44 INTRODUCTORY 



Macleod." To this may be added the story told 

 by Mr. E. V. Lucas (" Highways and Byways 

 in Sussex," 1904, p. 173) : " It was once the 

 custom, I read, and perhaps still is, for these 

 men (the Brighton fishermen) when casting 

 their nets for mackerel or herring, to stand with 

 bare heads repeating in unison these words : 

 ' There they goes then. God Almighty send 

 us a blessing it is to be hoped.' " 



Scottish fishermen also quote the Bible as 

 the authority for the herring deserting localities 

 on account of " the wickedness of the people," 

 pointing to Hosea iv. 3 : " Therefore shall the 

 land mourn . . . ; yea, the fishes of the sea also 

 shall be taken away." 



The old tenth century historian, Peter 

 Clausson, writing of the famous herring fishery 

 at Bohuslan, says that the fish in his time re- 

 fused in certain years to visit the coasts of Norway 

 and Sweden, and this is the reason he gives : — 



" The herring have disappeared owing to magic, 

 bad men having sunk a copper horse in the sea and 

 thereby driven the herring away from the coast." 



The subsidiary cause was *'the wickedness of 

 the people," as in the case of the present war, 

 according to certain theories, lay and clerical. 

 In 1549, when the herring fishing began to fail 

 once more, the Government passed a law pro- 

 viding that— 



'' Since there is danger that God may withdraw 

 his blessing on account of the great sins and vices 

 of inhabitants of the coasts (of Norway and Sweden), 



