of ancient Greece, is as much aged as dugongs are, of which remains dating from 6000 years ago have been found. Dugong is derived from the Malay name for the animal, duyong, meaning "lady of the sea". Scintillating Stones from the Island of Gems, Post Conflict Sri Lanka: Challenges and Regional Stability. The endangered dugong is nature's only vegetarian sea mammal. For you see mermaids are listed in mythology while manatees and dugongs are known and documented creatures of the sea. Closely linked with the mermaid myth, these alert, shy and curious creatures can live up to 70 years. Nonetheless, three species of manatees and the one dugong species form the animal order of Sirenia, so named in honor of the ‘drunk and lonely sailor’ t… Origins. Ask Question Log in. What is a Dugong? It is termed thus due to its propensity to eat sea-grass - in the Gulf of Mannar the underwater pastures of the genus Cymodocea. : The Mermaid Myth. I have known stray specimens to be caught about Dondra and Matara.". The dugong is said to be the origin of the mermaid myth. The Myth of the Mermaids The word ‘Dugong’ is derived from the Malay word for the animal ‘Duyung’ which means ‘lady of the sea’ or ‘mermaid’. "Over the tranquil sea of the Gulf of Mannar the morning breeze blew fresh. "From above, the curves of a dugong apparently looked like a woman to sailors." While manatees can be found in estuarine and fresh waters, dugongs are strictly marine mammals. The siren is a distinct classification of aquatic sea life with special characteristics and all of the characteristics are a direct parallel of the mermaid. Dugongs are slimmer than their cousins, but this is relative — they still can grow to 3 meters in length and weigh up to a whopping 1000 kg! We all know who he is, Jermaine Jackson, needs no introduction. Fantasy and the imagination may need a good workout with the appearance of these creatures. There is a theory that mermaid legends came about as a result of (presumably very drunk and very lonely) sailors mistaking manatees or dugongs (salt-water relatives of manatees) for attractive women with fish tails. Merfolk (mermaids and mermen) are, of course, the marine version of half-human, half-animal legends that have captured human imagination for ages. 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