228 THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



** Wash me clean and boil me weel, 

 Pick me banes but dinna burn them." 



Mermaids are called sealkie-wives, and their seal- 

 lovers are supposed to be fallen angels in metempsy- 

 chosis. A mermaid had the ill luck once to be caught 

 on a hook and dragged into a boat. She begged for 

 liberty, and promised, if the men let her go, that any 

 wish they chose should be granted. The skipper 

 thereupon dropped Miss Mermaid over the gunwale, 

 and as she dived to her home she sang gleefully : — 



" Muckle gude I wid you gie, 

 And niair I wid ye wish, 

 There's muckle evil in the sea, 

 Scoom weel your fish." 



" Cheated, and by a mermaid ! " cried the skipper, 

 and only one of the six men belonging to the boat 

 took any notice of the sea-maiden's injunction. But 

 one did scoom (skim) weel his fish, and lo ! a splendid 

 pearl was found among the scoomings. 



I will conclude my fragments of our folk-lore with 

 the legend of how women were promoted to the place 

 of honour — namely, the head of the table. A Danish 

 rover, followed by a large number of fierce attendants, 

 made a descent upon Unst at a time when the greater 

 number of the " fighting men " were from home. 

 Those left were chained and compelled to act as 

 slaves, while, hardest of all, the conqueror and his 

 followers took possession of the Shetlanders' homes 

 and wives. But the women did not tamely submit 

 to such a state of affairs. They concocted a plan. 



