THE DAILY PHOENIX — FEBRUARY 23, 1870
A mermaid is on exhibition at Benares the holy city of Bengal. There is no disception. Anybody can go and see the prodigy on payment of a single pice—a coin so small in value that Western nations would scorn to acknowledge it. The mermaid does not come up to the old descriptions and pictures of the creature, for there is nothing of the lovely woman about it. “It exactly resembles a fish covered with scales on the lower half, and a monkey having a head and two arms with fingers and nails in the upper half.” It was found in the sea near Japan, and the present owner gave 500 rupees for it about $300 of our currency. Another one was brought over at the same time, “as big as a man.” That fetched 1,400 rupees, or $340.
The Daily Phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.), 23 Feb. 1870. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
