NORDI S K MU S EOLO G I 1997•1 , S . 10 7- 116

AN EVENT OF CURIOSITY: WHEN A MERMAID FAKE CRAWLED ON A TV-SCREEN

Pilvi Vainonen

Curious things can happen when we put together two mysterious mermaid fakes from the South Sea, two imaginary American FBI agents, and an ordinary Finnish museum worka In an extraordinary way, this combination gave rise to some clues which led to some detective work concerning the origins ofthe two mermaid fakes in the National Museum ofFinland. Once upon a time Sea Captain O.W. Lind­ Japan .. » (Accounts 1863). And even holm was sailing along the Australian sho­ though it is not mentioned separately, it is re and in one coastal village he was shown known, that among these specimens was a a strange creature, half anthropomorphic, 35 cm long fake mermaid. half fish. He was told that it had drifted In 1867 the Zoological Museum moved dying to the beach some time ago. the mermaid Lindholm had brought to Although he had never seen such a mon­ the University's ethnographical collections ster before he knew immediately what it and a labelled it artificial. There this ugly was: a small but terrifying mermaid. He but impressive «sea animal» with long bought it and kept it as a horrible souve­ pointed nails and sharp teeth in its gaping nlf. jaws, set in a floating posture, was thought All this is fantasy. What we really know to be a fetish. The humanoid head and about Captain Lindholm is that he was an arms were presumed to be the upper body amateur naturalist and used to collect spe­ of a monkey, while the lower part is cimens for the Zoological Museum of the undoubtedly fish. The whole body is hard Alexander University of Helsinki. Some­ and dark brown. The ribs, the vertebrae of time between the years 1860-63, probably the backbone and the shape of the skull in 1860, he returned to Finland and dona­ can clearly be seen under the stretched, ted a large number of specimens to the dried skin. Zoological Museum. The collection inclu­ The ethnographical collections of the ded «... 28 sp. snakes and lizards, 44 sp. University moved in to the new National fish, a broader collection of lower animals Museum of Finland in 1912. And finally, including shells from different regions, having spent over 65 years alone in stora­ especially from the South Sea Islands and ge, far from home, the mermaid received a ,CRlf/R. .'l: I. St·ct. ll/.

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p Mermaid and fishes in a copper engravingfi'om Francois Valentijn's 011d en Niew Oost-Indien, 1724-26. companion: in 1925 another fake mer­ said Kaisa Granholm from the Exotica maid sailed in. It was moved from the collections of the National Museum. In Helsinki City Museum along with 92 the summer 1996 there was an opportuni­ other articles. Its route and when it arri­ ty to spook a wider public, since Exotica ved in Finland are unknown. Its appearan­ participated in an exhibition of curiosities ce greatly resembles the floating mermaid, in Helsinki. Curious and furious as they except that there are some differences in are, it was decided to put the the mer­ teeth, nails and skull, and it has slender maids on display. I worked in Exotica at tufts of hair on its skin. The posture is that time and was also introduced to also different: this one seems to be craw­ them. At first I was stunned, then overjoy­ ling as if it had been desperately trying to ed. Irrationally, it was difficult to believe escape at the moment of its death. that they were really man-made. ·· But the real shock came a few weeks later. THE OPENING OF THE X-FILE I was watching The X-Files on TV - an American cult series which I hadn't seen Indeed today the mermaid couple still before - and suddenly a drawing portraying look incredibly wild. «When we wanted to a crawling mermaid fake appeared on the spook somebody we show it to them», screen. It seemed to be very similar to the

Fishes, a sq11id and a mermaid in a copper engraving datingfi'om 1710 PILV! VA!NONEN

