This happened in the Philippines. A washerwoman was doing the laundry by a river, while her daughter was playing nearby. Soon, the woman realized that her daughter was missing. So she looked everywhere in the village for her child, who was nowhere to be found.
Hours later, the child was found, safe...and happy.
"Where have you been?" asked the mother.
So the girl told her story: She met and befriended a mermaid, who took her to the watery depths. She was offered a feast, where one of the dishes was fish. It was a good thing that she did not eat the fish, or else the mermaid would kill her, because fish are the creature's friends. After the meal, the girl and the mermaid played. Then the latter brought the child back to the shore.
After that incident, whenever the girl sees water, she sees the mermaid's face. It reminds her not to eat fish, or else she would die...by drowning.
An elder told me that story when I was a kid. That is not the only mermaid story I have heard from her. But that is the only one I know how to "dissect" so far. First of all, the girl could have seen a dugong, which swims in Philippine waters. It belongs to the order Sirenia, which also includes the manatee and the now-extinct sea cow. Scientists say that there could have been a land-dwelling seacow as well. Seeing a picture of its fossil, particularly of its appendages. reminds me - and possibly the sailors long, long ago - of fingers and toes. At a certain angle in the moonlight, a sirenian with half of its body above water and seaweed on its head may really look like a mermaid. Also, sirenians breastfeed/nurse their young, and they are vegetarians; sometimes, fish can be seen to peacefully swim beside them.
I do not know 100% if mermaids do/don't exist, but there are some proofs against it.
The mermaid fossil exhibit of the 1840s was a fake. Who was behind it? P. T. Barnum, renowned for his circus. One of the mermaid fossils can be seen in the Peabody Museum of Harvard. The bottom half should have decayed with the upper part, at least. It is speculated that it is just papier-mache, which looks more like the "mermaid" at St. Bonaventure University.
In the medical terms, mermaid babies exist. The disorder is called sirenomelia, where the lower limbs are fused together. One sirenomelia case occurs in every 70,000 births, and since it had always been fatal, until today, folklore could have contained the hope that mermaid babies could survive.
Amazingly, within folklore and literature, the mermaid appears around the world as well. It does not necessarily have one fish tail; it may have two fish tails, or it can turn into other animals, such as seals or jellyfish. Some [pre-Christian] female goddesses were water-borne, like Aphrodite. The mermaid has long been the symbol for the woman in society. [Interestingly, mermen are usually depicted as ugly.] Ariel in the Little Mermaid is a stronger character than the original mermaid of Hans Christian Andersen. whose story exemplifies women's suffering in a male dominant society. But Myrivilis's protagonist (in The Mermaid Madonna) is still stronger and more feminist. Usually, sexuality is also discussed with regards to this topic. In the Elizabethan era, 'mermaid' was another word for 'courtesan'.
How can mermaids be a subject to blog about? It is interesting to understand how people are willing to believe in mermaids, how myth has inluenced our cultures, [how similar the world's cultures are], and how people depict them, since they have truly become the symbols of women in society. Many women around the world do continue the traditional mermaid culture of suffering from male dominance.
For more facts/arguments about mermaids' existence, I have attached my paper with this blog.
Some people can be physicaly made to believe mermaids are real, maybe by family, or sightings. I also noticed in this story, that it was a ''child'' who has said to have sighted a Mermaid, Who knows? Children are younge, and have a great imagination. Maybe that's a story, or a game she was playing?
I do wish mermaids exist, but it is a hard concept to understand. An creature that is half human half fish. Many people picture it as being like Ariel off the classic Disney film The Little Mermaid. I was a big fan of that film and ever since i seen it i have been fascinated by the thought of this whole other world in the sea, a magical place where they all live in a magnificent Kingdom. But what the truth MAY be is a little harsher than that. Many people say the sailors would often mistaken a Seal for a mermaid sitting on the rocks...
But refering to something that was said earlier about the mermaid baby disease. There were myths and legends that whenever a baby like that was born hundreds of years ago they would be thrown in the sea an killed. But the myth was that some of them survived, and could be seen swimming around the ocean.
So its a hard one to call, i think people often bring it up and say they could still exist and it would be nice to have some wonder in the world.
