BLESSING THE WATERS. 35T 



over their boats when they had not been successful. They 

 also made the sign of the cross on their boats with tar. The 

 sailors in the Island of St. Lewis had an ancient custom of 

 sacrificing to a sea-god called Shony, at Hallow-tide. They 

 came to the church of St. Malvay, each seaman having his 

 provisions with him. Every faniily furnished a peck of 

 malt, and this was brewed into ale. A fisherman was se- 

 lected to wade into the sea, carrying a cup of ale in his hand 

 and crying, ** Shony, I give you this, hoping you will send 

 us plenty through the year.'^ 



The fishermen of Finland believed that any among them 

 who created a disturbance on St. George's Day would pro- 

 voke storms and tempests. At Dieppe, in Normandy, even 

 to a late period, All Saints' Day was religiously observed by the 

 sailors of that port. Those who ventured out to sea on that 

 anniversary were supposed to have the *'double sight;" that 

 is, each one beheld a living likeness of himself seated in 

 •close contact, or when engaged in any work, doing the same. 

 If the nets were cast out, they were found, on drawing them 

 in, to contain nothing but bones. On the same day to- 

 ward midnight, a funeral car was heard driven slowly by 

 a team of eight white horses, preceded by dogs of the same 

 ■color. Those who listened might hear the voices of those 

 sailors who had died in the course of the year, Those per- 

 45ons who dared to look at this fearful sc^ne were doomed to 

 die shortly afterwards ; so, as the hour approached, every 

 house was barred and windows closed. 



The Russian Twelfth day (18th of January) is devoted to 

 the singular custom of blessing the waters of the Neva, 

 there being no parallel ceremony in any other country, ex- 

 <jept the practice once observed at Yenice, of the Doge es- 

 pousing the sea. On the same day at Constantinople, the 

 Greek Patriarch performs a similar custom by throwing a 

 cross into the sea, and it is said that skillful divers gener- 

 ally succeed in obtaining it before reaching the bottom. 



