The Merfolk's Three Wisdoms

[Exerpted from The Mermaid's Three Wisdoms by Jane Yolen]


1. Have patience, like the sea.

2. Move with the rythm of life
around you.

3. Know that all things touch all
others, as all life touches the
sea.

A marine creature with the head and upper body of a fair human and with the lower body of a fish. They can be found in seas and lakes, or lying on a rock and combing her hair with one hand while holding a mirror in the other. Mermaids sometimes foretell the future and are often accompanied by seals.

According to myth, they lure sailors by singing and with lovely music. They live in a kingdom on the bottom of the sea, and it is
here they take their prisoners to. From this story, the fear amongst the sailor grew and they thought that seeing a merfolk would
cause bad luck: it could predict death by drowning.

The belief in merfolk is not limited to a few countries, but there are tales from all over the world (in India, for instance, there are the Apsara, beautiful water nymphs). However, most of those tales were told by sailors who "saw" them on their long journeys. The idea of mermaids and mermen, the male equivalent, could be based on creatures from Greek and Babylonian mythology: Sirens and Tritons of the Greeks, and the fish gods, who were half human and half fish, from the Babylonians.