Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/85

 Rh baby, she will have a son as her next child, and if she meets a girl, she will bear a girl (Portessie, Rosehearty).

II.—.

(a) Boys and young men construct boats and ships, commonly fashioning them with a knife. They rig them with much neatness. They are named and launched with due ceremony, and it is a source of much amusement to sail these boats and ships (generally round the coast). In many of the villages (Macduff, Pennan, Rosehearty) sailing matches or regattas were common, and betting was rife (Macduff). At the village of Pennan, not many years ago, there was a regatta on New Year's Day for some years in succession on the mill-pond of the farm of Clenterty, when many from the village, as well as many from the neighbouring farms, met to witness the race. Prizes were awarded for the victors. In Rosehearty, New Year's Day was specially devoted to the sailing of their ships by the boys.

(b) In sailing their ships they at times put small stones or shells on them to represent sailors. When the ships came to land they were carefully examined to see whether the men had been swept overboard. At times, two or more were launched in such a way as to run into each other, and so run one of them down. Great is the exultation of the owner of the stouter ship (Macduff).

(c) But almost anything that will float, a piece of cork, or wood, with a feather stuck into it, the carapace of a crab, a shell, etc., is used as a boat. Rock-pools, pools left by the tide, pools near streams, mill-ponds, if at hand and of convenient form.

(d) A favourite pastime is the making of canals and harbours in the sand. The children dig little ditches, allow the water to run into them, and then place in them as ships and boats small pieces of cork, wood, shells, the carapaces of crabs, paper boats. The water is confined,