P. T. Barnum's celebrated "Fejee Mermaid" (half monkey, half fish), which is now at the Peabody Museum, Harvard, was only one of many mermaids made in Japan in the 19th century. Indeed, Japan was the "world headquarters of the mermaid industry," according to Richard D. Altick in "The Shows of London" (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1978. 553p). Barbara Narendra [log in to unmask]