110 two mermaids in the National Museum. MONKEY BUSINESS The main characters, FBI agents Scully and Mulder, were told (and I also was listening P.T. Barnum relates in his autobiography most carefully) that it was a mermaid fake that he had hired the Fidzi or «Feejee» made of a mummified monkey and a fish, mermaid from a man, who in turn had and a certain Barnum Circus had displayed bought it from a poor sailor. The father of it in the USA in the 19th century. It was this sailor had been a sea captain - just called the «Fidzi mermaid». like O.W. Lindholm - and had bought A mummified monkey? This was already the mermaid in Calcutta from some the second hint that monkeys were invol­ Japanese sailors in 1822. The captain had ved. Whose fantastic idea had it been to believed so firmly in the authenticity of join together a mummified monkey and a the mermaid that he had paid 6000 US fish? Who had made these mermaids? All dollars for it. Unfortunately, the money kinds of questions arose in my mind. belonged to the shipping company, which Luckily, Phineas T. Barnum, the late direc­ was not equally sure about the mermaid. tor of the American Museum in New York, The poor captain had to work without was able to answer some of them. wages for the rest of his life, and when he

The halfhuman, half bird Sirens of Greek mythology are close relatives to mermaids. A merman ji-om India. The Matsya or «fish» is an incarnation ofthe Hindu god Vishnu. died he left his sailor son nothing but the pie lined up to see it, and after this success dried-up mermaid. But in Barnum'.s in New York it set out on a tour in USA. hands the creature turned into a goldmi­ Barnum was the leading clue in my ne. In 1842, in conjunction with the grea­ investigations. More than a hundred years test and the most crooked advertising after his death he helped to tame our two campaign ever seen, he put it on display as mermaids. Apart from his autobiography, a real mermaid in the New York Concert Barnum led me to a number of other Hall for one week, and then in his own sources, including P.F. von Siebold' s American Museum. For several weeks peo- important book which describes life in PILVI VAINONEN

112 Japan at the beginning of the 19th centu­ mense. Either this composite animal ry. Von Siebold tells a story he had heard (made by the fisherman), or another, the about a clever fisherman, who neatly uni­ offspring of the success of the first, was ted the upper half of a monkey to the sold to the Dutch factory (in Japan) and lower half of a fish. The man had told transmitted to Batavia, where it fell into people that he had himself caught the crea­ the hands of a shrewd American, who ture alive in his net, but that it had died brought it to Europe, and there, in the shortly after being taken out of its natural years 1822-3, exhibited his purchase as a element. The most elaborated detail in the real mermaid at every capital, to the admi­ story is that this half-human fish had ration of the ignorant, the perplexity of made a religious prediction before it died. the learned, and the filling of his own pur­ This Japanese fisherman also made a lot se.» (Von Siebold 1981, 185.) of money out of his monster, so we must conclude that the Americans were not the only ones clever at humbug. It is known ANATOMICAL INVESTIGATIONS that these kinds of mermaid fakes were manufactured in other parts of East Asia, Exhibiting 'real mermaids', or at least frag­ Melanesia and western Polynesia as well, ments of real mermaids, is however an even but perhaps Japan was the cradle: «The older phenomenon. In his book a Baroque sale of these pictured mermaids was im- literate, Athanasius Kircher, discusses the A N EVE N T OF C URI OS ITY

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These two mermaid fakes belong to the collections ofth e National M useum ofFinl and. Photo: Ritva Backman 1996 role of mermaids in Noah's ark, and writes reason these fakes are calledI Jenny that many museums exhibit the tails and Hanivers, and they were probably manu­ bones of these amphibians. It was said that factured in Europe. Sometimes they are the bones had a marvellous power to called, paradoxically, «Sea Bishops», staunch bleeding. (Goodman 1983, 43.) because the pectoral wings of the fish have The curiosity cabinets flourished in the been variously manipulated to give the middle of the 16th century and in this ear­ appearance of an ecclesiastical garment. ly period exotic, odd and monstrous exam­ (Jones et al. 1990, 85-6.) ples were collected as illustrations of God's But all bubbles burst sooner or later. warning to pious people through the creati­ While the Fidzi mermaid was on tour in on of such unnatural beings. 1843, discussion concerning its originality But it is certain that the motives of the grew louder. In general, the atmosphere manufacturers of the mermaid fakes were was propitious for this kind of debate, sin­ not at all so pious. Apparently older than ce the supporters of black slavery stood up the monkey-fish combinations are the for the divine plan and argued that diffe­ fakes made of rays, skates and other carti­ rent races had been created at separate laginous fish, which have been manipula­ times and formed distinctive species. Who ted to produce either anthropomorphic or could say that God had not also created dragon-like creatures. For an unknown mermaids? In Charleston a group of dis- PI LV I V A IN ONEN

