A song from the rocks near shore. In the old stories, that's your cue to row the other way.
Kataw is a Visayan name for the merfolk of the central Philippines. You'll also hear them called sirena, a word borrowed from Spanish. They're most often described as human above the waist and fish below it, with shiny scales and long hair, though the details shift from island to island and from one teller to the next. One storyteller from Leyte explained the name itself as meaning "likeness of a person."
Recorded centuries ago
In 1668, the Jesuit missionary Francisco Ignacio Alzina completed his Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas, a long record of life in the Visayas. Among his sketches of sea creatures (sharks, rays, dugongs) he drew a male and a female catau. By then, the kataw was already part of how Visayan communities understood the sea.
Note that he drew two. Kataw isn't a word for mermaids only. It covers merfolk of any kind, which is why this entry says "they."
Field Notes
- Known for: sitting on rocks near the water, drying long hair, and singing
- Looks like: human above the waist, fish below, though appearance varies between stories
- Lives in: a beautiful house under the sea, or in some tellings beside a river, lake, or waterfall
- Said to want: fishermen, drawn in close by the song
- Also called: sirena; spelled catau or catao in older Spanish-era records
The song, and what comes after
A kataw may sit near the water and sing a song that's beautiful and sad at once, and the song is meant for fishermen. What happens once they row close depends on who's telling it.
Some fishermen come home with good fortune. Some lose their boats to a sudden storm. And some are carried down to the kataw's home beneath the water and are never seen on land again.
In Tiktik
The kataw doesn't appear in Book One. Emily's summer stays on land, with the Manananggal, the Tikbalang, and the Kapre. What the kataw shares with them is the thing this whole field guide keeps coming back to: there's rarely one true version of a creature, only the version your family tells.
Quick facts
- Kataw is a Visayan name for merfolk, also called sirena
- Recorded in 1668 by Francisco Ignacio Alzina, who sketched a male and a female catau
- Commonly described as human above the waist and fish below, with appearance varying by story
- Sings a beautiful, sad song near the water to attract fishermen
- Meeting one can end in good fortune, disaster, or being carried away to an underwater home
