ANTIPATHY TO SWINE. 309 



to speak of a clergyman, to call him " the man in the black 

 coat ; " the thing will be equally well understood, and can give 

 oflFence to none. I warn them, moreover, to be guarded and 

 circumspect should the idea of a cat or a pig flit across their 

 minds; and should necessity demand the utterance of their 

 names, let the one be called " Theebet " and the other " Sandy ; " 

 so shaU. they be landed on terra firma in safety, and neither their 

 ears nor their feelings be insulted by piscatory wit. In the same 

 category must be placed every four-footed beast, from the ele- 

 phant moving amongst the jungles of Hindostan to the mouse 

 that burrows under the cottage hearth-stone. Some quadrupeds, 

 however, are more " unlucky" than others ; dogs are detestable, 

 hogs horrible, and hares hideous ! It would appear that Friday, 

 for certain operations, is the most unfortunate ; for others the 

 most auspicious day in the week. On that day no sane fisher- 

 man would commence a Greenland voyage, or proceed to the 

 herring-ground, and on no other day of the week would he be 

 married. ' 



In illustration of the peculiar dread and antipathy of fisher- 

 men to swine, I give the following extract from a volume 

 published by a schoolmaster, entitled An Historical Account of 

 St. Monance. The town is divided into two divisions, the one 

 called Nethertown and the other Overtown — the former being 

 inhabited entirely by fishermen, and the latter by agriculturists 

 and petty tradesmen : — " The inhabitants of the Nethertown 

 entertained a most deadly hatred towards swine, as ominous of 

 evil, insomuch that not one was kept amongst them ; and if 

 their eyes haplessly lighted upon one in any quarter, they 

 abandoned their mission and fled from it as they would from a 

 lion, and their occupation was suspended tiU the ebbing and 

 flowing of the tide had effectually removed the spell. The same 

 devUs were kept, however, in the Uppertown, frequently affording 

 much annoyance to their neighbours below, on account of their 

 casual intrusions, producing much damage by suspension of 

 labour. At last, becoming quite exasperated, the decision of 

 their oracle was to go in a body and destroy not the animals 

 (for they dared not hurt them), but all who bred and fostered 

 such demons, looking on them with a jealous eye, on account of 

 their traffic. Armed with boat-hooks, they ascended the hill in 

 formidable procession, and dreadful had been the consequence 

 had they not been discovered. But the Uppertown, profiting by 

 previous remonstrance, immediately let loose their swine, whose 



