One Thousand and One Nights: Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman Brief Plot

      "The main character, Abdullah the Fisherman, gains the ability to breathe underwater and discovers an underwater society that is portrayed as an inverted reflection of society on land. The underwater society follows a form of primitive communism where concepts like money and clothing do not exist."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid#One_Thousand_and_One_Nights

http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/Vol_9/tale163.htm