A mermaid is a legendary aquatic
creature with the head and torso
of a human female and the tail of
a fish. The male version of a mermaid
is called a merman; the gender-neutral
plural is merfolk or merpeople.
Various cultures throughout the world
have similar figures. Much like Sirens,
mermaids in stories would sometimes
sing to sailors and enchant them,
distracting them from their work and
causing them to walk off the deck or
cause shipwrecks. Other stories would
have them squeeze the life out of
drowning men while trying to rescue
them. They are also said to take them
down to their underwater kingdoms. It is
said that they forget that humans cannot
breathe underwater, while others say they
drown men out of spite.

Legend and Myth
Legends of these half-human, half-fish
humanoids have circulated for millennia,
even as far back as 5,000 B.C. It has
been widely suggested or implied that
manatees or dugongs could be behind
the myth of the mermaid. An example
supporting this theory would be that
Christopher Columbus had logged that
he had seen mermaids on his journey to
the new world, but thought they would
be more attractive. These large aquatic
mammals are notable for the way in
which they carry their young, cradled in
their arms much as a human would
carry a baby. It is possible that sailors
seeing these unfamiliar beasts for the
first time, would assume that they
had in fact stumbled across some sort
of humanoid species, and consequently
spread their accounts of the sightings
through their homelands on their
return from voyages. It has even been
posited that the traditional image of
a mermaid with long flowing hair
could be attributed to manatees
breaking the ocean surface underneath
patches of seaweed, and giving the
unfamiliar observer the impression of
having long hair. Sightings from first-hand
witnesses generally describe mermaids
who do not talk & have green or black hair.