114 tinguished scientists and naturalists inve­ Distinguished researchers Roni Anders­ stigated the mermaid, defied God and sta­ son and Mikko Haaramo from the ted, that «the mermaid was simply the Natural History Museum of the Univer­ body of a monkey sown together with a sity of Helsinki solved the problem by fish and done with very little regard to revealing, that the upper bodies were not anatomical accuracy, since there were pre­ from any kind of monkey at all, they were sent two chests and two abdomens» just fake monkeys. How clever: if we don't (Harris 1973, 65-66). have a mermaid, let's make one. And if we Our two mermaids began to feel more don't have a monkey, let's make a mon­ familiar. Yet I was eager to know the spe­ key! The teeth and the jaws of the floating cies of animals used in their manufacture, mermaid are from a lizard, and its nails because this could help to locate the are the quills of a porcupine. The crawling manufacturers. The tails were not from mermaid's jaws and teeth as well as the skates or rays, but what? And had the tails of both fakes are from sea perch. The upper bodies been made of two different nails of the crawling mermaid originally kind of monkeys, since the skulls and the belonged to a fowl. Their 'skins' are pro­ teeth were different? bably made of paper.

Captain Haddock and Tin tin came across a mermaid fake in a maritime shop in Paris. H erge 1944. Le Treso r de Racham le Ro uge. A N E V ENT O F C U R I OS ITY

BETWEEN CULTURE AND NATURE have given their charasteristics to the mer­ 115 maid. (See e.g. Benwell & Waugh 1961; It is no wonder that people started to Goodman 1983; Houlberg 1996.) materialize mermaids, originally products The nature of mermaids is ambiguous, of non-material culture, since different since there are two conflicting characteris­ kind of water spirits and beings have tics attributed to them. On the one hand always been found in the mythology of there is the sweetness and the promise of peoples living on riverbanks, coastal areas love, and on the other danger and death. and archipelagoes. Besides, it is not just a Their nature overlaps the categories of question of believing, it is also known that culture and nature: it is a feature common people have actually seen Sirens and mer­ to both Sirens and mermaids that they use maids! their calculating human heads and brains Christopher Columbus himself saw at the same time as their animal-like three mermaids cavorting off the coast of sexuality, caused by their animal lower Hispaniola in 1493. The dead body of a bodies, to entrap poor sailors. And they Siren called Parthenope was found washed never keep their promises. ashore in Campania and was buried there. We have seen that mermaid fakes also She gave her name to the city of Naples. can cause trouble. Even if there is nothing In the 6th century, a mermaid was caught sensuous in these particular fakes, one can and baptized in northern Wales. Another, believe that if they were more natural than in 1403, slipped through a breach in a cultural, if they were God's creations and dike and lived in Haarlem until the day of not products of human skill, they would her death. Nobody was able to understand surely be dangerous, if not charming. her speech but she was taught to weave They would be ready to bite an innocent and she worshipped the cross as if instinc­ swimmer with their nail-like teeth, or as a tively. (See Houlberg 1996, 32; Borges well-organized group to attack a canoe or 1987, 132-3.) a boat, and having succeeded in causing a Mermaids have many kind of relatives, shipwreck they would have had a feast at forefathers and 'foremothers' in different the cost of the unfortunate fishermen or cultures. The closest of them seems to be sailors .. . the Greek Sirens. In Indian mythology the­ re are the heavenly nymphs, the Apsaras. EPILOGUE The sanskrit name 'Apsara' means 'moving in the water'. The singing and playing of This is how we learned more about our the Apsaras charm passers-by, and their two little mermaids, combinations of sexual behaviour is rather loose. These cha­ perch and fake monkeys. However, the racteristics indicate a close historical relati­ question remains unanswered of how the onship between Apsaras, Sirens and mer­ manufacturing of these fantastic fakes maids. There are also many other spirits spread over so vast an area as it seems to and demigods for example in African, have done and of what kind of people the Philistinean, Babylonian and Sumerian manufacturers really were. What did they mythologies, both female and male, who really think about their products? Did PILVI VAINONEN

