The _Merrow_, or if you write it in the Irish, _Moruadh_ or
_Murrúghach_, from _muir_, sea, and _oigh_, a maid, is not uncommon,
they say, on the wilder coasts. The fishermen do not like to see them,
for it always means coming gales. The male _Merrows_ (if you can use
such a phrase--I have never heard the masculine of _Merrow_) have
green teeth, green hair, pig's eyes, and red noses; but their women
are beautiful, for all their fish tails and the little duck-like scale
between their fingers. Sometimes they prefer, small blame to them,
good-looking fishermen to their sea lovers. Near Bantry, in the last
century, there is said to have been a woman covered all over with
scales like a fish, who was descended from such a marriage. Sometimes
they come out of the sea, and wander about the shore in the shape of
little hornless cows. They have, when in their own shape, a red cap,
called a _cohullen druith_, usually covered with feathers. If this is
stolen, they cannot again go down under the waves.
Red is the colour of magic in every country, and has been so from the
very earliest times. The caps of fairies and magicians are well-nigh
always red.