284 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



Sea the cod-fishes leave the sea bottom at night-time and 

 ascend to the herring-nets, from whence they violently 

 pull out quantities of the meshed fish and at the same time 

 occasion much damage to the lighter kinds of cotton nets, 

 in which they tear large holes. 



Superstition enters largely into the composition of 

 fishermen, and in the Banff Journal of 1855 it was 

 recorded that the herring fishery being very backward, 

 some of the fishermen of Buckie dressed a cooper in a 

 flannel shirt with bars stuck all over it, and in this condi- 

 tion he was carried in procession through the town in a 

 handbarrow. This was done to bring "better luck" to 

 the fishing. A century or two ago not merely effigies, but 

 living men and women were burnt on suspicion of casting 

 a blight on the herring fishery ; even at the present day 

 it is common for whale-fishers to burn an effigy in order to 

 " bring luck." If a ship has fallen in with few whales, the 

 crew attribute their bad fortune to having some unlucky 

 individual on board, and by burning his effigy they believe 

 that his malign influence is got rid of. The most un- 

 popular man in the ship is generally pitched upon as the 

 offending party. Sometimes two or three " pictures " are 

 burnt, one after the other, if luck is very bad. The practice 

 is a very old one, and is said to have taken its rise from 

 a similar custom which prevailed among the herring fishers 

 of Banffshire, by whom it was introduced on board the 

 Peterhead whalers. 



In Norfolk (Notes and Queries, October 7th, 1865) 

 we are told existed a fancy that fleas and herrings come 

 together. " Lawk, sir," said an old fellow near Cromer, 

 " times is as you may look in my flannel shirt and scarce 

 see a flea, and then there aint but a very few herrings : 



