Mermaids

by Skye Alexander

  Here’s another trick to use against a kappa: Appeal to its taste buds. Folktales say the kappa loves cucumbers, so if you intend to go near the water carry a few of these vegetables with you and toss them to the beast if it approaches. It may choose to eat the cucumbers instead of you!

  THE KAPPA’S GIFT

  Even monsters can have good qualities, and the kappa are credited with teaching humans how to set broken bones. Here’s how folklore says it happened: A kappa, pretending to be human, tricked many people into playing a children’s game that involved pulling the kappa’s finger. When they did, he dragged them underwater and drowned them. Finally, a daring young man rode up to the kappa on horseback and when the creature grabbed his hand the man urged his horse forward. The galloping horse dragged the kappa until it promised to share its knowledge of healing bones with the rider. The man reined in his horse and the kappa told him the secret, which enabled the man to become a famous doctor.

  Dragon Ladies

  “When rain is to be expected, the dragons sing and their voices are like the sound made by striking copper basins. Their saliva can produce all kinds of perfume.”

  —Wang Fu, Chinese scholar (Han dynasty, 206 B.C.E. to C.E. 220)

  We don’t find much about mermaids in Chinese mythology. What we do find are female dragons whose magical qualities and dazzling beauty remind us of mermaids in other cultures. Most of these mythical creatures, each one covered with 117 sparkling fish scales, live in Asia’s seas, lakes, and rivers—but they can change themselves into humans or fly in the air whenever they choose.

  To the Chinese, dragons represent supreme power. These beloved mystical and spiritual entities bring prosperity, wisdom, and good luck of all kinds. Like water divinities around the world, China’s dragons are potent nature spirits who not only rule the Eastern world’s waterways, but also control the weather—particularly rain. Don’t cross them or fail to show them proper respect for they can be vain, and—like mermaids elsewhere—have been known to whip up torrential storms and floods when humans displease them. Some dragons you should keep in mind are:

  The four Dragon Kings rule the seas.

  These dragons reside in underwater crystal castles, where crab generals and shrimp soldiers guard them and protect them from harm.

  Panlong lives in freshwater.

  Also called the Coiling Dragon, Panlong inhabits China’s lakes and ponds.

  Huanglong offers wisdom.

  Known as the Yellow Dragon, Huanglong is credited with having taught writing to the Emperor Fu Shi.

  Li makes its home in the ocean.

  Sometimes called the Homeless Dragon, Li usually resides in the salty seas, but occasionally can be found in Asia’s marshes.

  If you want to gain the blessings of these dragons, burn incense and offer prayers to them. In many parts of China, special pagodas exist where people can go to solicit protection and good fortune from dragons.

  DESCENDANTS OF DRAGONS

  Gorgeous, wise, and powerful dragons sometimes mate with humans—and when they do, they produce extraordinary offspring who become great rulers. Many Asian emperors believed they descended from dragons. Even the famous Japanese Emperor Hirohito supposedly traced his lineage back to an ancient dragon king, though it would be hard to prove that claim using modern DNA testing.

  Nuwa, the Chinese Snake Goddess

  Snake deities and creation myths appear together in the legends of myriad cultures, including that of the Chinese. Legends credit the god Pan Gu with separating the heavens and the earth—but without the hard work of the Snake Goddess Nuwa none of it would have survived.

  Often depicted as a half-human, half-snake—like the Hindu naginis—the beautiful goddess Nuwa plays a prominent role in mythology. She rescued China from total destruction when the spirit Gong Gong caused a mountain in the east to collapse. That continental sagging, by the way, shifted China’s rivers so that ever after they’ve flowed eastward.

  Chaos reigned when heaven’s four pillars, which once supported the world, crumbled—until Nuwa stepped in to save the day. Using her feminine creative skills and ability to deal with whatever the universe threw at her, this ingenious goddess cut the legs off a huge tortoise and used them to prop up the four corners of the sky while she reinforced the structure with colored stones.

