Their oldest known appearance in print was the poem "The Asrai" by Robert Williams Buchanan, first published in April 1872, and followed by a sequel, "The Changeling: A Legend of the Moonlight.
"[4] The English journalist Robert Francillon, who commissioned the second poem for a special Christmas edition of The Gentleman's Magazine, had originally requested a piece inspired by legends about Bala Lake in Wales.
[6] In Buchanan's poetry, the asrai are pale, gentle beings, older than humanity, who fear light and live beneath a lake.
It seemed to plead for its freedom in an unknown language, and when the fisherman bound it the touch of its cold wet hands burned his skin like fire, leaving a permanent mark.
[10] In a retelling by Rosalind Kerven, the asrai appears with a fishtail instead of legs, and attempts to lure a man with promises of gold and jewels into the deepest part of the lake to drown or simply to trick him.