Page:Monthly scrap book, for March.pdf/8

 8                 THE MONTHLY

happen to stray within forbidden bounds, the first: glimpse of the inmate of the den makes him take to         his heels with the speed of lightning. In June, 1827, a stranger gentleman, while residing at         Cairnsmuir, came in contact with the eagle before he knew there was one about the place, and the onset was so fierce, that he was thrown down, and his upper garments torn almost to shreds; other- wise he escaped with a few scratches; and though his nerves are neither weak nor his arms powerless, he declared that he would rather face an angry mastiff than again put himself in the way of re- ceiving a practical specimen of the lex talionis. On another occasion, a very old woman, a depen- dant of the family, was seized by the gown, sudden- ly upset, and so rudely treated when lying on the ground, that the eagle, it is thought, would have made a meal of her face and arms, had not the ser- vants rushed to the spot, and indignantly driven the enemy away.

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Sailors' Omens.---Sailors, usually the boldest men alive, are yet on their own element very su- perstitious. At the present day they account it         very unlucky to lose a bucket or a mop. To         throw a cat overboard or drown one at sea is          the same. Children are deemed lucky to a ship. Whistling at sen is supposed to cause increase of         wind, and is therefore much disliked by seamen, though sometimes they themselves practise it when there is a dead calm.