In Poland, photographs of a real mermaid are made, which military personnel conceal from prying eyes ...
Mermaids are creatures, legends about which can be found in the mythology of peoples living in all parts of the world. Wherever there are some ponds - lakes, seas or oceans, local mythology keeps the stories about the mysterious inhabitant of the depths. Calling them fabulous characters with absolute certainty can not even be atheists and religious figures, because at least once in a decade there are shocking proofs of the existence of mermaids.
Where do mermaids come from and how do they look?
The siren, the undina, the naiad, the mavka are many names of the same creature, which in Slavic history was called "mermaid". The ancestor of this term was the word "channel", denoting the path laid by the river flow. It was believed that it was there that the lost souls of unbaptized infants who had died at the Troitsk week lived, girls who had sunk or committed suicide before marriage, and also decided to become the keeper of the waters of their own volition.
To this day, in some villages of the Old Believers, legends live that if the fairer sex does not have a good life on earth because of loneliness, poverty or the death of parents, she can ask the forest spirits to take her to her marsh or lake, to find eternal peace.
Folk beliefs attribute mermaids the ability to reincarnate in animals - birds, frogs, squirrels, hares, cows or rats. But more familiar to them is the look of a young girl or woman, who instead of her legs can see a long tail resembling a fish. In Little Russia and Galicia, people believed that a mermaid could turn him into a leg if he wished. By the way, the Greeks had a similar idea: they depicted sirens exclusively as beautiful maidens, no different from ordinary girls. To understand that before him was a siren, and not a young charmer, the sailor could only come face to face with his own death: the sirens lured the men with seductive singing and mercilessly killed.
In the opinion of all nationalities, mermaids wear hair only from loose hair. This feature in ancient times allowed to distinguish living girls from paranormal creatures. The fact is that Christians have always covered their heads with a handkerchief, so simplex is a sign that there is a mermaid in front of a man. In the church books of Ukraine the record of a girl who left the house on the eve of the wedding and became a mermaid has been preserved. Her father understood everything when he saw her at night near the house with curls spilling over her shoulders and "married" her with a pillar so her soul would not bother him more.
Real eyewitness stories about mermaids
It is known that the object of their hunting water nymphs are chosen exclusively by men. In Scotland and Ireland, so far, some of them always carry a needle with them to prick a mermaid, who is afraid of stoned iron as a fire, in an attack, in order to save his life. A meeting with her is dangerous for life, because this creature will try to lure the victim to the depths and drown or tickle to death. But stories are known stories of the lucky ones who miraculously survived after communicating with the mermaid.
The first documented mention of it refers to the XII century. Icelandic chronicles Speculum Regale report a woman with a fish tail, which was caught and imprisoned in the cage residents of the coastal village. It is not known whether she knew how to speak and whether she survived after meeting with superstitious crosses, but eyewitnesses said she had time to give the name Marguer.
In 1403 in Holland, the author of the book "Wonders of nature, or a collection of extraordinary and notes of worthy phenomena and adventures in the whole world of bodies, arranged in alphabetical order" and the collector of rarities of Sigot de la Fonda, meets a girl whom people found on the beach when she asked for assistance. She had a fin, besides she was thrown out during a storm, so she was given the name of Nereid. The mermaid was brought to the city, taught to prepare food, wash and take care of the cattle. It is known that Nereid spent more than 15 years with people - and every day she tried to return home, to the sea. Once she all the same swam away, and not learning to speak and understand the human language.
On June 16, 1608, seafarer Henry Hudson, whose name was later called the Strait, set off on a journey with a group of sailors. On the first day in the open sea, far from civilization, they saw a girl rocking on the waves singing a charming voice.
"A young beauty with a bare breast, black hair and a mackerel's tail, to which we never dared to approach."
So later the sailors wrote in the onboard magazine. Learning about this case, Peter I asked advice from the clergy from Denmark, whether it is possible to believe in these stories. Episcon Francois Valentine answered him that the other day he personally saw a mermaid and witnesses to that - fifty people.
In 1737, the English newspaper for men Gentleman's magazine released a note about how in the past weekend fishermen, along with a fish floundering in the net, brought aboard a strange creature. Of course, they heard about mermaids, but caught in the catch ... a man with a fish tail! A strange creature so frightened the poor that they killed their prey to the death. The corpse of the monster was bought out and for several centuries was shown in the Exter museum.
Eyewitnesses reported:
"This creature amazed the imagination and made human groans. When we came to ourselves, we saw that it was a man with a white tail and a membranous fin covered with scales. The appearance of the creature was repulsive and surprisingly similar to the human at the same time. "
1890 in Scotland was marked by the appearance near the Orkney Islands a whole family of mermaids. Three girls swam in the water, laughed and fished, but never swam close to people. It can not be said that they feared a man-they were more likely to avoid it. In the absence of fishermen, nymphs rested on coastal stones. It is known that mermaids have lived in these parts for more than 10 years. In 1900, a Scottish farmer managed to catch one of the sea maidens off guard:
"Somehow I had to go with my dog to a distant ravine to get the sheep that came up in it. Moving along the ravine in search of a sheep, I noticed unnatural anxiety of the dog, which began to howl with fright. Glancing into the ravine, I saw a mermaid with red curly hair and sea-colored eyes. The mermaid was tall with a man, very beautiful, but with such a fierce expression that I was terrified of rushing away from her. Running away, I realized that the mermaid was in a ravine because of low tide and had to wait there for the tide to swim back into the sea. But I did not want to come to her aid. "
Throughout the 20th century, mermaids were seen in Chile, the United States of America, Polynesia and Zambia. In 1982, nymphs were first discovered in the USSR, where previously they did not believe in history about otherworldly creatures living in water bodies. During the training, combat swimmers on Baikal collided under water with a flock of fish with a female body. After surfacing, they told about what they had seen and received orders to establish contact with strange inhabitants of Lake Baikal. It was worth them to swim to the mermaids, as you threw them ashore like a blast wave, because of which scuba divers died in a few days one by one, and the survivors - became invalids.
The last mention in the press about mermaids was the articles written by journalists from many countries after the appearance on the Internet of photos from the military training ground in Poland in 2015. The pictures clearly show that people in protective suits carry something the size of a man, but with a fish tail. Their burden weighs a lot, because the stretcher was carried simultaneously by six people.
The Polish government left the photographs without comment. And can conservative science find an explanation for the existence of mermaids?