"works oot," it is said to be "leukin for mehr," and more stormy weather is looked upon as at hand.—(Rosehearty.)
Many fishermen count it unlucky to meet with a dead body at sea, and some will not allow it to be lifted on board.
A Rosehearty fisherman told me lately he was fishing off Rosehearty in company with a fisherman from a neighbouring village. A dead body came up on one of the lines. It was proposed by my informant to lift the body on board. This was most determinedly opposed by the fisherman from the other village, and the body was dropped. Next day the boat was fishing on the same ground, and the body came up a second time, and no persuasion would prevail upon the recusant to carry the body to land. It is quite common for a boat, when there is plenty of fish on any spot, to return to it time after time. So the boat went to its former ground. For the third time the body was hooked, and rose to the surface, "jest as gehn it wisst t' come t' them to be beeriet," as my informant's daughter beautifully said. But it could not be. The fisherman was as relentless as the waves, and "somebody's darling" sank again.
The same fisherman told me that he was once fishing for lobsters and crabs at Lybster, Caithness, and that he came upon a human body floating. It was carefully lifted into the boat and brought ashore. The owner of the boat, a Lybster man, was not at sea, and when he learned what had been done he was both in distress and in a passion. He filled his boat with water, and for three successive days—Sunday being one of them—he rubbed, and scrubbed it. Unless it had been almost a new boat, in all likelihood he would have never set foot in it.
Other fishermen (Rosehearty, Pittulie) would most carefully bring ashore a dead body, as they have again and again assured me.
The presence of a dead body on ship or boat is supposed to cause contrary winds.
Eggs are credited with the same power, and there are fishermen that would not allow a single one on board.—(Rosehearty.)
Jessie Ritchie was during one fishing at Castle Bay. When the boat was making ready to return, she received most strict orders not to take eggs on board. She, however, did contrive to smuggle a dozen of them aboard without any mishap following.
