Two tails of mermaids. If you have or seek some insight, tell me then, what do you make of their commentaries on the eggs and the water in which they are boiled?

I : “They followed at a distance, and saw her plunge into the water, where she was met by a great number of her own species, one of whom asked what she had observed among the people on earth; nothing very wonderful answered she, but that they are so very ignorant, as to throw away the water they boil their eggs in. This question, and her reply, they told me, was distinctly heard by those who stood on the shore to watch what passed.”

II : “A mermaid was caught by a man of Skye and kept by him for a year, during which time she gave him ‘much curious information’. When they parted, he asked her ‘what virtue or evil there was in egg water’ – water in which eggs had been boiled. To this she returned the tantalizing answer; if I tell you that, you have a tale to tell, and disappeared.”