One such day he was driven to seek refuge in a cave, and came face-to-face with the merrow, who called himself Coomara (meaning "sea-dog"[4]).
It had green hair and teeth, a red nose, scaly legs, a fish-tail, and stubby fin-like arms.
Jack was then shown a collection of cages (much like lobster pots[b]) which Coomara revealed contained the souls of drowned sailors.
Coomara meant no harm, and thought he rescued the souls from the cold water to a dry place.
Jack had coaxed his wife Biddy to leave the house and go on a religious errand, and was now inviting Coomara to his home.
Jack offered spirits from his cellar, and planned on getting the merman drunk while he sneaked out with the cocked hat and go rescue the souls.
The first day he did not succeed because Jack himself got overly drunk, forgetting that he did not have the coolness of the sea above his head to moderate the effects of alcohol.
Keightley subsequently republished "Soul Cages" in his own work, The Fairy Mythology (1828), and in a later edition, admitted that this piece was not genuinely collected folklore, but a tale he invented, based on the German legend of "The Peasant and the Waterman.
After Keightley had prepared an English translation of Deutsche Sagen and read it aloud for Croker's benefit, Croker suggested the Wassermann "would make an excellent subject for a tale", and requested Keightley to write it, and he had complied (letter dated 13 June 1828).
vodník – Male water spirit from Slavic mythologyPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets