88 FISHES OF FANCY. 



of the Sabbath, as he called it, but to neutralise his prayers 

 the fishermen made a small image of rags, and piously burnt 

 the parson in effigy. 



At Buckie, not long since, the fishermen dressed up a 

 cooper fantastically, his bright flannel shirt bestuck with 

 burs, and carried him in procession through the town in 

 a hand-barrow. This was done to " bring better luck " to 

 the fishing. It happened, too, in a village where there 

 are no fewer than nine churches and chapels of various 

 kinds, and thirteen schools. Now, whence arose these 

 ludicrous practices and credulities ? And how came " the 

 parson " to be a personage of ill-omen to so many fisher- 

 men? His influences are hardly less adverse than those 

 of women, and the practices which I have noted as con- 

 nected with the ill-omen of feminine interference apply 

 also to the clergy. The herring all left one part of the 

 Irish coast because they heard the new parson say he was 

 going to tithe the fishery ; and in Lapland and on the 

 coasts thereof fish need never be looked for where a 

 church is in sight. The Finns make the sign of the 

 cross when they catch certain species of flat fish, and the 

 Irish will not eat the skate (sometimes called the maid), 

 because it is supposed to bear a very questionable resem- 

 blance to some of the grotesque mediaeval delineations of 

 the Virgin Mary. 



The avoidance of the neighbourhood of churches referred 

 to above finds some illustration in the fisherman's belief in 

 the great quickness of the hearing of fishes. In Sweden, 

 for instance, the church bells are not rung during the bream 

 season, lest the fish should take fright; and where the 

 pilchard is fished, the people are no less careful of their 

 sensitiveness to sound. From this half-mystic belief in 

 the sympathies of fishes has no doubt sprung the idea 



