Fiji mermaid

Its mouth was open, its tail turned over, and its arms thrown up, giving it the appearance of having died in great agony," a significant departure from traditional depictions of mermaids as attractive creatures.

[8] A Dutchman who was posted as warehouse keeper on Dejima, Nagasaki 1820–1829 writes that such a mermaid could be obtained for a handy price and resold for a fortune in Dutch Indonesia.

When he showed interest in this speculative profiteering, all sorts of samples were shown him: a two-headed men, face-on-belly, devil-headed people, twin-headed dragons, etc., some of which wound up as part of his cabinet collection in The Hague.

[7][8][11] Captain Edes' son took possession of the mermaid and sold it to Moses Kimball of the Boston Museum in 1842, and he brought it to New York City that summer to show it to P. T.

He relates the story of a performer who was smoking a cigarette in her hidden chamber; the man outside was confronted by an angry patron who demanded to know how this was possible if the "mermaid" was underwater.

[4] A guide to constructing a Fiji mermaid appeared in the November 2009 issue of Fortean Times magazine, in an article written by special effects expert and stop-motion animator Alan Friswell.

Rather than building the figure with fish and monkey parts, Friswell used papier mache and modelling putty, sealed with wallpaper paste, and with doll's hair glued to the scalp.