Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/115

 Collectanea. 97

a jesting manner) that after killing a certain number of pigs (some put the number at ten) a man runs the risk of seeing the devil. The hole in the pig's feet is shown through which the devils entered the Gadarene swine. In the popular mind there is always a certain uncanniness about swine, which is emphasised by the belief that a pig sees the wind. It is further said that a pig cannot swim without cutting his throat, and so must inevitably die in the attempt to escape drowning.

It is strange that although it is unlucky to mention the word hare while afloat, the leg of a hare should sometimes, as Miss Cameron states on p. 302, be carried in a boat for luck. The fisherwomen of the Forfarshire village of Auchmithie (the " Mussel Crag " of Scott's Afittguary) used to be irritated by school children shouting out, " Hare's fit in your creel"; also by counting them with extended forefinger and repeating the verse: —

" Ane ! Twa ! Three ! Ane ! Twa ! Three ! Sic a lot o' fisher-wifies I do see ! " '

The unluckiness of counting extends to counting the fish caught or the number of the fleet.

While at the herring-fishing each of the crew is allowed in turn the honour of throwing the first bladder overboard when the nets are cast at night. Before doing this he must twirl the bladder thrice round his head and say how many " crans " the night's fishing will produce. Should the catch fall below his estimate, he is not again allowed, on that trip, to throw the first bladder ; but if successful he throws again the next night.

The Fifeshire fisher does not scruple to eat mackerel, but states that the Highlandman will not do this, owing to his belief that the fish turns into " mauchs " (maggots) in the alimentary canal. Miss Cameron can perhaps tell us if this still holds good up North. Is the idea secondary to the belief that the mackerel prefers to feed on the bodies of the drowned ?

The body of a drowned man is supposed to lie at the bottom for six weeks until the gall-bladder bursts. It then comes to the surface. A man's body floats face downwards : a woman's, face upwards.

' Cf. Clregor, Folklore of the North-East of Scotland, p. 200, where another version of the rhyme is given.

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