A mermaid on the hook

John Brand’s Description of Orkney and Shetland, published in 1701, told of two fishermen who drew up a mermaid on a hook. She had the face, arms, breast and long hair of a woman, and the rest of her was hidden in the water. One of the men, in his fright, stabbed her with a knife, and she fell back and was not seen again. Chambers noted that the story had reached Brand through a lady and gentleman, a bailie and the fishers themselves.