was in charge at the Stromness end let go his hold, and the
whole company of fairies were thrown into the sea, dragging
Hempie along with them in their descent. And the sea, being
rough at the time, overwhelmed them all, so that every one
was drowned. When he who had caused the calamity saw
what had occurred, he too plunged into the angry water, so
as not to survive his friends, and thus perished with them.
For a few moments a solitary figure appeared upon one
of the rocks. It was the Dwarf of Hey. He gazed at the scene
of the catastrophe, chanted a fairy dirge, and then vanished
for ever.
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86
Such was the end of the land-trows, and, although it put
a stop to the making of further fairy-stories, it opened up a
new hunting-ground for the weaver of romances in the caves
beneath the sea. And even where there is no definite tale or
detailed legend to tell beside the inglenook, there is sure to
be some quaint conceit of metempsychosis which they can
whisper when a seal comes near them. Was not Pharaoh’s
army turned into a school of seals? And that great white
seal, which the fisherman have seen, and whose track is like
the wash of an ocean steamer, is that not Pharaoh himself?
So the stories spread, and the passer-by may take his fill of
them, but I, for one, like best of all the tale of Gioga’s son.
And if just one passer-by on hearing it is held from firing
just one shot, the tale has not been told in vain.
But if ever I see the great white seal, whose track is like
the wash of an ocean steamer, I am not quite sure but that I
might raise a gun myself. I think it would be rather good fun
to have a shot at Pharaoh, for I never liked the man much.
Seal with a Kiss
87
The Mermaid of San Francisco Bay
Bret Harte was an early American poet, writer, and editor
who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area most of his pio-
neering days. He was run out of the coastal town of Union,
California (which is now known as Arcata), when he pub-
lished an editorial condemn-
ing the 1860 massacre of be-
tween eighty and two-hundred
Wiyots, a Native American tribe
living in the village of Tutulwat
(near the Humboldt Bay). He
used graphic descriptions of
the slaughter, which included
tribal elders and children. No
one was ever prosecuted in the
brutal murders, and Harte’s life was
threatened. He moved to San Francisco shortly after the
publication. This little excerpt describing his mermaid from
“The Mermaid from Lighthouse Point” is near and dear to
my heart—as I write this I can see the chilly waters from
which his mermaid emerged.
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88
The Mermaid of Lighthouse Point
by Bret Harte
It was a bright summer morning, remarkable even in the
monotonous excellence of the season, with a slight touch
of warmth which the invincible Northwest Trades had not
yet chilled. There was still a faint haze off the coast, as if
last night’s fog had been caught in the quick sunshine, and
the shining sands were hot, but without the usual dazzling
glare. A faint perfume from a quaint lilac-colored beach-
flower, whose clustering heads dotted the sand like bits of
blown spume, took the place of that smell of the sea which
the odorless Pacific lacked. A few rocks, half a mile away,
lifted themselves above the ebb tide at varying heights as
they lay on the trough of the swell, were crested with foam
by a striking surge, or cleanly erased in the full sweep of the
sea. Beside, and partly upon one of the higher rocks, a singu-
lar object was moving.
Pomfrey was interested but not startled. He had once
or twice seen seals disporting on these rocks, and on one oc-
casion a sea-lion—an estray from the familiar rocks on the
other side of the Golden Gate. But he ceased work in his gar-
den patch, and coming to his house, exchanged his hoe for
a telescope. When he got the mystery in focus he suddenly
Seal with a Kiss
89
stopped and rubbed the object-glass with his handkerchief.
But even when he applied the glass to his eye for a second
time, he could scarcely believe his eyesight. For the object
seemed to be a
woman
, the lower part of her figure submerged
in the sea, her long hair depending over her shoulders and
waist. There was nothing in her attitude to suggest terror or
that she was the victim of some accident. She moved slowly
and complacently with the sea, and even—a more staggering
suggestion—appeared to be combing out the strands of her
long hair with her fingers. With her body half concealed she
might have been a mermaid!
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90
Was it simply a sporting seal, transformed by some trick
of his vision? But he had seen it through his glass, and now
remembered such details as the face and features framed in
their contour of golden hair, and believed he could even have
identified them. He examined the rock again with his glass,
and was surprised to see how clearly it was outlined now in
its barren loneliness. Yet he must have been mistaken. His
scientific and accurate mind allowed of no errant fancy, and
he had always sneered at the marvelous as the result of hasty
or superficial observation. He was a little worried at this
lapse of his healthy accuracy—fearing that it might be the
result of his seclusion and loneliness—akin to the visions
of the recluse and solitary. It was strange, too, that it should
take the shape of a woman; for Edgar Pomfrey had a story—
the usual old and foolish one.
