A race of amphibious beings. Probably they
originated on the coast of Brittany and swam across the
English Channel to Cornwall,where the inhabitants gave them
the Anglo-French name of mermaids and mermen,i.e. sea-maids
and sea-men.
From Cornwall they spread up the west coast of the British Isles and around northern Scotland to Scandinavia. Merpersons are occasionally sighted along the other coasts of Europe (although the nereids of the Mediterranean are only distant relations) but they seem to prefer the cold water and rugged Atlantic coasts of Britahl and Ireland (where they are known as merrows or merucha) and the cliffs and fiords of Scandinavia.
Merpersons are also sighted on other coastlines of the world, including North America and China, but they often differ greatly in appearance from European mermaids. The theory that they are, however, related to dugongs or manatees is incorrect.
Mermaids and mermen live in and beneath the sea but can make themselves at home on land. They have their own language and customs, but are also able to speak the language of humans living on the nearest coastline. They like to make frequent trips ashore, if only to sit on rocks and comb out their long hair, and so they generally live in soundings rather than in the deep sea.
Fishermen often sight merpersons, especially in rough weather. They say that nothing could be more strikingly beautiful than a school of merpersons of all ages frolicking in the great Atlantic rollers, their silvery bodies glistening amid the tumultuous surf and their green eyes flashing as they glissade down the waves. Contrary to popular belief they are never caught in the fishermen's nets. They are much too sea wise and agile to become entangled in such obstacles. They live on fish and other seafood but do not resent and never interfere with fishermen - unless of course the humans have offended them in some way.
Most mermaids are strikingly beautiful, even if this beauty sometimes appears a trifle cold. They are blonde, with long tresses ranging in colour from light brown to the tint known as strawberry blonde', and possess large green or blue-green eyes. Their skin is an immaculate pearly white, with a silvery sheen when it is slick with seawater. Breasts, arms, shoulders, hips, and waist are all in perfect proportion. The species develops slowly and it is impossible to tell the age of a merperson. The exquisitely beautiful children take a long time to reach adolescence, they enjoy a prolonged maiden hood, and when they reach their prime they retain the appearance of a mature human female for innumerable years.
