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A Mermaid and a Magic Comb

The coast near Lizard Point in Cornwall is a place of great beauty, with steep wave battered cliffs, towering over little hidden coves and beaches. Here the sea has always shaped the lives of those that live close by. And, as many a fisherman knows, it hides many secrets and mysteries.

If you walk along the coast, you will find lots of strange things that have been left stranded on the shore. But none stranger than that found by an old Cornish man, some four hundred year ago.

The man's name was Lutey and he lived in a cottage in the little village of Corantyn (now Cury) near Mullion.

It was a fine summer's day: the sun shining in a cloudless sky. He was walking in one of the coves near the Lizard Point. The tide had gone out, leaving a wide bar of sand.

He was walking along, looking at the shells and flotsam that had washed up onto the beach, when he saw, in a deep pool left by the falling tide, a beautiful lady. She had long golden hair and was sitting on a rock. She seemed very upset and was crying pitifully.

As he came near, she darted from the rock into the pool and he saw, to his amazement, that she was a mermaid.

He was curious and a little alarmed, for he had heard many tales of the danger of such 'sea sirens' from the fishermen of Gunwalloe.

He wanted to run home but, thinking of her pitiful cries, he moved carefully towards the pool.

He could see that the mermaid too was very afraid, as she tried to hide herself in the rocks among the sea-weeds.

"You needn't mind me", he said. "I'm an old man. I won't hurt you. What are ye doing by thyself then, this time o' day?"

At first, she was too afraid to

speak, then crying bitterly she begged him to go away.

The old man again told her he meant her no harm but could not leave her when she was so upset.

"What saddens you, young one?" he said. His voice was kind and the mermaid swam a little nearer to the rock. She looked at him with large green eyes, and, after a little more coaxing, she told him her story.

She had been swimming near the coast with her husband and children. Tired by the hot sun, the merman suggested swimming to a cave they liked, in Kynance Cove.

They entered the cavern at mid-tide. There was some nice soft weed, and the cave was deliciously cool. Her husband settled down to sleep and told them not to wake him until the turn of the tide. Tired out by their play, the little ones too settled down.

She had left the cove to look for food and smelt a beautiful scent on the summer breeze. It came from the flowers that grew about the point, so she had drifted in on the waves, to get as close as possible. Her mind lulled by the sweet perfume, she had not noticed the falling tide, until she found herself cut off in the rock pool.

Now she could not get back to her husband and family.

She looked again towards the sea. Seeing once more the long dry bar of sand, she again began to cry.

"What shall I do?" she said. "I must get back to the cave."

The old man tried to comfort her but she told him that, if her husband awoke and found her missing, he would be terribly angry. She was supposed to be hunting food for his dinner. He would, she said, be sure to awake at the turn of the tide, as that was his dinnertime. If no food arrived, he'd raise a storm in his fury and would, as likely as not, eat the children, for mermen were very savage when they were hungry.