The long hair around the top of the head of the Freshwater Monkeys is well shown in

 this mock-up of a Grindylow made for a movie version: presumably the teeth

 are more like those of a typical monkey. This also shows the large glassy eyes

which are often remarked upon by eyewitnesses,  and the green colouring

 that is presumably due to algae and waterweeds clinging to the fur

In this one some of the hair is shown as spikes or horns,

 and this is also repported in some cases of Kappa sightings in Japan.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grindylow

 

Grindylow

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A grindylow or grundylow is a folkloric creature that originated from folktales in the English counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire.^[1] The name is thought to be connected to Grendel,^[1][2] a name or term most famously used in Beowulf but also found in many Old English charters where it is seen in connection with meres, bogs and lakes.^[3]
Grindylows are said to grab little children with their long sinewy arms and drown them if they come too close to the water's edge.^[4] Grindylows have been seen as a bogeyman used as a ploy to frighten children away from pools, marshes or ponds where they could drown.^[5]
Peg Powler and Jenny Greenteeth are similar water spirits.^[4][5]

Popular culture

Grindylows appear in the Harry Potter books and films where they live in the lake near Hogwarts. They appear as small, light green humanoid creatures with eight octopus like tentacles below the waist, large heads and big yellow eyes.^[5]
An unfriendly race called grindylows appears in The Scar, a novel by China Miéville. They are described as humanoid with grey-green mottled skin, large dark eyes, foot-long teeth and a single eel-like tail below the waist.
Evil aquatic monsters called grindylows appear in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.^[6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} The Nineteenth century and after, Volume 68, Leonard Scott Pub. Co., 1910. Page. 556
2. ^ A Grammar of the Dialect of Oldham by Karl Georg Schilling, 1906. Page. 17.
3. ^ http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-notes.html
4. ^ ^{a b} Lancashire Folk-lore by John Harland, F. Warne and Co., 1867. Page. 53.
5. ^ ^{a b c} David Colbert, The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter, p 111, ISBN 0-9708442-0-4
6. ^ Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 2. Paizo Publishing. December 2010. ISBN 978-1-60125-268-5.

[On this page aree several depictions of Grindylows from the internet. They match generally with the Central European Water Sprites and the whole category is much the same as the European counterpart to the Kappas. They are also sometimes called Water Brownies in Northern England. There are some recent reports of the frog-flipper like footprints from the central part of Europe so presumably they are not quite extinct yet. They would seem to be representatives of Tyler Stone's category of Freshwater Macaque Monkeys. The reputation for dragging people, especially small children, down into the water is worldwide, but presumably this is a warning to the children to behave themselves, as the Wikipedia suggests.-DD]

 

The bodies of Freshwater Monkeys are hair-covered but the hair can look as slick as that of a seal. The frog=like flipper feet are shown in tracks, and this representation accurately shows that the big toe is very much reduced: this is also shown on tracks that are thought to be authentic.