116 they compete over whose mermaid looked Greenberg Kenneth S. 1990. The Nose, the Lie, most fearful? The story of the Japanese fis­ and the Duel in the Antebellum South. The herman is the only account I have found American Historical Review Vol. 95 No. 1 to date concerning the living people February 1990 p. 57-74. American Historical behind these skilfully made artifacts. To Association. cite The X-Files: «The truth is out the­ Harris Neal 1973. Humbug. The Art ofP. T re ... »... and here, the curiosity remains. Barnum. Little, Brown and Co., Boston. Houlberg Marilyn 1996. Sirens and Snakes. Water Spirits in the Arts of Haitian Vodou. African Arts ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Spring 1996 p. 30-35. Jones Mark, Paul Craddock and Nicolas Barker I'd like to thank all who have helped to trace the (eds) 1990. Fake? The Art ofDeception. Trustees origins of the mermaid fakes, especially Roni of the British Museum, London. Andersson and Mikko Haaramo from the Natural Leikola Anto 1992. Seireenien taru: syojatarlinnuis­ History Museum of the University of Helsinki; ta pikku merenneidoiksi. Portti 411992 p. 78-85. Sergio Ocambo, student of cultural anthropology at Helsinki. the University of Helsinki; Heli Lahdentausta, Pirjo Redogiirelse for Kejserliga Alexander-Universitetets i Varjola, Kaisa Cronholm and Marjatta Parpola Finland 1860-1863. J.C. Frenckell & Son, from the Exotica collections of the National Helsingfors. Museum of Finland; and Aila Viholainen, the pio­ von Siebold P.R.1981 (1841). Manners and neer of mermaid studies in Finland. Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Cent111y. Charles E. Tuttle Co., Tokyo. Vainonen Pilvi 1996. Mista tulet, merenneito? REFERENCES AND L!TERA TURE Kuukausiliite heiniikuu 1996 p. 34-36. Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki. Barnum P.T. 1888. Life ofP. T Bamum Written by Viholainen Aila 1996. Merenneito on coista kuin Himself The Courier Company Printers, Buffalo. ihminen. In: Riikka Puronen, Rolf E.A. Benwell Gwen and Arthur Waugh 1961. Sea Nordstrom and Aila Viholainen, Merenneidot Enchantress. The Tale ofthe Mermaid and her 1996 p. 7-8, 11-12, 15-20. Helsinki. Kin. Hutchinson, London. Werner M.R. 1923. Barnum. Harcourt, Brace and Borges Jorge Luis 1987 ( 1967). The Book of Co., New York. Imaginary Beings. Penguin Books, Harmonds­ worth. Dance S. Peter 1978. The Art ofNatuml History. Pilvi Vainonen, MA, gmduated from Department of The Overlook Press, Woodstock. Cultural Anthropology, University ofHelsinki . Dictionmy ofAmerican Biography Vol. I 1928. Working on doctoral dissertation about how objects Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, are turned into museum objects. New York. Adr: Linnankatu 5 A 3, Goodman Ailene S. 1983. The Extraordinary FIN-00160 Helsinki 16, Finland Being: Death and the Mermaid in Baroque Fax +358-940501 Literature. journal ofPopular Culture Vol. 17 No. 3 Winter 1983 p. 32-48.