Amongst the many curiosities culled by Mr. Mark Foy during an extensive motor trip through the north-east of Africa, there are two specimens which must rank as anachronisms, and which (says the “San”) instinctively carry the beholder back to the days when the land was peopled with pixies and elves, whilst the deep, as its correlative, had for denizens mermaids and mermen.
    Though in this prosaic period the existence of these marine creatures has paid the toll to modern credulity, yet a visit to Medlow Bath will leave the visitor with much food for reflection. In a garage situated at the rear of Mr. Foy’s cottage are two preserved specimens of beings, anthropomorphic to just below the waist, and ichthyomorphic, or fish-shaped, thereafter. On inspection the visitor beholds a form lying on a mass of shavings. The form is certainly human to below the waist-line, whence it tapers off in approved fish fashion, quite in accordance with the illustration of mermaids in the books of our infancy. Measuring over six feet in stature, and of a dark mahogany hue, this denizen of the Libyan Sea—for it was at a seaport on the north-east coast of Africa that Mr. Foy acquired the lady in question—presents an inscrutable problem.
    The cadaver, as such, seems to be absolutely entire, and is surmounted thy a head human in type, but relatively small in proportion to the size of the body. The features hardly coincide with our modern ideas of a sea-born aphrodite, but anatomically they are human. The usual bucal and nasal apertures are present, whilst the eyes have been protected with eyebrows, rudiments of which may yet be seen. The trunk to the waist-line, which is sharply defined, is that of a woman of more than ordinary proportions, and, moreover, is absolutely typical even to the two breasts. The arms, wrists, and hands bear a marked resemblance to the human. The latter have the same number of fingers, whilst the wrist bones, ulna and radius, are there in situ, the same as the ordinary being, only of somewhat smaller dimensions.
    From below the umbilical region the fish is the dominant type, the body tapering away and ending in a fish-like tail. Lying alongside is the vertebral column, which was removed when evisceration took place. There are, in addition to the column itself, ribs attached, as in man, to the sternum, or breast-bone, floating ribs, lumbars, etc. Enclosed in a coffin-like case of gargantuan proportions is the merman, over eight feet in length. The same characteristics are present as in his female companion, while in addition two savage-looking tusks adorn the upper jaw.
    The history of these two paradoxes is shortly this. They were brought by Arabian Arabs in a dhow, and had been so their captors asserted, caught in the nets during fishing operations. The Arabs, not liking the look of the captives, incontinently speared them, and took them into the port, a journey of about 100 miles, where Mr. Foy purchased them. Since their arrival at Medlow Bath they have been inspected by more than a dozen medical men, all of whom have remarked more especially on the human-like aspect of the wrist-bones. The dark mahogany coloring which characterises the appearance of the strange pair is attributable to the use of formalin, in which they were pickled in order to preserve them.

The Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser (NSW : 1886 -1942). 22 Aug 1913. Trove. National Library of Australia.