Long ago, some beautiful mermaids were having a party. Just then, a young merman arrived and told the mermaids that humans had decided to turn the river into a canal and build a dyke that should keep out the ocean. All the mermaids were worried except the queen maid who doubted the merman and sent him back. After the party was over, the queen slept soon. The next morning, she noticed that the water had fallen low. She saw a dyke and fences. She was horrified and tried to clamber over the top and get through the fence. But her hair got entangled between the bars. Soon her long hair was all twisted up in the timber.
When the humans saw her, they caught her and put her in a big water tank. She was put on show. She could not survive longer and finally died. Then her skin was stuffed and glass eyes put in, where her shining orbs had been. The body was mounted in the museum. So the mermaid, all because of her entanglement in the fence, was more famous when stuffed than when living, while all her young friends and older relatives were forgotten.
