'Stay with me forever, mortal', the mermaid pleaded. 'See, I will give you a goblet of wine and when you drink this, you will forget your own world entirely.' And so saying, she stretched forth a golden goblet which was fairly brimming with what appeared to be the finest red wine. The fisherman accepted it, raised it to his lips and was about to drink when he saw to his horror that what she had offered him was, in fact, blood. He thrust it away from him in disgust. The mermaid, however, appeared not at all worried.

'You surely must be hungry', she said in the same silky tone. 'Let me offer you something to eat.' And, drawing back into the bower, she opened a small cupboard, beckoning him to come forward. He peered into her small store and saw, to his intense terror, that she had the body of a drowned soldier, still wearing his army greatcoat, stored there. The corpse looked back at him with unseeing eyes and, as he looked, the fisherman saw that its throat had been cut. With a loud cry he fell backwards, making the sign of the cross, and darkness overwhelmed him.

He soon came to, however, and found himself on the rocks in the Shannon amid the wreck of his boat. There he lay until his friends, who had been searching for him, found him and brought him home.

The unfortunate man's story does not end there, for tucked into his belt was the cap of the dead soldier and it was stained with blood. The police wanted to know how he had come by it and they arrested him on suspicion of murder. For a day and a night he lay languishing in jail with no-one to believe his story. He was sent for trial and might have been hanged had not several witnesses come forward to testify on his behalf.

The cap belonged to a soldier, they said, who had been a deserter from Athlone Barracks and, on being pursued, had cut his own throat and had flung himself over a bridge and into the Shannon. This was the very corpse that the fisherman had seen in that bower in the country far beneath the water, for it is well-known that such suicides often become the property of mermaids and other dark things. The fisherman was released and went straightaway to a priest to make confession and receive an exorcism. Thereafter, the wicked siren of the rocks troubled him no more, although she continues to be seen until this very day, sitting in the midst of the Shannon and gloating over every misfortune that befalls mankind. If you pass by the river shore late of an evening, you may see her yet. Only the sign of the Holy Cross will protect you against the work of such things. God between us and all harm!

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