Mermaids

by Skye Alexander

  Tangaroa, the Sea-God

  Long ago, says Polynesian mythology, the Earth was an arid mass, devoid of water. That’s because the creator earth-goddess Papatuanuku (Papa) held all the water inside her body. But in time, she could no longer contain it all—her body burst and the oceans of the world spilled out.

  She granted her son Tangaroa dominion over the newly formed seas and all the creatures in them—including mermaids and mermen. According to legend, Tangaroa is so enormous that he only breathes once per day—and his inhalation and exhalation cause the tides to rise and fall. Tangaroa has a brother named Rongo, who some stories say is the equivalent of the fisherman/god Maui, and his grandchildren are the ancestors of the reptiles and the fish. When the weather is pleasant, it’s said that Tangaroa turns into a big, green lizard.

  Although renowned throughout the South Seas as a powerful creator spirit, fertility deity, and ocean god, Tangaroa plays many roles and assumes many guises, as often happens in island myths.

  • The Samoans and Tongalese know him as the principal creator deity, who ruled over the ocean. He tossed rocks into the sea to form Samoa and Tonga.

  • The Tahitians call him Ta’aroa and consider him the main creator god. Supposedly he emerged from a cosmic egg and from the broken shell he formed the Earth and the sky.

  • The Hawaiians named him Kanaloa, and associate him with squid and octopi.

  • The Maori say Tangaroa formed human beings from maggots.

  The relationships between these water deities and merfolk is as complex and mysterious as the ocean itself. Perhaps that’s why we find them so fascinating.

  ANCESTRAL MERMAIDS

  Polynesian mythology says human beings evolved from the merfolk. According to local legend, people gradually lost their fishy qualities over time and adapted to living on land.

  Sirenas

  In the waters around the Philippine Islands, fishermen and sailors claim to have seen mermaids, as many people who live and work on the oceans do. Legends say Philippine mermaids, known as sirenas, look pretty much like the beautiful half-human, half-fish creatures we’re familiar with.

  But the males of the species don’t necessarily mirror the comely qualities of their female counterparts. Some mermen, called siyokoy, do sport human torsos and the usual fishtails below the abdomen. Their brown or gray skin resembles that of fish and they have gills through which they breathe—some of them even have tentacles, like squid. Others, though, look pretty much like men but with scaly legs and webbed feet.

  At the top of the Philippine’s merfolk hierarchy come the kataw, who lack the typical merman’s fishtail. These sea-guys can pass for humans—and often do. If you look closely, though, you’ll notice their gills and the finny forms attached to their arms. The kataws control the waters around the islands—the tides, currents, and the movements of the aquatic creatures.

  Fishermen fear the kataw—unlike the more benevolent Sirena, who serves as goddess of the fish. Legend says the kataw pretends to be an ordinary fisherman and when he comes upon a human he feigns being in need of assistance. When the real fisherman goes to his aid, the kataw either drowns him and/or eats the unsuspecting Good Samaritan.

  Australia’s Yawkyawk

  “Some features of a respective country are equated with body parts of Yawkyawk. For example a bend in a river or creek may be said to be the tail of the Yawkyawk, a billabong may be the head of the Yawkyawk, and so on. Thus different groups can be linked together by means of a shared mythology featured in the landscape, which crosscuts clan and language group boundaries.”

  —Felicity Green (ed.), Togart Contemporary Art Award (NT) 2007, exhibition catalogue

  In Australia’s streams and ponds live the spirits of young girls, say the Kuninjku people. At night, you can sometimes see their shadowy forms scurrying across the landscape, for these water spirits—known as yawkyawk—usually steer clear of human beings. If you catch more than a glimpse of one, you’ll notice her upper body looks human enough, but below the waist she’s a fish.

  The yawkyawk, sometimes referred to as ngalberddjenj, which means “the young woman who has a tail like a fish,” are said to have long green hair that resembles seaweed. But when they want to come on land (usually at night) they sprout legs and seem to be wholly human. Some legends insist yawkyawk can even transform themselves into dragonflies. Others describe them with the appendages of snakes or crocodiles.

