fishgirl

A girl who catches, prepares, or sells fish.

The next new and characteristic objects that presented themselves, as we went up the quay, were the fishwomen, or fishgirls rather—for they were all young—coming down with their small nets and net frames on their shoulders, looking as stout and resolute as men; […]

You can see the sailors knitting there. And the old fishgirls in the Jersey.

A mermaid.

According to her own best calculation, Black Pearl had recently turned eighteen years of age, at the beginning of the summer. She knew, therefore, that she had not very many years of life remaining. Mermaids, fishgirls, of her age never did.

The Nereids have become sea-nymphs, given a fish’s tail they would be mermaids, as one may see them represented, though mermaids or fishgirls exist in the traditional undatable art of the Inuit, who I think invented them.