But why (if they do exist) can't we just leave it be, because its the mystery that makes it such a wonderfull concept =D
First, if this person really heard this story from an elder and if these are really their own words, then they have cut and pasted them all over the internet. I've found the same story posted VERBATIM in several locations on the interweb. I suppose it is possible that Discoverie is the original author and that other people cut and pasted her work. I believe, though, that Discoverie cut and pasted the story from elsewhere, and that the bit about an elder telling the story is the only original content in the first half of the blog. Just a hunch, though. I'm happy to be proven wrong, if possible.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Are real they are part of the fairy world so those who know fairies already know this. its amazes me how many people of religious background will say that they do no have to see God to know he is there. That they know becos of faith. it is no different with fairy's, merpeople and those who live in what is know to most as the middle earth. those of us with faith already know that.
mari
MERMAIDS ARE REAL! ONCE, I WAS TRAVELING ON A BOAT WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN I COULD SEE A FACE UNDERWATER AND A TAIL WHICH LOOKED LIKE HUMAN SKIN. IT SCARED ME BUT I WAS ALSO HAPPY TO HAVE SEEN SOMETHING SO COOL.
Well, I know some people go visit for example, the Atlantic Ocean to hopefully see a mermaid and skyrocket into fame, but I believe else wise.
I believe that Mermaids are real. C'mon people, have some imagination. But, there are a few exceptions really. What are the chances of someone actually sighting a mermaid? It seems technically impossible, is it not? But, imagination is key, and you well never know. Personally, if you want mermaids to be real, you just got to believe. If you believe mermaids are real, you basically never know what creation will pop up next. Scientists don't know jack about the Sea, really, do they? They have only searched a small percentage of the Seas and Oceans. Secondly, if mermaids are exposed to humans, wouldn't we want to capture and test them? So if they are real they probably stay well hidden unless they can have trust in us.
So my personal advice would be to just imagine and believe. Your visions could prosper.
yes they do exist. Mermaids are both human and mammal, they are normal humans just like you or me but as soon as they touch water they turn into there mermaid form. Not a lot of people would belive this but it is very true. So for all you know they could be living with you in your every day life without you even realizeing. I know that mermaids are real not only have i seen one i am one and it is completely up to you weather or not you belive me but i am 100% telling the truth. I swear
I believe in mermaids 100%. I think they are better off hiden then exposed b/c of all the harm that could be made on them by stupid selfish people only wanting to get famous. I think the movie "splash" is pretty close to what mermaids may be. humans on land and mermaids when they touch the water.
Well, hey, they found the giant squid, thinking it was only a myth, so why not?
Still, it sounds highly unrealistic. It's like the game "telephone"--you say something to me, and a hundred years from now, people are still passing it on. But rather than you saying "What a large mouse!" the world thinks "elephant" now. Eh, it's three in the morning, so if that came out choppy, as a writer, I apologize profusely.
good topic. Do you think they threw those babies with the fused limbs into the sea hoping they would survive?
www.worldcantwait.com
Oh I love the little mermaid. Ariel is so pretty as a cartoon!
Legands are fun to spread though.
Seriooosly, if we think about it, when those myths in particular were made (but still even now, for that matter), Man and Woman had a certain level x of tech and life experiences (things they had seen, things they had figured out) individually and as a Tribe (group collective).
So imagine the first time a guy saw fly-by by another guy (a messenger) riding a horse from a far away tribe of which there had never been contact with before. I mean, not every one learned to domesticate horses at the same time. The same as not everyone "invented" swimming at the same time. I can just see it:
-Im going to that island over there, im tired of looking at those weird colorful fruits.
-ARE YOU CRAZY! Poseidon Will Swallow you full like he did your grand-father and we will not have a complete Soccer team anymore.
That's why Legends are LEGENDS, Hats Off to guys and gals like that who get into the trouble of trying and achieveing things they have never seen or heard of before, and usually, against the opinions and judgements of almost everybody else around them. Weird mechanism, the body, brain-heart-stomach-etc. and then, weirder mechanism: body-body-body-body-body...
I'm wandering off the point. Mermaids are Real, You can Become one (if youre a Woman), just check out:
http://www.save-the-mermaids.com
(if the above link is off, try:
http://web.mac.com/regados/iWeb/Site/MWM%20Home.html )
Love & Trust & CoordiNation
regados :P.
Big foot exist too!!
