MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A MERMAID AND WINGED CATS IN MADAGASCAR

Dear friends,

Muirhead`s Mysteries will be appearing in a somewhat different format from now on. It will be appearing every other day, i. e. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. This is due to the pressure of other commitments.

Our first story today is about a mermaid. Nothing particularly unusual about that, I hear you say (yes I have exceptional hearing, whether you`re in Heywood, Woolsery, or anywhere!). However, this one was white, which rather rules out many animals it could be. The story is from the Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, Nebraska) May 4th 1890:

'HERE`S A MERMAID AT LAST. W. W. Stanton, mate of the schooner Addie Schaefler, now lying at the Market House dock, while fishing for bass 300 miles off St.Augustine, drew in his line, and found entangled therein the strangest fish, if it is a fish, that has ever been caught, says a Jacksonville (Fla) dispatch to the New York Sun. This strange creature is about six feet long, pure white, and scaleless. The head and face are wonderfully human in shape and feature. The shoulders are well outlined, and very much resemble those of a woman, and the bosom is well defined and shows considerable development, while the hips and abdomen continue the human appearance. There are four flippers, two of which are placed at the lower termination of the body, and gave one the impression that nature made an effort to supply the strange creature with lower limbs. Mr Stanton confesses to quite a fright on first of his queer prize, which, on being drawn on board gave utterance to a low, moaning cry, which might easily have been mistaken for the sobbing of a baby.

'It is extremely unfortunate that Mr. Stanton did not succeed in keeping the creature alive, which he thinks might have been done, as the strange object lived two days after being taken. The schooner has been thronged all day by curious visitors, who express much wonder and astonishment at the strange object. Mr Stanton, after visiting several ports and showing his strange creature will donate it to the Smithsonian Institution. The fish or mermaid is in a large six-foot glass jar in alcohol' (1)

Could this have been a beluga, far beyond Arctic waters?

The next story dates from 16 years later and is even more improbable, if that were at all possible. It concerns winged cats in Madagascar as making an appearance in a letter to the New York Tribune of March 15th 1906: (Something tells me it is an elaborate hoax. You can judge.)

'Sir, Referring to your article in to-day`s paper, entitled “The Dog on Wheels” while it is extremely interesting as showing how the speed of animals may be accelerated by simple mechanical means it does not compare with the means which nature supplies to animals to adapt them to their environment, notably the winged cats with twisted tails like a screw, as found in Madagascar (which island, by the way, according to the researches made by Professor Russell Wallace *has flora and fauna found in no other country). These winged cats do not, like ours, prey on rats and mice, but exclusively on birds, and in order to secure their prey nature has provided them with wings like a bat, which are attached to their bodies directly over their front legs, and in addition they have spiral tails, which they revolve with a rapid motion to assist in their flight, and also to aid as a stearing apparatus, and they can in a few seconds soar to the top of the highest trees and capture birds twice there own size. Besides this, they are used by the natives as a kind of animated barometer, as before a storm they run about the fields flapping their wings and honking much as geese do now. Some two years ago a pair of these wonderful animals were imported by Professor Devoe, the weather prophet of Hackensack N. J. who is said to base all of his prognostications upon their movements and he has also bred from them a progeny which he sells off at a very high price, first of course giving ocular demonstrations of their power of flight to purchasers, but he has steadily refused to have them exhibited at the annual cat show held in this city, on the ground that it might reflect on his skill and veracity as an original weather prophet” “FITZ NIGLE”' (2)

* Russell Wallace co-operated with Darwin and was a spiritualist, amongst other things.

1 Omaha Daily Bee May 4th 1890 p.3
2 New-York Tribune March 15th 1906 p.7

Steeleye Span The Wife of Ushers Well

There lived a wife in Ushers Well
A wealthy wife was she
She had three stout and stalwart sons
And sent them o`er the sea
They had not been from Ushers Well
A week but barely one
When word came to this carlin wife
That her three sons were gone
I wish the wind may never cease
Nor flashes in the flood
Till my three sons return to me
In earthly flesh and blood..

Rich