126 FISHERMEN'S EEROES AND SUPEESTITIONS. 



The destructiveness of these creatures has long been recognized by 

 naturalists and fishermen alike. In Bishop Sprat's "History of the Koyal 

 Society" of London, we are told that many years ago the Admiralty Court 

 of England laid penalties on those engaged in the oyster-fishery " who do 

 not tread under their feet, or throw upon the shore, a fish which they call 

 five-finger, resembling a spur-rowel, because that h'sh gets into the oysters 

 when they gap and sucks them out." Numerous accounts might be given 

 of instances when great damage had been done the shell-fisheries, particu- 

 larly along the Welsh and Cornish coasts, by star-fishes, in a very short 

 time. Oysters, not only, but clams and scallops of every sort, fall a prey 

 to some of the many spiny raiders, whose size or habit of living in deep 

 or shallow water fits them to attack one or another sort of mollusk. 



Couch, in his " Cornish Fauna," notes that the Uraster rubens, which is 

 called clam or "cramp" in Cornwall, and occurs there in multitudes in 

 spring, infests the fishermen's crab-pots, to steal the baits ; and a Belfast 

 man reports that he has. had star-fishes frequently seize his lug-worm bait 

 and be brought up on his hook while fishing. Mollusks, then, are not 

 their only food. The carrion of the sea is eaten by them with voracity, 

 and in this respect they are beneficial to us and the rest of animal life. 



I do not propose to give a history of British star-fishes, but before leav- 

 ing them must tell one or two superstitions attached to them by seafar- 

 ing men, each of whom is so ready to invest with supernatural qualities 

 every strange product of that mystery of mysteries, the sea, whose in- 

 scrutability and might impress him with supernal power, and excite his 

 wonder more and more the longer he is acquainted with its majesty, its 

 moods, and its inhabitants. 



Forbes records that at Scarborough the fishermen call the big Asterias 

 aurantiaoa — a very destructive species — the "butt horn." "The first 

 taken," he says, " is carefully made a prisoner, and placed ou a seat at the 

 stern of the boat. When they hook a 'but' (halibut) they immediately 

 give the poor star-fish its liberty, and commit it to its native element; but 

 if their fishery is unsuccessful it is left to perish, and may eventually 

 enrich the cabinet of some industrious collector." 



In Ireland, it appears, the folk-lore of this subject is more grum. 

 " The star-fishes are called at Bangor (County Down) the 'Devil's fingers' 

 and the ' Devil's hands,' and the children have a superstitious dread of 

 touching them. When drying some iu the little garden behind my lodg- 

 ings, I heard some of them on the other side of the hedge put the follow- 

 ing queries : ' What's the gentleman doing with the bad man's hand 2 Is 

 he ganging to eat the bad man's hand, do ye think?' " 



