6o INTRODUCTION 



there shall no salmon be seen there for a twelvemonth 

 after." 



Superstitions of every sort and almost incredible dictate 

 to the ancient and to the modern fisherman what arc the good 

 and what the bad days for plying his craft, or setting his sail. 

 Their cousin, imitative magic, plays no small part in deciding 

 his bait. 



But enough here of fishing superstitions. Are they not 

 writ large in Pliny, Oppian, Plutarch, in the Folk Lore Records, 

 and larger, geographically, in that masterpiece. The Golden 

 Bough ? 



The most incredulous, if there were one chance in a hundred 

 of the operation ensuring adeptness in our craft, would willingly 

 sacrifice in conformity with AustraUan superstition the first 

 joint of his little finger. i Nor, again, if only the most moderate 

 success resulted, would any of us utter a belated plaint at his 

 mother imitating her Fijian sister and throwing, when first 

 a-fishing after childbirth, his navel-string into the sea, and 

 thus " ensuring our growing into good fisherfolk." ^ 



^ John F. Mann, "Notes on the Aborigines of Australia," Proc. Geograph. 

 Soc. of Australia, i. p. 204. 



* J. G. Frazer, op. cii., iii. 206-7. 