91
The Mer-Life of Hannah Fraser
The idea of real mermaids might make you skeptical, but
Hannah Fraser is proving that it’s possible.
As a little girl, Hannah always knew her dream was to
be a mermaid. At nine years old, she made a mer-tail from
pillow stuffing and fabric, then bound her legs together and
jumped in the pool. Needless to say, this first model was less
than efficient, but it was a start. Hannah wasn’t the only girl
who longed to be a mermaid, but, unlike other girls with
similar dreams, she never grew out of it—she grew into it.
Today, Hannah wears a refined version of the original
pillow tail—a tail that propels her through the water at
CHAPTER
5
M
ERMAIDS
FIRSTHAND ACCOUNTS AND
LIVING, BREATHING
(UNDERWATER) MERMAIDS!
Among the Mermaids
92
speeds no tailless human can hope to achieve. She is so com-
fortable and proficient in the water that she is able to swim
among whales, holding her breath for close to five minutes
and diving without the warmth
or protection (or interfer-
ence) of a wetsuit.
Hannah describes the first time she encountered a
whale: “It was one of the most unbelievable, awe-inspiring
experiences I can imagine. I had this moment where I’m
swimming out in the middle of a huge blue ocean, complete
depth, cannot see the bottom. Then there’s this huge
shape that just starts coming up—it’s like the size
of a building.”
Of course, there is great danger with this
experience—Hannah is risking her life to
pursue her connection to the underwa-
ter giants. She doesn’t wear an oxygen
tank, and dives fifty feet under the wa-
ter to swim with massive, dangerous
creatures. But her determination and
fearlessness have given her the
power to experience something
everyone dreams of.
Mermaids: Firsthand Accounts
93
As they say, with great power comes great responsibil-
ity, and Hannah is hyperconscious of her responsibility to
the animals for which she feels such affinity. She is an ocean
activist, which can be a dangerous calling for her mermaid al-
ter ego. She was once attacked by fishermen while peacefully
protesting the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.
(This horrible scene was captured in the documentary
The
Cove
.) But for her, activism isn’t a choice—it’s who she is.
The first mermaid convention, MerCon, was held in
Las Vegas on Friday the 12th of August, 2011. Some
eight hundred merfans attended. Stephanie Sims,
operator of
internationalmermaid.com
, hosted the mer-
maid pageant. Hannah Fraser cleaned up during the
World Mermaid Awards, winning World’s Greatest
Environmental Mermaid, the Lifetime Achievement
Award, and World’s Greatest Environmental Film.
Among the Mermaids
94
Underwater Visionaries
The Moken people of Southeast Asia inhabit the islands off
the western coast of Thailand. Known in Thai as Chao Ley,
or People of the Sea, and also sometimes referred to as Sea
Gypsies, the Moken have such vast knowledge of their sur-
rounding waters that they live off its flora and fauna. Because
of the amount of time they spend diving, Moken children
have adapted extraordinary underwater eyesight. Their ac-
commodated visual focus allows them to see below water as
clearly as most people can see above it. Though their tra-
ditional way of life is being threatened because of changes
in the neighboring communities, some Moken people still
spend most of their lives on handcrafted wooden boats
called
kabang
, which are equipped with bedroom, kitchen,
and living spaces.
Haenyeo: Free Diving Mermaids
For hundreds of years women from Korea’s Jeju Island have
practiced a form of free diving that defies mortal limits.
These women, who free dive with nothing more than wet-
suit and goggles (no tank!), can plunge up to sixty-five feet
and hold their breath for two to three minutes, and some
Mermaids: Firsthand Accounts
95
can hold their breath as long as ten minutes! They dive for
abalone, squid, seaweed, octopus, and other small shellfish
or edibles of the sea.
Dreamtime Mermaids
When I started writing a book about mermaids, I put out a
call for first-hand accounts or mermaid sightings. I received
a couple of amazing responses. This first one was sent to me
by Kim Gough, who owns and operates a mermaid-friendly
jewelry business at
www.mermaidseaglass.com
. This is her ac-
count, in the first person, of her experience while
on vacation with her mother in Ber-
muda. It is printed here with her full
permission.
