Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/86

 78 and, when everything is ready, the sluice is removed, and the water flows away, carrying with it all the little craft. A wide space is often made at one end in imitation of a harbour, and at other times a harbour is made at each end. The children of Rosehearty used to make "bridges", that is, locks in their canals, in imitation of the Caledonian Canal. The boys of Macduff built harbours, filled them with water, and at times put pieces of wood across their mouths in imitation of booms. In Portessie such structures are called "shories". This name arises, likely, from the fact that there were in many of the fishing villages no built harbours, but only natural creeks, or well-sheltered pieces of shore, commonly called "the shore".

(e) The catching of fish is often imitated. So many of the players act as fish, and so many as fishermen. The lines are thrown, and the children that represent fish seize the line, sometimes in their teeth, and sometimes the line is thrown round them. They are pulled ashore, and then the whole process of cleaning the fish is gone through, the first step always being to imitate the cutting of the throat. After being dressed, sand is sprinkled over them for salt (Portessie, Macduff, Rosehearty).

(f) The boys and girls often imitate the arrival of the boats from the fishing ground. The fish, for which small stones are used, are divided in the usual way, and then carried up and dressed, and the "skulls", or baskets with the lines, are brought ashore with all formality (Portessie, Macduff, Rosehearty).

(g) A common amusement is the making of "houses" and gardens on the beach or smooth grassy spots convenient. This is done by laying stones in a line on the sand or grass in the form of a house. Porches are sometimes added, as well as other houses for other purposes. Furniture, in the shape of small stones, pieces of wood, limpets, or the bones of the larger fish are put into them. There are always two pieces of furniture, "the bench", a kind of open cupboard for holding stoneware, of which