468 A COURT CASE. [CHAP. x. 



As an instance of the many awkward contretemps which 

 occur through the multiplicity of similar names in the north- 

 ern fishing villages, the following may be recorded : In a cer- 

 tain town lived two married men, each of them yclept Adam 

 Flucker, and their individuality was preserved by those who 

 knew them entitling them as Fleukie (Flounder) Flucker, and 

 Haddie (Haddock) Flucker. Fleukie was blessed with a large 

 family, with probable increase of the same, and cursed with 

 a wife who ruled him like a despot. Haddie had possessed 

 for many years a treasure of a wife, but prospect of a 

 family there was none. Now these things were unknown to 

 the carrier, who had newly entered on his office. From the 

 store of an inland town he had received two packages, one for 

 Haddie (a fashionable petticoat of the gaudiest red), and the 

 other for Fleukie (a stout wooden cradle), to supply the place 

 of a similar article worn out by long service. The carrier, in 

 simplicity of ignorance, reversed the destination of the pack- 

 ages, which, of course, were returned to the inland merchant 

 with threats of vengeance and vows never to patronise his 

 store again. 



Let the reader take, as an example of the quaint ways and 

 absurd superstitions of the Moray Firth fisher-folk, the follow- 

 ing little episode, which took place in the Small-Debt Court 

 at Buckie, at the instance of a man who had been hired to 

 assist at the herring-fishery, and who was pursuing his em- 

 ployer for his wages : 



On the case being called, the pursuer stated that he had 

 been dismissed by the defender from his emplo'yment without 

 just cause, indeed without any cause at all ; and the defender, 

 on being asked what he had to say, at once admitted the dis- 

 missal, and to the great astonishment of the Sheriff, confessed 

 that he had nothing to assign as a reason for it, except the fact 

 that the pursuer's name was " Boss." 



" Ye see, my Lord, I did engage him, though I was weel 