Between the Worlds
We were staying at a new resort just along the
water at the Great Sound. I awoke in the
middle of the night to the sounds of
some type of singing, and to see a young
man with white skin (not human white,
white like the underside of a stingray),
and reddish hair that was straggly and
Among the Mermaids
96
secured off his face with an unusual clip. He had a heavy
brow with very faint, if any, eyebrows and a very small nose.
His eyes were sparkling, large, and looked black, with no
pupil that I could discern in the low light, and he moved
extremely slowly. He was attractive in a frightening sort of
way, if that makes sense. I could tell something was unusual
about his lower body, somehow I knew he didn’t have legs.
He slowly turned and looked at me as if surprised I awoke,
was very stern, and opened his mouth to show me his sharp
teeth.
I thought I was either dreaming or having a vision as-
sociated with the reputed stargates and electronic anomalies
of the area that I had read about. I hastily closed my eyes,
started praying, and fell back asleep.
In the morning, when I told my mother, she became
agitated and upset, and discounted it. Then she finally con-
ceded that she, too, woke during that night because some-
thing kept touching her foot. She said once she rearranged
Mermaids: Firsthand Accounts
97
the blanket, the touching stopped and she fell back asleep.
We noticed that the floor in the cabana was wet over half of
the room, even in the areas that were not suspended over the
water. The floor was very wet all the way around the bed I
was sleeping in.
The room was actually a small cabana situated on a low
cliff, with the balance suspended by stilts and crossbeams
over the water. It had a Plexiglas panel on the floor that al-
lowed you to view the sea life when the tide was high. We
can only figure that, if indeed this being was a physical crea-
ture, it must have entered the room via the floor panel. Sadly,
the resort, which was delightful, closed in 2009 and has not
reopened. Only a small section is still open in the form of a
local park.
I was disturbed and intrigued enough by this experience
to return to the resort two months later, and did not have
any unusual experience other than glowing light entering the
room from the water level, which could possibly be explained
I’m sure. The image I saw haunted me, and I finally drew a
likeness of him several months later. I purposely drew him
with his eyes and mouth closed, as I was still too frightened
by those aspects to depict them.
I return to Bermuda every year because it is a quick get-
away and a delightful island, but I will never forget that mer-
man I saw. I would highly recommend a trip to Bermuda,
Among the Mermaids
98
just in case there is a chance of seeing one of these beings,
whether they are physically solid like us, or som
ething in be-
tween worlds.
This next story came to me from two sisters who are in-
digenous women of Australia. Chrissy Doherty “Darlutta,”
Woppaburra Story Teller, and Sharon Hansen-Body “Da-
gulling,” Woppaburra Artist, have graciously agreed to let
me reprint their ancestral Mermaid Dreaming story. Sharon
and Chrissy are sisters, both great granddaughters of Gran-
nie Konomie of the Keppel Islands of Central Queensland,
Australia.
The Mermaids of the Keppel Islands
“The Mermaids of the Keppel Islands” is our dreamtime
story, passed down through many generations of the Wop-
paburra People, since time began.
The Pearl Givers, the mermaids of the Keppels, were
constant companions and protectors of our ancestors, and
protectors of our sea country, and showered our ancestors
with gifts. The mermaids traded with our ancestors, always
bringing them gifts from the depths of the ocean, pearls and
other lost treasures from the many shipwrecks that lie at the
bottom of the sea.
Mermaids: Firsthand Accounts
99
Our ancestors were master deep-sea divers, and the mer-
maids always protected them from the dangers of the depths
of the sea.
There are still remnants of our mermaids being washed
up on our beaches today. As the dreamtime story tells, all the
long conical shells on our beaches are the mystical fingernails
of our beautiful mermaids.
Another Sage of the Sea
Linda Wolbert is a real-life mermaid who quit her
9-5 job and became a full time, professional mermaid.
SCUBA diving, free diving (she can hold her breath
for up to five minutes underwater!), and swimming
weren’t enough for this life-long mermaid-loving ma-
ven. She now swims underwater with a $15,000, hand-
sculpted silicone tale. She performs at high-end parties
for celebs such as Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake,
but her favorite performance is her online show “The
Mermaid Minute,” designed to educate children about
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