The Origin The legend of mermaids have been around for so long it goes back more then 1,000 years. Greeks also have their stories of human like sea creatures, God Triton was a merman messenger of the sea. Also Hinduism and Candomble also worship mermaid goddesses still to this very day. The book "Arabian Nights" stated mermaids had "Moon faces and hair like a woman's but their hands and feet were in their bellies and they had tails like fishes". What Mermaids Are Known For One of the most famous chidren's stories is the " Little Mermaid" in some ledges mermaids will befriend or even marry humans like in the story. In many stories mermaids were associated with death and bad luck, and luring sailors into dangers situations even death. There are also merman that are known for summing storms, and sinking ships, even killing sailors. Real Mermaids? Sciences have stated that sighting of a manatee or other human size ocean animals could be mistaken as a mermaid, and these sighting could have started this leegend. There are thousands of mermaid stories that go back thousands of year and those stories are still around today.