Contents Watching the Water 4 More to the Stories 6 The Magic of Mermaids 8 Ancient Mermaids 10 Merfolk Around the World 12 The Mermaid of Warsaw 14 Columbus Saw What 16 Henry Hudson’s Crew Too 18 Some Explanations 20 The Little Mermaid 22 The Famous Feejee Mermaid 24 Modern Mermaids 26 What Do You Believe 28 Glossary 30 Index 31 Words in the glossary appear in bold type the first time they are used in the text
Watching the Water For thousands of years sailors have watched the ocean from the decks of their ships Sometimes creatures from below the water appear at the surface Fish and dolphins leap alongside the ship Whales come up from the depths to breathe In the past sailors worried about sea monsters emerging from the deep too Stories about mysterious beasts were part of sailor folklore so they watched the water wondering and worrying Some sailors claimed to see something else quite surprising in the water humanlike creatures These weren't other sailors who had jumped overboard They had upper bodies like humans but instead of legs they had long scaly fish tails Sailors told many tales about these astonishing creatures They called them mermaids and mermen EARLY MAPS Many early maps weren't created for sailors but for wealthy people as art Cartographers or mapmakers sometimes included odd creatures like sea monsters as decorations on these maps Some of the weird animals were described in what were considered to be science books of that time They were often like actual animals but with a strange twist By the end of the 1600s as knowledge of the oceans increased fewer images of imaginary sea creatures appeared on maps
FACT A IT'S 70 80 90 EQUINOTIALE CAPRICORNO CAPODE NASPERANZA Early cartographers drew sea monsters and mermaids in the oceans on their maps Mer is a prefix that means sea Maid is a word for an unmarried often young woman
