The Burry-man.
(Vol. xix., p. 379; ante, p. 89.)
I have come across a parallel, and moreover a Scottish parallel, to the custom Miss Dickson notes at Queensferry. A correspondent of Notes and Queries quoted the following from the Batiff Journal (no date):
"The herring-fishing being very backward, some of the fishermen of Buckie, on Wednesday last, dressed a cooper in a flannel shirt, with burs stuck all over it, and in this condition he was carried in procession through the town in a hand-barrow. This was done to 'bring better luck' to the fishing ..." N. and Q., vol. xi., p. 142.
I should be inclined to think that the burs were used as a piece of sympathetic magic, importing that the fish may be as numerous as the burs, and may adhere to the nets as the burs adhere to whatever they touch.
Difficulties of a Folklore Collector.
The collector in search of folk-beliefs and articles connected with them meets with far more difficulties than the collector of old china or other merely material objects. The objections to giving him information arise from a double set of motives, those of the ardent believer who will not expose sacred things to an outsider, and those of the unbeliever who refuses information about what he considers to be degrading superstitions or discreditable survivals. As illustrating this point it may perhaps be worth recording in Folk-Lore the following letters which I have received from two Roman Catholic priests, one in Brittany and one in Ireland.
Two or three years ago, one of my friends, while on a visit to Brittany, saw in the market of a certain town an old woman selling, for a few sous each, double or cross-shaped crystals of black tourmaline, which were found in the neighbourhood. Upon enquiring, he learnt that these crystals were valued as amulets by the peasants, not only as a protection against lightning, but also as a charm against accidents, and were often put in sacks of corn as
