Note 29 — CHAP. VI.

The above-mentioned author calls the first of these monsters Havestramb, or Mer-man, and describes it to have the likeness of a man, as to the head, face, nose, and mouth; save that its head was oblong and pointed like a sugar-loaf; it has broad shoulders, and two arms without hands; the body downwards is slanting and thin; the rest below the middle, being hid in the water, could not be observed. The second monster he calls Margya, or Mer-woman, or Mermaid, had from the middle upwards the shape and countenance of a woman; a terrible broad face, a pointed forehead, wrinkled cheeks, a wide mouth, large eyes, black untrimmed hair, and two great breasts, which showed her sex; she has two long arms, with hands and fingers joined together with a skin, like the feet of a goose; below the middle she is like a fish, with a tail and fins. The fishermen pretend, that when these sea monsters appear, it forebodes stormy weather. The third monster, named Hafgufa, is so terrible and frightful, that the author does not well know how to describe it; and no wonder, because he never had any true relation of it: its shape, length, and bulk, seems to exceed all size and measure. They that pretend to have seen it, say, it appeared to them more like a land than a fish, or sea animal. And as there never has been seen above two of them in the wide open sea, they conclude, that there can be no breed of them; for if they should breed and multiply, all the rest of fishes must be destroyed at last, their vast body wanting such large quantity of nourishment. When this monster is hungry, it is said to void through the mouth some matter of a sweet scent, which perfumes the whole sea; and by this means it allures and draws all sorts of fishes and animals, even the whales to it, who in whole droves flock thither, and run into the wide opened swallow of this hideous monster, as into a whirlpool, till its belly be well freighted with a copious load of all sorts of fishes and animals, and then it shuts the swallow, and has for the whole year enough to digest and live upon; for it is said to make but one large meal a year. This, though a very silly and absurd tale, is nevertheless matched by another story, every whit as ridiculous, told by my own countrymen, fishermen in the Northern part of Norway. They tell you, that a great ghastly sea monster now and then appears in the main sea, which they call Kracken, and is no doubt the same that the islanders call Hafgufa, of which we have spoken above. They say, that its body reaches several miles in length; and that it is most seen in a calm; when it comes out of the water, it seems to cover the whole surface of the sea, having many heads and a number of claws, with which it seizes all that comes in its way, as fishing boats with men and all, fishes and animals, and lets nothing escape; all which it draws down to the bottom of the sea. Moreover they tell you that all sorts of fishes flock together upon it, as upon a bank of the sea, and that many fishing boats come thither to catch fish, not suspecting that they lie upon such a dreadful monster, which they at last understand by the intangling of their hooks and angles in its body; which the monster feeling, rises softly from the bottom to the surface, and seizes them all; if in time they do not perceive him and prevent their destruction, which they may easily do, only calling it by its name, which it no sooner hears, but it sinks down again as softly as it did rise. They tell you of another sea spectre, which they call the Draw, who keeps to no constant shape or figure, but now appears in one, now in another. It appears and is heard before any misfortunes, as shipwrecks and the like, happen at sea, which it forebodes with a most frightful and ghastly howling; and they say it sometimes utters words like a man. It most commonly diverts itself, in putting all things out of order, after the fishermen are gone at night to rest; and then he leaves behind him a nasty stench. The fishermen will not suffer the truth of this tale to be questioned, but pretend it is confessed. But the most superstitious among them go yet a step farther, and will make you believe, that there appears to them another kind of sea phantom, in the shape of a child in swadling clothes, which they call Marmel, and sometimes draw him out of the sea with their angling hook, when he speaks to them with a human voice. They carry him to their home, and at night they put him into one of their boots, there to rest. In the morning, when they go a fishing again, they take him along with them in their boats, and before they let him go, they set him a task to inform them of all they want to know, upon which they dismiss him.