The Fishman of Liérganes

In the small town of Liérganes, in Cantabria, northern Spain, a legend has been around since the late 17th century about a young man who drowned at sea only to return a few years later as a fish-human hybrid. He was reported to have gills and fins, but unlike mermaids, he retained his legs and barely spoke. The fact that the legend was reported in some detail by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, a monk who had a reputation of encouraging scientific and rational thinking and who regularly debunked myths and superstitions, has given the story of the fishman some credence. But if Feijoo was not lying, then what actually was the fishman? A statue of fish-man in Liérganes, Spain. Photo: Alex J. Judkins/Twitter The story as told by Father Feijoo goes like this—around 1650 there lived in Liérganes, a couple named Francisco de la Vega and María del Casar, who had four sons. After the death of the father, the mother, unable to make ends meet, sent one of her sons to the city of Bilbao so that he could learn a trade as a carpenter. The boy lived in Bilbao as a carpenter till 1674 when, on Saint John's day eve, he went with some friends to swim in Bilbao's estuary. Although he was a good swimmer, the currents of the river swept him away to the sea. He was presumably drowned. Five years later, in 1679, some fishermen seafaring in the bay of Cadiz saw a strange looking creature caught in the nets, but before he could been reeled in, the creature escaped. In the following weeks, the creature was spotted several times by the fishermen, until one day they were able to capture it by luring it with loaves of bread. When they got the creature on board, they were surprised to find that it was human-shaped, but not quite human. It had white skin and thin red hair. A strip of scales went down from his throat to his stomach, and another one covered his spine. He also seemed to have gills around his neck.