Many an evening the five sisters would link arms and in a row rise up to the surface of the water. They had lovely voices, more beautiful than any human’s. Whenever a storm was raging and they thought ships might be wrecked, they would swim before the ships and sing wondrously about how beautiful it was at the bottom of the sea, telling the sailors not to be afraid to go there. But the men couldn’t understand their words. They thought it was the storm, and they never had a chance to see all the loveliness below because when the ship sank they would drown and come only as dead men to the sea king’s castle.
The Little Mermaid
Hans Christian Andersen