FIJI MERMAID - Information About Mermaids Written by Fantopia.net

FIJI MERMAID

The Fiji mermaid was first heard of around 1842 as the creature was supposedly caught by a "Dr. J. Griffin", who later turned out to be a close associate of P.T. Barnum, better known as Levi Lyman. The Fiji Mermaid was supposedly a mummified creature with the upper torso of a mammal and the bottom half being fish like. This strange exhibit was toured throughout the United States and was finally destroyed in a fire in the 1860s, when Phineas Barnum's museum caught fire. The exhibit was advertised in the local paper and shown here in Charleston, South Carolina. The Fiji Mermaid has since been copied many times in other attractions, including the collection of famed showman Robert Ripley. It is now believed that the mermaid in reality was created by an Indonesian craftsman by using exotic fish and paper mache, or take the tail of a fish and stitching it together with the upper half of a baby orangutan. In any case, thousands came to see the exhibit and were in awe.