A toast, frequently used at feasts and drinking bouts, was:
"Health t' men, an death t' fish,
They're waggin their tails, it'll pay for this."
The Line.
When a new line was to be made by a few neighbours, it had to be begun when the tide was rising, and finished without any interruption, so that all might have a share in the "allooance," that is, the whiskey that was drunk for luck, on completion of the work. (Crovie.)
In Portessie, Buckie, and other villages, the first one that enters the house when a "greatlin"—a great line, that is, a line for catching cod, ling, skate, and the larger kinds of fish—is being made, has to pay for a mutchkin of whiskey, which is drunk in the house after the line is finished. "The line gets the first glass," that is, the first glassful is poured over the line.
A story is current that an old fisherman, who was somewhat fond of "a dram," had very often a new great line—"ane in the month" the explanation of which was, that he kept one by him, and, when he was anxious for a glass, he took out his new line, so that, when a neighbour came in, he was busy measuring it off, and working at it. His "teename" was Old Pro.[1]
The first hook baited is spit upon, and then laid in the scull. My informant told me that she invariably followed this practice. She also told me that it is a custom to spit in the fire when the "girdle" is taken off the fire when the baking of the bread, oaten cakes, is finished.
The Good and the Ill Fit, &c.
If one with an "ill fit" was met when going to the boat to proceed to sea, there were some that would not have gone till the next tide had flowed. (Buckie.)
There were some that, if they had met one who asked them on their way to the sea where they were going, would have struck the one so
- ↑ Folk-Lore Journal, vol. iii. p. 307.
