318 " DIVISION OF LABOUR IN HTTIB. 



than the generality of their brethren. They purchase the crazy 

 old boats of other fishermen, and with these, except on very fine 

 weather, they dare not venture very far from "the seething 

 harbour-bar ;" and the moment they come home with a quantity 

 of fish the men consider their labours over, the duty of turning 

 the fish into cash devolving, as in all other fishing communities, 

 on the women. The young girls, or " queans," as they are called 

 in Fittie, carry the fish to market, and the women sit there and 

 sell them ; and it is thought that it is the officious desire of 

 their wives to be the treasurers of their earnings that keeps the 

 fishermen from being more enterprising. The women enslave 

 the men to their will, and keep them chained under petticoat 

 government. Did the women remain at home in their domestic 

 sphere, looking after the children and their husbands' comforts, 

 the men would then pluck up spirit and exert themselves to 

 make money in order to keep their families at home comfortable 

 and respectable. Just now there are many fishermen who will 

 not go to sea as long as they imagine their wives have got a 

 penny left from the last hawking excursion. There is no 

 necessity for the females labouring at out-door work. There are 

 few trades in this country where industrious men have a better 

 chance to make money than fishermen have, especially when 

 they are equipped with proper machinery for their calling. At 

 Arbroath, Auchmithie, and Footdee (Fittie), the fishing popula- 

 tion are at the very bottom of the scale for enterprising habits 

 and social progress. When the wind is in any way from the 

 eastward, or in fact blowing hard from any direction, the fisher- 

 men at these places are very chary about going to sea unless 

 dire necessity urges them. 



The people of " Fittie '' are progressing in morals and 

 civilisation. One of the local journalists, who took the trouble 

 to visit the place lately in order to describe truthfully what 

 he saw, says : — " They have the reputation of being a very 

 peculiar people, and so in many respects they are ; but they 

 have also the reputation of being a dirtily-inclined and de- 

 graded people, and this we can certify from personal inspection 

 they are not. We have visited both squares, and found the 

 interior of the houses as clean, sweet, and wholesome as could 

 well be desired. Their whitewashed walls and ceiling, their 

 well-rubbed furniture, clean bedding, and freshly-sanded floors, 

 present a picture of tidiness such as is seldom to be met with 

 among classes of the population reckoned higher in the social 



