Mermaids were supposed to be half maiden and half fish. They were supposed to live in palaces under the sea. In the pictures that were drawn of them they were always beautiful. In the stories about them they often came out of the sea to rest on the shore and comb their long golden hair.
P. T. Barnum, the famous circus once had a "mummified mermaid" in an exhibit. But of course it was a hoax.
The idea of mermaids must have come from something the people of long ago really saw. Probably it was some mammal that lives in the sea. Mammals cannot breathe under water. They have to come to the top of the water to get air. Many people think that the mammal that gave people the idea of mermaids was a sea cow— either the manatee or the dugong. But of course no manatee or dugong ever had long golden hair!