  Once she’d stabilized the universe, Nuwa decided to marry—and she chose her brother Fuxi as her husband. Even in those long-ago times, the pair realized this incestuous match-up might be frowned upon. But the gods gave their okay and the couple became the parents of humankind. Nuwa commenced to populate the world she’d saved from ruin by first creating the animals and birds. Next she molded yellow clay into humanoid forms and people were born. After Nuwa had finished fashioning human beings, Fuxi stepped in and taught them to hunt, domesticate livestock, farm, read, and write.

  A CHINESE CADUCEUS?

  Chinese artwork often depicts the deities Nuwa and Fuxi as hybrid creatures with human torsos and serpentine lower bodies. As partners in the creation of the world, they frequently appear with their snaky tails entwined in a pattern reminiscent of the caduceus.

  MIGRATING NAGAS AND NAGINIS

  When Buddhism migrated to China, Tibet, Korea, Cambodia, and other parts of Asia, nagas and naginis did, too. India’s Vedic tradition regards these human-snake hybrids as nature spirits and deities who bring good fortune as well as destruction to earthlings. In other countries, the nagas and naginis take on various qualities. The Cambodians believe they descended from these supernatural beings, born from the union of the naga king’s daughter and the king of ancient Cambodia. A Tibetan legend says that long ago the land lay underwater and was ruled by the naga king. The naga, a disciple of the Buddha, dried up the land so a temple and monastery could be built there.

  Pearl Diving “Mermaids”

  For 1,500 years, Japanese women divers have plunged into the ocean’s depths in search of shellfish, edible seaweed, and pearls. These amazing women reportedly dive down as far as 100 feet, traditionally wearing nothing but loincloths—no scuba gear—even in wintery water that’s only 50°F. Nowadays, however, modern divers don facemasks and flippers, and in Korea they are permitted to wear wetsuits.

  These aquatic athletes can hold their breath for more than three minutes and often continue to pursue their careers until they are sixty years old. Women, because their bodies contain more subcutaneous fat, can endure colder temperatures for longer periods than men can. Women can also dive deeper than men, without relying on air tanks.

  It’s possible that early sailors mistook these hardy and hard-working women for mermaids. In the mid-seventeenth century, a Dutch sailor whose ship wrecked in Korean waters spent nearly a year on the island of Cheju. There he had an opportunity to observe the topless female divers. When he returned home, he wrote a book about his experiences—including the Cheju “mermaids.”

  DRAGON WIVES

  Interestingly, in Japan and China the word for mermaid means “dragon wife,” signifying their awesome powers. Korea’s divers are said to be more assertive than other women so the title is accurate.

  “The girl cocked her head the other way. I caught a glimpse of pink gills under her chin. ‘My sisters told me stories of humans. They said they sometimes sing to them to lure them underwater.’ She grinned, showing off her sharp needle-teeth. ‘I’ve been practicing. Want to hear?’ ”

  —Julie Kagawa, The Iron King

  CHAPTER 10

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  Mermaids OF THE South Seas AND Australia

  YOU’D EXPECT THE SOUTH SEAS from Hawaii to New Zealand to be swarming with mermaids—those lush, tropical islands, coral reefs, and sparkling blue waters seem like the perfect place for merfolk to frolic. Oddly, that’s not the case. What we do find, though, are stories of water gods and goddesses—some with fish, snake, lizard, or crocodile appendages. These aquatic deities bear similarities to merfolk and water spirits in other parts of the world—they create and
destroy life, they change themselves into people when they want to walk on land, and sometimes they marry human beings. As the South Sea islanders sailed from place to place, they took their legends with them. Over the centuries, their folktales have mixed, morphed, and emerged as delightfully diverse as the people who tell them.

  Hawaii’s Mo’o Goddesses

  Powerful Hawaiian water spirits known as the mo’o have a penchant for shapeshifting—from divine lizards to human women to goddesses. These magical females can assume whatever form they choose, from tiny geckos small enough to hold in the palm of your hand to giant lizard-ladies measuring thirty feet or more in length. Legends say the mo’o live in both fresh and saltwater—lakes and ponds, waterfalls and lagoons, as well as the ocean. Some sources link them with Chinese dragons or saltwater alligators.