  As water spirits, the yawkyawk control the rains, and everything depends on them bringing life-giving water. Most of the time, these beautiful creatures exhibit temperate dispositions—but when they get angry, they can conjure up storms just like other mermaids. Like most water deities, yawkyawk are linked with fertility and creation—they’re so powerful, it’s said, that women need only go near the streams and pools where the spirits live to become pregnant.

  Occasionally, a yawkyawk marries a human being (who may or may not realize what she really is). But after a time, she grows tired of the world of people and returns to her watery abode.

  JOURNEY OF THE YAWKYAWK

  Australia’s Aborigines believe animals started out as human beings—not the other way around, as Darwin’s theory suggests. Over time, they evolved into the myriad animals we know today. But not all of them made the transition completely. Among those that remain in between are the hybrid yawkyawk.

  The Australian Rainbow Serpent

  The indigenous people of Australia speak of deities known as Rainbow Serpents. The female, Yingarna, is the original creator deity; the male, Ngalyod, transformed the land from a flat plain to a continent with hills and rivers. Some folktales describe them as the parents of the yawkyawk; others claim the spirits are the same, they just appear in different forms—as shapeshifting divinities are known to do. Legend says the serpents usually live in Australia’s water holes beneath waterfalls, but can be found in other bodies of water as well.

  To the Aborigines, the Rainbow Serpents represent fertility and abundance because of their ability to bring rain. But when the serpents become angry, they punish human beings with storms and floods—typical of water deities’ dual powers of creation and destruction. To be on the safe side, the Aborigines hold ritual celebrations to honor and appease the serpent, using quartz crystals to fragment the sun’s light into the colors of the rainbow.

  Like other creator-destroyer spirits, the Rainbow Serpent can heal or wreak havoc for humans. Shamans (medicine men) are believed to receive their magical powers from the Rainbow Serpent. One legend says that the snake can enter a person’s body, where it leaves “little rainbows” that can cause illness and death. But if, after several days of sickness, a healer removes the offending spirits from the patient, the person will recover and become a healer himself.

  WEIRD AND WILD

  Archaeologists have found rock paintings of the Rainbow Serpent in the Arnhem Land of Australia dating back 6,000 years. A strange and colorful composite of creatures, the Rainbow Serpent is sometimes depicted as a snake with pieces of kangaroos, foxes, crocodiles, or other animals mixed in. From its head stream long locks of human hair.

  “Borne on a foamy-crested wave

  She reach’d amain the bounding prow,

  Then clasping fast the Chieftain brave,

  She, plunging, sought the deep below.”

  —John Leyden, from The Mermaid

  CHAPTER 11

  * * *

  Mermaids OF North and South America

  LONG BEFORE EUROPEAN SAILORS came to the New World, bringing fantastic tales of mermaids with them, the indigenous peoples of the Americas already told stories of fish-women who lived in the oceans, rivers, and lakes. Other legends, including those of the Haitians’ Lasirèn (whose name means mermaid in French), migrated to their present locales when African slaves were brought to the Caribbean and North America.

  Modern-day mermaids in the United States are more playful than powerful. In cartoons and children’s books, at carnivals and celebrations
such as New York’s bawdy Coney Island Mermaid Parade and the kitschy Las Vegas Mermaid Convention, mermaids entertain us rather than govern our lives. Merchandisers have denatured the fearsome and formidable sirens of old and repackaged them as frivolous toys—still stunningly beautiful, but harmless. Yet the mermaid mystique remains in the human psyche and despite contemporary attempts to tame the wild sea goddess, in the end we know she’s more than just a pretty face—and that keeps us in her thrall.

  Passamaquoddy Mermaids

  Many years ago, a Passamaquoddy man and woman lived by the sea in what is now New Brunswick. They had two daughters who loved to swim, but the mother, knowing the perils of the ocean, feared something dreadful might happen to them and forbade the girls to go in the water. As teenagers are inclined to do, the girls disobeyed their mother and swam in secret, stripping off their clothes to enjoy the sensual feel of the water on their bare skin.

