CHAPTEE XV. 



THE FISHER -FOLK. 



The Pisher-People the same everywhere — Growth of a Fishing Village — 

 Marrying and giving in Marriage —Newhaven, near Edinburgh — New- 

 haven Fishwives — A Fishwife's mode of doing Business— Supersti- 

 tions — Dunbar — Buokhaven — Scene of the Antiqumry : Auctimithie — 

 Smoking Haddocks — The Round of Fisher Life — Fittie and its quaint 

 Inhabitants. 



A BOOK describing the harvest of the sea must of necessity con- 

 tain a chapter about the quaint people who gather in that 

 harvest, otherwise it would be like playing " Hamlet " without 

 the hero. I have a considerable acquaintance with the fisher- 

 folk; and while engaged in collecting information about the 

 fisheries, and in investigating the natural history of the herring 

 and other food-fishes, have visited most of the Scottish fishing 

 villages and many of the English ones, nor have I neglected 

 Normandy, Brittany, and Picardy ; and wherever I went 

 I found the fisher-folk to be the same, no matter whether 

 they talked a French patois or a Scottish dialect, such as one 

 may hear at Buckie on the Moray Firth, or in the Rue de Pallet 

 of Dieppe. The manners, customs, mode of life, and even the 

 dress and superstitions, are nearly the same on the coast of 

 France as they are on the coast of Fife, and used-up gentlemen 

 in search of seaside sensations could scarcely do better than 

 take a tour among the Scottish fisher-folks, in order to view 

 the wonders of the fishing season, its curious industry, and the 

 quaint people. There are scenes on the coast worthy of any 

 sketch-book ; there are also curious seaside resorts that have not 

 yet been vulgarised by hordes of summer visitors — infant fish- 

 ing villages, set down by accident in the most romantic spots, 

 occupied by hardy men and rosy women, who have children 

 "paidling" in the water or building castles upon the sand. 



