Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/87

 Rh fisher-folks are commonly very fond, and "the dresser", which in the fisherman's, as well as in the country kitchens, stands underneath the " bench". Shells of various kinds, broken pieces of stone and earthenware, often called "lehmns", are used for dishes. The fisher-girl seats herself inside the house, and busies herself with the arrangement of her furniture and crockery.

(h) Gardens or "yards" are enclosed with a row of stones, or with a line of sand thrown up by the hand, and planted with pieces of seaweed for flowers and trees (Portessie, Macduff, Pennan, Rosehearty). The children of the country do the same. Only they plant their gardens or "yards" with flowers.

(i) Keeping a shop, or acting the merchant, and buying and selling, are favourite pastimes. A house is made as a shop, and the various kinds of goods are put into it. Shells, chiefly, but often pieces of broken stone and earthenware are used for money. The penny is represented by a large shell, or piece of stone or earthenware, the halfpenny by a less piece or shell. Silver coins are represented by the smallest shells, or fragments of ware (Portessie, Macduff, Pennan, Rosehearty).

(j) In bathing, boys pretend to be salmon, eels, or any other fish; and in Rosehearty the boys have in bathing a leap called the salmon-leap. The boys of Macduff use the expression "to dive like an eel". They also use the expression "to dive like a scrath", and they speak of "scrathian" to indicate clever diving.

III.—.

(a) A great amusement is to catch eels and transfer them to other ponds, repeating the words: