1 The vast ocean, abundant and beautiful. It emits a radiant splendor like that of a pearl, summoning people to explore its many miraculous secrets. The legend of the mermaid is one among them.
2 Mermaids: there are written accounts about them from the past until the present, in China and abroad. In the third century BC, Borassus of Babylon gave the following description in his Ancient History: “Her body resembles a fish, with her tail extending into two human-like feet. She has the gift of reason, guiding people to understand everything thoroughly, and she also commands people to act gracefully and kindheartedly.”
3 Also in the Hudson Logbook, published in the seventeenth century in London, there is a description of a mermaid: she resembles a woman with pure white skin and long hair cascading over her shoulders; whenever she plunges into the sea, one can clearly see her agile tail.
4 In addition, on the banks of the Vistula River in Europe, there is another legend passed down about a mermaid. At the time, there was a water demon in the river, bringing harm to people all around. A mermaid, with the purpose of restoring justice, heroically struggled with the water demon. Ultimately, she vanquished the demon using a double-edged sword forged for her by Wars.
5 Thereupon, people used the name Wars for the town located by the side of the river, and this hence is the capital of today’s Poland, Warsaw. Moreover, the image of a mermaid became the city’s coat of arms. Until today, a bronze statue of a sword-and-shield-bearing mermaid still stands tall on Vistula’s river bank!
6 An even more astonishing thing happened in the year 1830. In a national museum in London unexpectedly a mermaid specimen was put on display. Someone described its origin as being caught by a river in the eastern part of Suez. There was an endless stream of visitors.
