Book excerpt: Gliding, golden, half-fish, half-woman, hair streaming behind her: in ancient folk tales or films like "Splash!," mermaids entice children and adults alike. In artist David Delamare's richly imaginative paintings, they appear beautiful as never before, captured in a dreamy, wonderful sea world, embryonic in bubble-like eggs; gazing at themselves in the mirror; riding astride a dragon. "Also here" the deadly sirens, the "downside" of mermaids, who lure men to their death, plus Delamare's magical gallery paintings and book illustrations.