According to Professor MPGU, historian A. V. Pyrykova, mermaids are not magical creatures, but quite real women who engaged in pearl fishery in Russia.
For a long time, there was a pearl fishing. A. V. Pyzhikov connected this fishery with the origin of the legends of mermaids. According to the historian, there was a female rite of category in the old days, after which the girls just became pearls from the river bottom.
But for the ritual it was necessary to make a special ointment. A. V. Pyzhikov notes that they made it from the boots toads, the herbs of Chilibuhi (perhaps from some other), in which there was atropine, and "algae with pheromones".
The "magic" mixture was applied to the skin, and then put a girl into the water for a few minutes. The procedure needed to repeat many times. With each time the duration of finding a girl in water increased. So she studied to be underwater for a long time, opened "skin breathing".
In Russia, it was believed that the poison of the toad was able to reveal the pores of the skin for the receipt of oxygen, it was precisely in this that a "Magic Mazi" is buried. According to A. V. Pyzikova, girls could be under water about 30-40 minutes. Wow!
And the girls who have passed the initiation, went to extract pearls. Particularly valuable was the scathing pearls, which was distinguished by an ideal round form. If you put it on a skip and slightly tilt it, then pearls easily rolled. They were decorated with Kokoshnikov, made beads and earrings.
The rest of the pearl was used for medicinal purposes. According to A. V. Pyzhikova, he was burned, crushed so that the ash was turned out. The peasants used pearl ashes instead of salt, which was very expensive in Russia.
So, according to A. V. Pyzikova, the mermaids were the most ordinary peasant girls who could be about to be under water and produce pearls. The historian is confident that the Russian peasants in the old days disassembled in the phenomena of nature much better than modern society!
According to Pyrykova, the aquaculture of Russia was lost due to the decrees of Peter I. The historian leads as an example of a decree of June 8, 1721 "On pearl fishing". Like, the sovereign learned about the special skills of the peasants to extract pearls in the rivers and ordered to prohibit this activity. And the church began to call girls-raised pearls mermaids and witch.
Since then, the image of the mermaid has been correlated with evil spirits. For the preparation of "magic" ointments and participation in the girls' rites was waiting for punishment. But Peter I did not manage to establish the prey of pearls. Probably because I did not know the ointment recipe from the poison of toads.
Research A. V. Pyzhikova is of interest, but was it all so? Pearl mining in Russia is actually an old fishery that historians have long been known.
There is evidence that pearl mining began with the XV century and lasted until the 20s of the XX century. Watch the video of 1991, grandmothers tell about how pearls mined.
Peter I also knew about the extraction of pearls. Otherwise it would be strange that everyone knows about it, only Peter I do not know. By decrees, he forbade illegal catch, because this activity was necessary to control.
The main reason for the extinction of national fishery is the deterioration of ecology and a reduction in the population of mollusks. For the habitat of mollusks, clean flowing water is needed with a minimum content of lime and the presence of fish of salmon family in rivers, which spread mollusk larvae.
Red fish was intensely caught, and the rivers were polluted by waste. No red fish, which means there are no clams and pearls. Therefore, in the extinction of pearl fishery, society is guilty as a whole, and not only nobles and Peter I.
Another important point. There are many scientific sources about pearl fishery from which you can find out how pearls mined. For example, read an excerpt from the scientific article "Historical geography of pearl fishing in the rivers of the Southern White Sea" (Yu.V. Bespalova, I.N. Bolotov, A.A. Makhrov, I.V. Vekrev):
For pearl production, it was not necessary to be under water 30-40 minutes. It was enough to just reach your hand to the bottom or use the wooden pole. So, the rite of date was not carried out? Maybe it was carried out, but not for the mining of pearls.
Surely you remember Russian folk fairy tales, in which girls turned out to be for a long time in the water, but then returned home alive and healthy. For example, Alyonushka from the fairy tale "Sister Alyonushka and Brantz Ivanushka" was long at the bottom of the river and remained alive.
In the fairy tale "Girl in the Well", the girl at all jumped into a well for Spherical, which dropped into the water, but then returned home with riches. Most likely, you are more famous for the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm "Mrs. Meltelitsa" with a similar plot.
These plots could be associated with the very rite of water. But this topic has been studied little! Therefore, I do not exclude that such an initiation could exist.
But the study of A. V. Pyzikov still remains, therefore it is impossible to say that the image of the mermaid appeared thanks to the peasants who simply mined the pearls.