She is a woman to the waist and the water takes the rest. Fishermen describe her at about this distance and at about this hour, in the grey before the sun comes up.
Basis: Philippine accounts of the sirena · AI-generated
About the Sirena
The beings in the water that take swimmers down: one with a Spanish name and a European tail, one older and harder to see.
Maximo D. Ramos, Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology (1971)The classification of Philippine water beings, which distinguishes the older local figures from the imported mermaid.
Damiana L. Eugenio, Philippine Folk Literature: The Legends (2002)Collected legends, including the regional water-being narratives that do not fit the mermaid template.
Fray Juan de Plasencia, Customs of the Tagalogs (1589)The earliest friar account of Tagalog belief. Cited here for the arrival of Spanish vocabulary into Philippine water belief.
