Note 23 — The Gratitude of the Samébito

Literally, "a Shark-Person," but in this story the Samébito is a male. The characters for Samébito can also be read Kōjin,—which is the usual reading. In dictionaries the word is loosely rendered by "merman" or "mermaid;" but as the above description shows, the Samébito or Kōjin of the Far East is a conception having little in common with the Western idea of a merman or mermaid.