  One day the girls didn’t come home. Their parents went searching for them and found their discarded clothing on the beach. Gazing out to sea, they spotted their daughters floating on the waves and called to them. The girls swam toward shore, but when they drew near they realized they couldn’t climb out of the water—their bodies had grown too heavy for them to walk.

  When they looked down into the water, the sisters saw that their lower bodies had changed into slimy fishtails—they’d spent so much time in the water that they’d transformed into mermaids. The man and woman tried to gather up their daughters’ clothing, but the girls sang out in melodious voices, telling their parents not to bother—they weren’t coming back to live on land again. The mother started crying, but her daughters comforted her, insisting they were content.

  From then on, whenever the man and woman went out in their canoe, their mermaid daughters pushed it along, enabling the parents to go anyplace they liked, effortlessly and safely.

  Squant, the Sea-Woman

  “When the tide came in again, she drifted along with it, and this time she smiled. The storm went away; the wind blew from the south; the sun came out; and Maushop saw that her hair was green, glistening, her body wide and flat like a ribbon of kelp. He knew then, that she was Squant, the sea-giantess.”

  —E. Reynard, The Narrow Land

  In the days when giants lived among us, one named Maushop resided by the ocean at Popponesset, on what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Among Indians, Maushop was revered for killing a bird-monster who devoured children. After he destroyed the demon, a terrible storm arose and huge waves broke on the shore—bringing with them a sea-woman. Her long, green hair resembled tangled seaweed and her fingers and toes were webbed. Over the roar of the waves, Maushop could hear her singing and he recognized her as Squant, the Sea Goddess.

  Each day after that, Squant visited Maushop on the incoming tide. Sometimes he swam in the sea with her, but no matter how she tempted him with her captivating smile and her enchanting songs, he knew better than to go with her to her underwater cave. And though he desired her, he would not forsake his wife and children. When Maushop refused to follow the sea-woman, the furious Squant made the seas churn with thundering waves and filled the air with icy winds.

  Then one day Maushop caught his wife with another man and, in his anger, threw her and his children into the ocean. The children changed into fish and swam away.

  The giant returned to the spot where Squant had visited him and sat gazing out at the ocean. Soon, the sea-woman rose on the waves, blowing bubbles and singing. She shook her green hair and again invited him to join her in her cave beneath the sea. This time, when the tide ebbed, he followed her—never to return.

  Salmon Boy

  For the Haida Indians, who live in British Columbia, salmon is a major source of food—so it makes sense that among their legends we’d find a story of salmon-human merfolk. In one folktale, a young Haida boy went swimming in a river with his friends—but the current swept him underwater and he drowned before his companions could save him. As his body sunk, the salmon captured his soul and took it to their underwater home.

  Shapeshifting is a popular theme in Native American legends—and among merfolk generally—and once the salmon reached their home at the bottom of the river, they changed into people. The boy magically came back to life. The salmon-people, he learned, ate human children who swam in the river—just as human beings caught and ate salmon from the river.

  One day while fishing, the boy’s mother snagged her salmon-son on her hook and recognized him by his necklace. She laid the fish on the ground and soon the boy’s head poked out of the salmon’s mouth. Before long, the boy himself emerged from the fish, leaving its scaly skin behind. The boy then assumed the role of medicine man or shaman to his tribe and taught them the “way of the salmon.”

  Late in life, the salmon-shaman caught a fish—but not just any fish, it was his own soul. When he killed the fish, he died as well. His tribesmen returned the old shaman’s body to the river, which symbolized the cycle of death and rebirth.

  A Tale of a Twin-Tailed Merman

  Legends often arise from real-life events, handed down through oral tradition from generation to generation. This colorful story tells of the Shawnee’s migration from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana to the Midwest—guided by a merman.

