Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/359

Rh especially in the long winter, the instinctive belief in the supernatural is certain to be more active than in the minds of those who dwell in a crowd, and are immersed in business or occupied with frivolities. About fifty years ago a boat with six men, when sailing from Walls to Foula, was suddenly surrounded by an immense multitude of curious creatures, resembling, but with fishy modifications, men, women, horses, cattle, sheep, cats, dogs, and unicorns. The whole sea as far as the eye could reach was alive with them. Some just peeped above the surface, whilst others gambolled on it or stood on the waves and bent over the boat. Naturally the crew were much astonished; but they had the courage to steer through the marvellous throng, and arrived safely at Foula, where to the end of their lives they described the extraordinary spectacle to the present generation, who are as firm believers in its reality as the eye-witnesses were. They will not listen to the explanation that the apparition may have been merely what sailors call "a seal's wedding," assisted by imagination. They aver that every animal on the land has its duplicate in the sea; although these marine doubles seldom appear on the surface. Upon the keel of every Foula boat a copper coin is nailed to guard her from the attacks of a huge monster called the Brigdy, which, from the description, must belong to the Discoboli of the third order of fishes. It sticks by its sucker fins to the sides of a boat, and tries to capsize her, and nothing but copper will detach it. Where the precaution of nailing a penny on the keel had been neglected, a clog with copper tacks in it has been dragged in the wake of the boat, and found to be effective."

The study of this collection of stories, on the deceits and tricks of women, has been made accessible by the publication of the Society's