Mermaids and Mermen (i.e. sea-maids and sea-men), a class of beings fabled to inhabit the sea, with a human body as far as the waist, ending in the tail of a fish; the females of them represented above the surface of the sea combing their long hair with one hand and holding a mirror with the other; they are supposed to be endowed with the gift of prophecy, and are of an amorous temper.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Merlin * Merovingians