  According to folklore, a strange and captivating creature appeared to the Eastern Shawnee, the likes of which they’d never seen before. The creature resembled a man, but with green hair and a slimy beard, and he sailed across the surface of a great lake astride the back of a huge fish. The man wore seashells around his neck. When the fish leapt from the water, the people could see the peculiar man’s lower body—where his legs should have been they saw two fish-like appendages instead!

  In a tantalizing voice, the merman sang of a lush and lovely land beyond the sea, tempting the Shawnee with promises of a better life. So mesmerized were the people that they ceased their usual activities and sat on the shore, listening to the merman. At first they hesitated to follow him, but the charming creature reminded them of the harsh winters and dangers they faced in their present home. He sang sweetly of a warmer land where deer and buffalo proliferated, and eventually convinced them.

  The Shawnee climbed into their boats and paddled for two moons, guided by the merman. Finally they reached their new home, a beautiful place with fertile earth and abundant game. The merman bid them farewell, and the people thrived—just as the strange man-fish guide had promised.

  Sedna, the Sea Goddess

  To the Inuit, Sedna is the most powerful of deities, the sea goddess whose sacrifice brought abundant food to her people. But before Sedna became a goddess she was a beautiful young Inuit woman whom many men fancied. She refused them all and instead married a trickster seabird who promised her a wonderful life on an island. Soon, Sedna discovered that life on the island was nothing like her husband had described—in fact, it was dreadful.

  So Sedna’s father rowed his boat to the island, where he killed her lying bird-husband and rescued Sedna. On the way back, however, the bird’s friends summoned a great storm that threatened to drown father and daughter. Terrified, Sedna’s father threw his daughter overboard. When she tried to hold onto the side of the boat, he chopped off her fingers. Sedna sank beneath the water, where she metamorphosed into a sea goddess with the upper body and head of a woman and the tail or a whale or fish. Her fingers became the fish, seals, and whales that make up the Inuit’s diet.

  It’s said that so long as the Inuit people pay respect to Sedna and honor her with festivals and offerings, she will continue to provide for them. If they disobey or neglect her, however, she’ll show her anger by causing terrible storms that make fishing impossible, depriving the people of food.

  UPDATING SEDNA’S IMAGE

  Sedna usually appears as a typical mermaid today. But it’s possible that whalers brought that image with them, carved as figureheads on their ships when they came to the Arctic regions. Earlier Inuit folktales described Sedna as a human wom
an, rather than a hybrid being.

  HOW TO WIN SEDNA’S FAVOR

  Legend says that an Inuit shaman who wants Sedna to bless his people can play the role of divine beautician to the sea goddess. He must swim to the bottom of the ocean with a comb in hand. Once there, his job is to comb her long hair and braid it. It seems that Sedna, like most mermaids, enjoys being pampered.

  The Mermaid of Gocta Cataracts

  Peru’s Gocta Cataracts, one of the world’s tallest waterfalls, drops 2,531 feet into a beautiful dark pool where local legend says a wish-granting mermaid lives. Until recently, few outsiders even knew this majestic falls existed, but according to local legend, a poor fisherman named Gregorio who once lived near the remote waterfall befriended the mermaid there and often spoke with her.

  One day the mermaid offered to grant a wish for Gregorio—he could have anything he wanted. The modest fisherman asked only for a good day of fishing. The lovely mermaid fulfilled her promise and gave him a huge bag of fish to take home. That night his wife began cleaning the fish—and discovered a gold ring among them. Quickly she pocketed the ring, without mentioning it to Gregorio.

  When Gregorio visited the mermaid again, the same thing happened. Once more, the fisherman wished only for a good catch and the mermaid granted his wish. This time, Gregorio’s wife found a gold bracelet in the bag with the fish, and hid it from her husband.

  Afraid that Gregorio had stolen the jewelry, his wife followed him to Gocta Cataracts the next day. There, at the bottom of the falls, she saw her husband talking with a most unusual woman. Her upper body was silver and below the waist she wore a fishtail of glimmering gold. When the mermaid spotted Gregorio’s wife, she grabbed the fisherman and dove into the pool, taking him with her. The wife ran to the water’s edge, but Gregorio had disappeared entirely, never to return.