I find this very interesting I did not know about sirenomelia. That's very sad. I love the water and have always been fascinated by it like most. I went to Denmark for my senior spring break and they actually had a statue commemorating Hans Christen, the statue was of the Little Mermaid. With stories such as the Little Mermaid giving us beautiful images of the Mermaid it is easy to see why we become so fascinated so easily, and I think in ways we hope for it. It would show their is other intelligent life. But do I personally believe in it, no. I think it would be interesting and amazing if it were true, but I do not believe it. If we go by every account of the mermaid we would have to take in account the stories of sailors who claim the Mermaid acted like a siren and led them to their death.
this is a good story. i am not a beliver but not totally against it. I have always loved folklore and things. i think tat it gives people hope and something to do. it gave the saliors something to hope for while out on long voyages.they were just missing the loved ones they left back on land. but i am sure it is probably just they sexist thing in the end?!Candice J.
that story about the little girl sounds like a filipino soap opera. no really it was. well i'm not sure if mermaids exist but there have been many folklore about them. i would know i live on guam where the sirena legend originates. the filipino culture is very superstitious, i would know i'm filipino, which may contribute why the mermaid legend has lasted this long. i think the bit about avoiding the consumption of fish is unlikely because fish is a main staple of the filipino diet. However the filipino culture has also had many reported incidents with the supernatural such as ghosts and witches even today. So maybe there is such a thing as mermaids?
No, mermaids are not likly really to exist. However, one time long ago some mermaid baby probably survived to young adulthood and became a very good swimmer and lived in a peacful harbor and swim out to meet the ships. Since she could not walk they might have let her live in the water on the beach so she would be independant. Sitting and sunning and doing her hair. Just the thing to set a salior on fire. Then one day she dissapears and they tell her mother that she must have swum off to be with the fish and they tell all the saliors to watch for her and it grows into a ledgend. And this keeps being told because it becomes sexual and they all wish for a mermaid to come out of the water in the sea and be with them. Then they say mermaids are lucky because of course a real human woman would not be acceptable on a ship (bad luck). And the ledgend grows from there as the men grow horny and lonly....
someone should write a story on your explanation. I think mermaids could exist, maybe not the super beautiful fish-human that we are familar with, but they find new aquatic animals, some thought to be imaginary or extinct quite often, maybe it'll be on the news tommorow ;)
Let's think of it the scientific way. If huge mammals took to the sea many million years ago to evolve as whales and dolphins/porpoises you think it would be possible if there were early man that lived near water and evolve like mentioned? The picture of the merman that is being circulated is a hoax, if there were any early human beings that took to the sea for any reason they would resemble fins and any adaptation to water like seal, walrus, manatee, whales and dolphins have. The picture has scales and fins like fish, but with webbed hands plus the arms shows no signs of flesh/muscles. Note how the dorsal fin on the donor has now became some kind of side fin for the merman, but where is the other side? If there are any mermaids or merman they would still be mammal like sea creatures with added adaptation such as webbed hands and feet, blow holes, huge proficient lungs so they can stay underwater for prolonged duration. Cross breeding a mammal with a fish is highly unlikely.
all the information you will ever need to know is inate in our subconsious-trust your deepest mind and there you will find the answer
Hi Guys,
This merman supposedly found in CEBU Philipines is a good fake. I found a statement from a Cryptozoology expert who works with the company Bigfoot who specalises in making wax models of Dinasours & other alien creatures for the movies. They have supposed to have created this model for a movie & one of their employees secretly took some snaps of the same & posted it on the net starting this international hoax mail.
Hope this clears the confusion :-)
Says Kurt Raymond Cabahug, resident Cryptozoology expert.
"The figure that we see in the pictures is obviously an uncolored/unpainted wax model to be used in a movie that is being developed by you guessed it, Bigfoot aka the Intl Academy for Motion pics in Mactan.
The pics are test shots, but one thing that give them away was how a Merman becomes so pale even out of water. Fish guys dont turn pale. Just look at Submariner and Aquaman, they dont turn ghost-white when out of water."
Hey, would like to find out and discover to be sure.Going to go on a sea expedition to find out the truth someday.
THIS IS A BIG HOAX! and the people of Cebu, Philippines did not like this story coming out. http://www.cebucity.gov.ph/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=3597078d77b1df6d39cede6b66444cee&topic=318.msg5992
Believe it or not. I have some photos of a merman taken from Philippines, if I'm not mistaken, the merman was found at Cebu, Philippines. If you're interested to see it, email me and I will forward to you those photos.
hey i want to pictures please i really want to see one please e-mail me at yasmine_abdrabo@hotmail.com thanks cant wait
please send me the pic of the merman?thrsfoster @yahoo.com I believe that they exist
Hi! I am not into mermaids really, but it does facinates me. I would be grateful if you could send me some photos of that mermaid found in Cebu. Is it true, when was it discovered?
