NOTES RE STORIES AND FISHERMEN

Legend says that there is a pot of gold buried under the well below Cadboll. People often dig for it in spite of the fact that whoever finds it will die within three days.

Fishermen said it was unlucky to mention words like salmon, rabbit, hare or pig. Salmon fishermen would call the fish ‘pink fish’ or ‘red one’, and they would say ‘twelve and one’ rather than ‘thirteen’.

You should not mention a minister while at sea, and if you met a minister while going to your boat you would step off the road and stay off it all the way to the sea.

You must not sing or whistle while at sea or you might whistle up a storm, but if you were becalmed you might whistle or else stick a knife in the mast.

It was unlucky to give a light, especially on a Monday, so if you had to give a match you first of all broke the end of it.

To get fishing luck you would pour water back and forth from tub to tub.

Gulls are lucky, because they clean up the shore, and if you are out of sight of land they will show you the shore is near. No-one would kill a gull though children might catch one with a baited hook to keep as a pet.