Hence the scientific title "Sirenia" for
the family to which the dugong belongs. Unpoetical people as the coastal
blacks of Queensland are, yet they were among the few who had for
neighbours the shy creatures upon whose existence was founded the quaint
and engaging legends of the mermaid.
But now we make prosaic bacon from the mermaid's blubbery sides. And
those long tresses which she was wont to comb as she gloated over her
comeliness in her oval mirror and sang those alluring strains, so
soothing, so sweet, yet so deceiving--those wet and tangled locks, where
are they? Is the whole realm of Nature becoming bald? The hair
of the mermaid of to-day is coarse, short and spiky, with inches
between each sprout. For a comb she uses a jagged rock, or cruel coral;
for her vanity there is no semblance of pardon; and for her seductive
plaint, has it not degenerated into a gulping unmelodious sigh, as she
fills her capacious lungs with atmospheric air?
BECHE-DE-MERE
Anticipating the possibility of readers away from the Coral Sea, and to
whom no reference to the subject is available, wondering as to the form
and character of beche-de-mer, let it be said that the commonest kind in
these waters is an enormous slug, varying from 6 inches long by an inch
and a half in diameter, to 3 feet 6 inches by 4 inches.
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