Thanks a lot...........
shy
send me the pics to believe!
Hope you can send me pictures of the so called merman.
Mermaids are real and I have seen one before. While me and my family were in Catalina and we were going on a submarine tour and before we took off for the water I was looking out the window that lead under the dock and I saw something with a huge tail and I thought it was a manatee and I told my Dad and he said that it was a 1 in a million that a manatee with a pinkish blue tail could have that color on it or could squeeze under a dock so small and I was holusinating but I no what I saw and I know it was a mermaid
HEY MAYBE A GIRL IS CYING THINGS FROM HER IMAGINATION WE CANT PROOVE IF THEY EXIST OR NOT
I'm NOT SURE IF MERMAIDS EXIST i have herd and read many mer stories but we cant be biast about this becaues there is no right or wrong answer to prove if mermaids/mermen do/dont exist maybie a very long time agao they may have then but untill we do real research by taking sea samples and looking all over the earths oceans then we can/cant prove anything
i think that they onced exist because if you think about it we had dinosaurs at one point so why not mermaids and if they didnt exist then they may exist now or later on in the future who knows what god has planned!
sirenomelia is ...disturbing.
Yes, it really is. It occurs to a very tiny minority, but fewer survive. It has so many complications. The last one, Milagros, had her feet separated and will need so many more surgeries to correct the other complications.
I really like drawing mermaids and wish they were real and I was one too..!!!
I love drawing mermaids too and i wish the world would be mermaid/mermen centrial i really beleive in them if anyone who is reading this please listen: 1. Mermaids/Mermen don't like to be seen.2.If we beilieve in them possibly they might come alive and please children love to listen to mermaids/mermen stories so tell them about mermaids they will love them and the more the more kids love mermaids/mermen they might all come alive so listen to that :)
I think that mermaids and mermen are not real. But I also wished that they were and that we could see them.
I find it hard to accept the so-called Mermaids or Mermen... but the world is a strange big place and how much of it have we seen or existed long enough to asume or judge. Besides what makes us think we 'humans' are perfect examples of 'Earthlings' anyway... anything is possible. Who believed in dinosaures until proven. There is alot more to this small planet than what we know and ignorance does not help.
Hello some people think that mermaids dont exsist butt truly i do not think that is true because I relized while I was swimmig with my eyes open in my salt water pool. If you dont belive me so far listen to this. i slowley opened my mouth i was kind of breathing in water.So this is how i ended up on the web searching on symtoms of being a mermaid all day. I have dark strat hair with red,blonde,and orange streaks in my hair with brown sparkling eyes. people who dont belive in mermaids so far after this true story go check in your public library for mermaids.
Either you're joking, or you're just an idiot.
i think it would be amazing if mermaids exist!! but id be disappointed if they didnt look similar to Arial or whatever!!
i think mermaids could be real because i have friends that are philippino and they told me stories about what there parents have heard about mermaids. im a very gulible*spell check* person and i think they could be real i would like to see one some day.
Maybe they'll stay alive if you keep clapping your hands and believing.
i think that could be possible
If it is true, I just wonder how they really look like.
Like Ariel.
I always wondered how the mermaids knew that they were supposed to cover their breasts. I guess human cultures and mermaid cultures aren't that different after all.
Mermaids - regardless whether fact or fiction - are depicted by humans according to the social norms of the times. Aphrodite, who is like a mermaid since she is born from, is naked. It was Disney that made Ariel more acceptable to "all ages" of our time. But also consider the movie Splash starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, the latter who is a nude mermaid. But nudity of mermaids in the media can be considered as a portrayal of nature and innocence.
There's nothing analytical about my comment, its more of an experience but my former boss wholly believes in mermaids.. One time when I was working she commented that a mermaid was giving birth. I asked her what made her say that and she said that when the air is overpowered with the scent of the ocean when it otherwise wasn't, that is an indicator. I had worked near the beach and even though we were so near, the scent of the ocean wasn't as strong because of smells like car fumes, food, or people in general. I had noticed the salty smell, it practically permeated through the air it was so strong I thought it was weird. Especially when it smelled distinctly different than any other salty breeze. There must be some logical explanation to the scent but I just found it fascinating that a lady twice my age believed it wholeheartedly. Only in Hawaii, ey?