Norman Douglas - Siren Land

Title: Siren Land

Author: Norman Douglas

* A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook *

eBook No.: 0300571.txt

Language: English

Date first posted: March 2003

Date most recently updated: March 2003

First published 1911

NEW AND REVISED EDITION

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company 1923

Printed in Great Britain

I. SIRENS AND THEIR ANCESTRY

II . UPLAN DS OF SORRENTO

III. THE SIREN ISLETS

IV . TIBERIUS

V. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE BLUE GROTTO

VI . BY THE SHORE

VII. THE COVE OF CRAPOLLA

VIII RAIN ON THE HILLS

IX . THE LIFE OF SISTER SERAFINA

X. OUR LADY OF THE SNOW

XI . ON LEISURE

XII. CAVES OF SIREN LAND XIII THE HEADLAND OF MINERVA INDEX [ omitted for this electronic edition]

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 th an they did, for he was a Siren-worshipper 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 Ho mer, 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 report ed upon. Not so long ago some such creatures were still found. Jacobus Noierus relates that in 1403 a Siren was captured in the Zuider Sea. 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 conversa tional and domestic habits of mediaeval Sirens.

In the royal archives of Portugal are preserved the records of a costly litigation between the Crown and the Grand Master of the Order of Saint James, as to who should possess the Sirens cast up by the sea o n the Grand Master's shores. The suit ended in the ting'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 th en 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 omit to mention," says he, "the admirable creature of God which in the year 1610 I saw with these my ow n eyes. I happened to be standing, at daybreak, on the shore not far from the harbour of St. John, when I observed a marine monster swiftly swimming towards me. Lovely was her shape; eyes, nose, ears, cheeks, mouth, neck, forehead, and the whole face was a s that of the fairest maiden; her hair, of azure hue, fell over her shoulders...." Altogether, a strange fish. The rest of the quotation will be found in Gottfried's _Historia Antipodum_.

Consult also Gessner, Rondeletius, Scaliger, and other good folks, from whose relations it appears evident that Sirens were common enough in their days and, doubtless for that reason, of little repute; for whatever is common becomes debased, as the very word "vulgar" proves. This perhaps helps to explain their fishy termi nation, for the oldest Sirens were of bird kind. The change took place, I imagine, about the time of Saint Augustine, when so many pagan shapes began to affect new vestments and characters, not always to their advantage. It influenced even those born in He llenic waters, whom we might have supposed to have remained more respectable and conservative than the others.

Thus Theodorus Gaza, whose name is a guarantee of good faith and intelligence--did he not write the first Greek grammar?--once related in a larg e and distinguished company (Pontanus was also present) how that, after a great storm in the Peloponnesus, a sea-lady was cast up with other jetsam on the beach. She was still alive and breathing hard; her face and body were "absolutely human" and not unco mely. Immediately a large concourse of people gathered round, but her sighs and heaving breast plainly showed how embarrassed she was by their vulgar curiosity. Presently she began to cry outright. The compassionate scholar ordered the crowd to move away and escorted her, as best he could, to the water's edge. There, throwing herself into the waves with a mighty splash, she vanished from sight. This one, again, partook rather of the nature of a fish than of a bird.

In Greece, too, Sirens of every kind ha ve ceased to sing.

I remember a long-drawn, golden evening among the Cyclades. A spell had fallen over all things; the movement of Nature seemed to be momentarily arrested; there was not a sound below, but, overhead, the sunbeams vibrated with tuneful melodies, Janko, the fisherman, had dropped his oars, and our boat, the only moving object in that preternatural stillness, was drawn by an invisible hand towards the ruddy pool in the west. But athwart our path lay a craggy islet, black and menacing against the background of crimson conflagration. Soon it came in upon us in swarthy confusion of rock and cloven ravine, a few gleams of emerald in its sheltered recesses. Here if anywhere, methought, Sirens might still dwell unm olested. The curly-pated rascal steered with cunning hand towards a Lilliputian inlet; like a true Greek, he appreciated curiosity in every form. But he resolutely refused to set foot on shore. I began my explorations alone, concluding that he had visited the place before.

It was no Siren islet. It was an islet of fleas. I picked them off my clothes in tens, in hundreds, in handfuls. Never was mortal nearer jumping out of his skin. Janko was surprised and shocked.

Now, whether these fleas had inhabited th e island from time immemorial, being degenerate descendants of certain heroic creatures that sailed thither in company of Jason and his Argonauts, or had been left there by shipwrecked mariners of modern days; how it came about that they multiplied to the exclusion of every other living thing; what manner of food was theirs--whether, anthropophagous-wise, they preyed upon one another or had learned to content themselves with the silvery dews of morning, like Anacreon's cicada, or else had acquired the faculty of long fasting between rare orgies such as they enjoyed on that afternoon: these and other questions have since occurred to me as not unworthy of consideration. Mr. Hudson, in his _La Plata_, has vexed himself with similar problems. But at th at moment I was far too busy to give any thought to such matters.

Ay, they have deserted Greece, the Sirens. It was never more than a half-way house to them. But they stayed there long enough to don new clothes and habits. Nothing indeed ever entered tha t little country but came out rejuvenated and clarified. A thousand turbid streams, pouring into Hellas from every side, issued thence grandly, in a calm and transparent river, to fertilise the world. So it was with the Sirens. Like many things, they were only an importation, one of the new ideas that, following the trade routes, crept in to feed the artistic imagination of the Greeks. Now that we know a little something of the ancient civilisations of countries like Egypt and Phoenicia that traded with Gr eece, we can appreciate the wonderful Hellenic genius for borrowing and adapting. Hermes, the intelligent thief, is a typical Greek. For whatever they stole or appropriated--religions, metals, comforts of life, architecture, engineering--they stole with ex quisite taste; they discarded the dross and took only what was of value. All traces of the theft quickly vanished; it looked absurd, as Monsieur du Presle has pointed out, to acknowledge indebtedness to others for things which they might as well have inve nted themselves. For the rest, the stolen material was re-modelled till its original creator could hardly have recognised it.