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Sirens
By Norman Douglas
IT was the Emperor Tiberius who startled his grammarians with
the question, what songs the Sirens sang. I suspect he knew
more about the matter than they did, for he was a Sirenworshipper
all his life, though fate did not allow him to indulge
his genius till those last few years which he spent among them
on the rock-islet of, Capri. The grammarians, if they were
prudent, doubtless referred him to Homer, who has preserved
a portion of their lay.
Whether Sirens of this true kind are in existence at the
present day is rather questionable, for the waste places of earth
have been reclaimed and the sea's untrampled floor is examined
and officially reported upon. But not long ago some such
creatures were still found. Jacobus Noierus relates that in
1403 a Siren was captured in the Zuider Zee. She was brought
to Haarlem and, being naked, allowed herself to be clothed ;
she learned to eat like a Dutchman ; she could spin thread
and take pleasure in other maidenly occupations ; she was gentle
and lived to a great age. But she never spoke. The honest
burghers had no knowledge of the language of the sea-folk to
enable them to teach her their own tongue, so she remained
mute to the end of her days—a circumstance to be regretted,
since, excepting in the Arab tale of Julnar the Sea-born, little
information has been handed down to us regarding the conversational
and domestic habits of mediaeval Sirens.
In the royal archives of Portugal, too, are preserved the
records of a costly litigation between the Crown and the Grand
Master of the Order of St. James, as to who should possess the
Sirens cast up by the sea on the Grand Master's shores. The
suit ended in the king's favour : Be it enacted : That Sirens and
other Marine Monsters ejected by the waves upon land owned by
the Grand Master shall pass into the possession of the King. This
would show that Sirens were then fairly plentiful. And one of
the best authenticated cases is that recorded by the veracious
Captain John Smith—he of Pocahontas fame. " I cannot here
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