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Fishermen's
Superstitions
For
several years I have been in the habit of spending part of every
summer in a Fife fishing village, and mixing a good deal amongst
the old men who are past going to sea. They are delightful company,
and, over a dram, splendid storytellers. There are a great many
superstitions alive among them. They will laugh at them in conversation,
but one can see they guard well against them.
If one man was to ask a match from another on a Monday. the giver
would break a bit off the end of it, so as not to part with his
luck for the week. They will on no account part with salt, especially
at sea, as to part with salt is to part with luck. They won't
speak about pigs, and if any one was to mention pork on board,
it would be sure to bring on a storm. Rabbits are the same. I
have heard them tell of a boat’s crew who landed on the May,
killed some rabbits and started for home but were lost on the
voyage. It was the rabbits.
They do not speak of the minister, as to do so is very unlucky.
They call him “the man who lives at so-and-so.” Any
boat who would give a minister a passage would have a stormy journey.
Any one on their pier with a black coat on is unlucky. Flat-footed
folk are unlucky. I have myself seen women go out of their road
or turn back rather than pass a man with his fishing clothes on
going off to sea. To cross his path or to pass him takes away
his luck.
The younger generation do not pay so much attention to these things
; still, they have been reared amongst them, and they form part
of their character.
The Weekly Scotsman.
Leven
Miss Betsy Birrell states that when her father had occasion to
go out to his boat after dark, as he had sometimes to do, preparatory
to the adventure the following morning, he would not return to
the house by the door, unless it was opened for him from the inside;
if the family were in bed, he would go round to the back of the
house and get in by the window. He alleged that the witches always
smeared his door-handle with butter after dark; and that to touch
witch-butter would be detrimental to his next day’s catch,
loss of tackle, broken bones, or general bad luck. Miss Betsy’s
father died about forty-five years ago.
Buckhaven
The fishers look on all maukens [hares] to be devils and witches,
and if they but see the sight of a dead mauken, it sets them a
trembling. Maukens are most terrible, and have bad luck, none
will go to sea that day they see a Mauken, or if a wretched body
put in a mauken’s fit in their creels, they need not lift
them that day, as it will be bad luck, either broken backs, or
legs, or arms, or hear bad accounts of the boats at sea.
St. Monans
Friday is ominous of evil, and no enterprise can succeed which
commences on that day, a tradition being still in existence that
St. Monan perished on Friday in a conflict with the malignant
spirits. These superstitious ideas are, however, gradually declining,
although a considerable remnant is still visible.
Jack, p. 75.
Charlestown
The superstitious feeling regarding the unluckiness of Friday
continued to abide in the minds of many, especially of those in
the seafaring trade. While Friday was considered an unlucky day,
Sunday was thought to be the reverse, hence the old maxim,”
Sunday sail, never fail.” This feeling has now almost vanished,
but at that time some ship captains stoutly objected to sail on
that day, or even on any other week-day, if they happened to meet
on the morning of sailing with any one who was considered an unlucky
person.
Stewart, p. 41.
St. Monans
Superstition held despotic sway over the inhabitants. There was
always one amongst themselves on whom they looked with superstitious
veneration, and by whose opinions their movements were generally
regulated. How he acquired his pre-eminence is not fully ascertained.
.
Under the baronship of Sir David Leslie [17th century], the oracle
announced a valuable improvement in the science of demonology,
touching the method of dissolving spell and removing enchantment.
He experimentally proved that cold iron touched and named at the
same instant, in any place, was an effectual antidote against
the baleful effects of infernal sights, names, and cantrips, thus
superseding the necessity of waiting the flux and reflux of the
tide, or running to the kirk-stile and calling on the saint, either
of which was extremely inconvenient and frequently unattainable.
Jack, p. 34.
Charlestown
An old experienced and efficient boatman at Limekilns and Charlestown,
named John Knox, who will be remembered by many in connection
with the Stirling and Grantown steamers, was in his younger days
a sailor in a small sloop. The said vessel had got her cargo of
lime all on board, but unfortunately had lain at Charlestown windbound
for a fortnight. One fine morning a fair wind sprang up, and John
and the mate got the vessel all ready for proceeding to sea. They
were now only waiting the arrival of the skipper, who soon made
his appearance. He at once told the men that it was of no use
going to sea that day, for he had just met on his way to the ship
that auld body Lizzie C——! This captain and others,
when they passed “Auld Lizzie” on the road always put
themselves between her and the sun. They thought she was endowed
with the gift of second sight. This gift of second sight, as it
was called, was possessed chiefly by the aged, those in “
the sunset of life,” hence the well-known words of the wizard
in Lochiel’s Warning:
“‘Tis
the sunset of life gives us mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.”
Stewart,
pp. 41-42.
Earlsferry
In Earlsferry the tradition is rife that the descendants of the
men who ferried the Earl [Macduff] over are still known, and Saturday
is counted a lucky day because on that day he is said to have
crossed the Forth.
Wood.
St. Monans
The herring fishing is a peculiar season, as it is generally more
productive than any other, and there are more superstitions connected
with it in many cases. When a boat returns in the morning. you
may, with all freedom, ask where they have been fishing during
the night, for, whether successful or otherwise, you will receive
a polite answer; but when outward bound, no man may say, “Where
are you going?” unless he be prepared to receive a broadside,
this query being deemed very unlucky. To mention the surname of
certain individuals at such a season is fraught with incalculable
evil; therefore it is studiously avoided, they being called by
the surname of their wives, and if single, they are surnamed after
their place of residence, such as, the Wynd, the Nook, the Brae,
etc.
Jack, p. 164.
St
Monans
Till of late, there was no bell in the [Church] steeple, but this
deficiency was made up by one suspended from a tree in the churchyard.
This bell was regularly taken down during the herring-fishing
season, it being alleged that the sound of the bell terrified
and scared away the fish. On one occasion, however, this precaution
was omitted, and the beadle commenced ringing the bell as usual,
when the whole inhabitants of the Nether-town rushed simultaneously
from their domiciles, as if the town had been in flames, ran furiously
forward to the churchyard, threw the beadle over the wall,
broke down the tree, and dashed the bell in pieces; and since
that period, up to the nineteenth century, the beadle stood at
the church door, ringing a hand-bell, to signify that public worship
was about to commence.
This species of superstition received on this occasion considerable
circumstantial support; for, before Monday, the fish, as it frequently
happens, had shifted, and there was no take. The conclusion immediately
was, the infernals, ever intent on mischief, being insulted by
the kirk bell, had gratified their malice by carrying off the
herrings or warping the nets in a spell.
JacK, pp. 72-3.
Crail
It is no less remarkable than true, that both in ancient and modern
ages, a curious belief has existed on this coast, that should
a man during the space of seven years make a regular excursion
along the sea-beach every morning before the sun shows himself
above the horizon, he would at the termination of that period,
secure his fortune by discovering some casket of valuable treasure
cast on shore by the waves.
Jack, p. 183.
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