Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/88

 80 A variant of the last line is:

The formula in Macduff is:

(b) The children amuse themselves by catching the green shore-crab (Carcinus Mænas) called "the craib" in Macduff, and the eatable crab, or "parten" (Cancer pagurus), and using them as horses. They tie pieces of cork, wood, or any other light substance behind him, in imitation of carts and coaches, and then set them off to pull them. They at times take a few of them, hold them in line, and then let them go, as if in a race, on a given signal (Macduff, Rosehearty, Portessie). They also use them as cows and horses, and tether them in imitation of the agricultural population.

{c) The boys and girls at times amuse themselves by catching fish among the rocks and pools, cooking them on fires they kindle on the beach, and then feasting on them (Rosehearty).

IV.—

(a) The children of Macduff have a custom of taking limpet shells, boring out the centre of them, and then sticking them on their eyes under the name of spectacles. They carry them in this way for a considerable time when amusing themselves.

(b) The girls often gather shells, bore them, and make necklaces of them (Rosehearty).

(c) They deck themselves in seaweed. Some of them, as "belly-waar" {Fucus nodosus, and F. vesciculosus), they use as curls for their hair. The larger ponds of "bather-lyocks" (Lanunavia digitata) are used as waistbands, whilst the smaller ones are formed into bands for the brow and