  Like mermaids, the mo’o can be dangerous—especially to men. Men simply can’t resist the charms of these enchanting seductresses. But once the mo’o have won the affection of their human lovers, they drown the unsuspecting guys.

  Many Hawaiians believe there’s a little mo’o in every Hawaiian woman. Local lore tells us that human beings descended from these reptilian deities and sometimes important people transform into mo’o goddesses after death. That’s what legend says happened to the sixteenth-century princess Kihawahine Mokuhinia Kalama’ula Kala’aiheana—when she died she became the mo’o goddess Kihawahine. So respected was Kihawahine that Hawaii’s King Kamehameha I adopted her as his favorite goddess and allied himself with her descendants, knowing this would enhance his power and prestige.

  Why are the mo’o so highly revered? Perhaps there’s a connection between the mo’o—indeed, all snake deities—and the kundalini serpent of Hindu mystical tradition. Kundalini uses the coiled serpent to symbolize primal life energy and describes it as lying coiled at the base of the human spine. Without these spiritual serpents, we wouldn’t be alive!

  THE TIME DRAGON

  In Ho’opono: A Night Rainbow Book, authors Pali Jae Lee and John K. Willis present an interesting way of seeing the mo’o as a “time dragon” that depicts a family’s lineage. Using this method, the mo’o dragon becomes a genealogical symbol of past, present, and future generations. The bones, which form the mythical creature’s structure, represent the ancestors. The head and eyes, which lead the dragon forward, signify future generations. Its front legs relate to the children, and the rest of its body represents the parents and grandparents. The tail, at the very back end of the dragon, symbolizes the distant past: “Aumakua,” the family’s spirit and divine source.

  Siren Sightings

  In 1838, thousands of people on the island of Maui reported seeing a lizard goddess named Moko-hinia at the funeral of a Hawaiian chief.

  The Mo’o in the Wailuku River

  Deep in a cave at the bottom of Hawaii’s beautiful Rainbow Falls lived the water spirit Hina, according to Hawaiian folklore. One day, a troublesome giant lizard deity called Mo’o Kuna conjured a ferocious storm that pushed a huge rock over the falls into Hawaii’s longest river, the Wailuku. The boulder dammed the river, causing the water to rise to a dangerous level, threatening Hina’s home.

  Hina called to her son, Maui, for help, and he rushed to split the boulder. Then Maui chased after the malicious Mo’o Kuna in his canoe. He tried to spear the mo’o, but the crafty spirit hid in the river’s waterholes and eluded him. So Maui petitioned the powerful fire goddess Pele to pour lava into the river. When the bubbling lava flowed into the river it made the water boil, which killed Mo’o Kuna. Victorious, Maui tossed the evil spirit’s body over the falls.

  It’s said that Maui’s canoe now rests in a lava channel in the Wailuku River—and if you look into the pool at the base of Rainbow Falls you can still see what remains of the mo’o. The Boiling Pots at the Wailuku River State Park represent the spot where the lava destroyed Mo’o Kuna—during storms the water in these holes looks as if it’s actually boiling.

  Zoologists doubt that huge physical lizards like Mo’o Kuna actually lived in Hawaii. However, visitors to Wailuku River State Park are warned “to be respectful of pools of water within the river—a favorite resting place of the mo’o.”

  A Legend of Mismatched Lovers

  Hina and Maui also turn up in the folklore of New Zealand, and according to one legend Hina was a beautiful young woman who lived on New Zealand’s coast. One night she noticed a handsome man swimming in the ocean not far away and instantly fell in love with him. His name was Tuna, and the couple vowed to be together as husband and wife.

  But Tuna had a secret side, and made his beloved promise never to search into his past or try to discover where he lived. In addition, she had to agree to only meet him at night.

  After a while, the mystery and the limitations of the relationship frustrated and saddened Hina. Seeing Hina’s unhappiness, the fisherman/divinity Maui approached her. Maui, being familiar with the sea, knew Tuna’s true identity—he was a merman.

  That night, Maui waited by the sea until Tuna emerged from the water to visit his wife. Tuna, sensing danger lurking nearby, told Hina he feared for his life. He asked her to promise that if he were to die, she would cut off his head and plant it in the ground. A tree would grow from it, he said, and the fruit of the tree would resemble his face and his matted hair.

  As Tuna made his way back to the ocean, Maui leapt from his hiding place and killed the merman. Hina kept her promise and planted her husband’s head, from which grew the majestic coconut palm tree. Each time she picked a coconut, she saw Tuna’s head in her hands.

  Variations on a Theme

  Numerous stories of Hina, Tuna, and Maui exist in the folklore of Hawaii, Tahiti, and the many other islands in the South Seas. The people of the different islands give these legends their own, unique spin.

  In some tales, Hina is considered a moon goddess and Tuna an eel-deity; in others Hina appears as a water goddess. In some versions, Maui buries the head of Tuna from which the coconut palm grew. Samoan legends speak of a girl-goddess named “Sina” and in their language “Tuna” means eel. One version of the folktale describes Tuna as her pet, rather than her husband. Others say Hina grew tired of Tuna and took Maui as her lover. In still other stories, Maui is Hina’s son.

  We find many Hinas in Hawaiian lore. Some describe her as a goddess, others as a woman. In some tales she lives in a cave behind a waterfall on the island of Maui, where she makes cloth from bark. A few of the Hina deities include:

  • Hina lua lim kala, a beautiful mermaid who lives at the bottom of the ocean and heals with remedies gleaned from the sea.

  • Hina ‘opu hala ko’a, who presides over the coral reefs and spiny sea creatures.

  • Hina puku i’a, the goddess of fishermen.

  Maui also has many faces in old legends. Some stories describe him as a composite fisherman/divinity, whose mother threw him into the ocean at birth, leaving him to be raised by the sea itself. The various tales can get quite confusing—but no matter which version you hear, it’s sure to be colorful and entertaining.

  FIGHTING FISH

  If you’re a fish, humans are your enemy—they catch you and eat you, and they pollute your watery homes with their waste. A Maori legend tells of a great battle in which the creatures of the sea came on land and attacked human beings, led by the ocean god Tangaroa. The fish won the fight, and to reward them, Tangaroa allowed each of the sea creatures to choose a distinguishing feature. The swordfish opted for a sword, the octopus chose suctioned tentacles, and so on.

  Mermaid Moana-Nui-Ka-Lehua

  In Polynesian folklore, human beings and deities frequently intermingle. They also shapeshift at times—gods and goddesses take on human forms, and people change into divinities. Sometimes they even transform into trees and other life forms.

  That’s what happened to a mermaid/water goddess named Moana-Nui-Ka-Lehua, who lived in the ocean between the Hawaiian islands of K’aui and O’ahu. There she guarded the Ka’ie’ie Channel
, with the aid of the two shark gods Kua and Kahole-a-Kane. Sometimes she appeared as a great fish, sometimes as a woman or a hybrid creature. Like many mermaids and water spirits, Moana-Nui-Ka-Lehua could whip up storms at sea in order to get what she wanted. One of her most famous incidents occurred when the volcano/fire goddess Pele fell in love with a mere mortal named Lohiau. Moana-Nui-Ka-Lehua brewed a tempest to prevent the couple from crossing the channel to marry.

  But legend says the mermaid goddess met her match in the fisherman god Maui (who appears in the legends of many South Sea islanders). One day she discovered him fishing in her waters. To thwart him, she snagged his fishhook on a submerged rock.

  Maui, a trickster figure in mythology, wasn’t about to be undone so easily. He pursued the mermaid until he captured her. Then he brought her ashore, where she died. However, Maui showed respect for his antagonist—he laid her body to rest on a shrine. Moana-Nui-Ka-Lehua’s spirit transformed into an ohi’a lehua, one of Hawaii’s most common trees.

  Siren Sightings

  In April 1998, near Kaiwa Point, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, captain Jeff Leicher reportedly sighted a mermaid off the port side of his boat. “There, not ten feet from the bow, was what looked like a nude woman. She had long flowing hair and one of the most beautiful faces I’ve ever seen . . . Then she leapt into the air and my heart almost gave out on me. The entire lower half of her was covered with scales and tapered back into a huge tail.”