Captain Wiley says he has seen mermaids with the same long look in their eyes.
"The Maid of Maiden Lane"
Amelia E. Barr
They were spoken of as mermaids and Mermen, and as their lungs were not adapted for breathing under water, they had the extraordinary power of entering into the skin of some fish or sea animal, and in this way passing from their own abode to our upper world, where they held converse with mortal men, and, as often as not, tried to lure them to destruction.
"The Scottish Fairy Book"
Elizabeth W. Grierson
But to-day Linnet no sooner recognized the opening of the story than she set her face defiantly; and when Annet reached that most pathetic passage where the little mermaid glances down sorrowfully at her fish's tail, and "Let us be merry," says the grandmother, "let us dance and play for the three hundred years we have to live," Linnet lifted her chin, stared hard at the horizon and said resolutely-albeit in a voice that trembled a little- "I don't believe there are any such things as mermaids!"
"Major Vigoureux"
A. T. Quiller-Couch