Is seeing believing? Or does believing mean seeing only what you want to?
A post over at Curious Expeditions on the fascinating story of the Feejee Mermaid, a merman with a long history, made me think about some earlier beasts of the sea. Ambroise Pare’s 16th- century Monsters and Prodigies includes a number of illustrations of aberrant fish monsters, mermen, and this stunning “sea devil” (above).
The Feejee Mermaid was eventually outed as a hoax, and one of several mermen sits in an Austrian folklore museum. I’m having a hard time figuring out which one is ugliest. This guy up here or the one in living color. Care to share your opinion?
