asking "to draw blood," and thus turn away the ill luck that was believed (Portessie) to follow such a question.
A person with flat-soled feet is looked upon as an "unlucky fit." (Nairn.)
It is a notion among some that if you see below one having an "ill fit," no harm will follow. One morning a Spey salmon-fisher said to his companion on meeting him to proceed to their work, that he had met a certain man well known as having an "ill fit." "We'll hae naething the day, than." "Oh, bit he wiz ridin, an I saw through aneth (below) the horse-belly," was the answer.
Another mode of counteracting the evil of an "ill fit" is to have "the first word o' the one that has the evil power," that is, to be the first to speak. An old woman of the name of P lived in Fraserburg. She had the repute of having an "ill fit," and fishermen did not like to meet her. She kept a cow or two. and pastured them along the sides of the public roads, and no one that passed along the roads ever could have "the first word on her" She made it a point of being the first to speak. (Told by a Pittulie fisherman.)
As some people are looked upon as having an "ill fit," others are regarded as carrying luck with them. Such as have led an immoral life, whether man or woman, are those that bring success, and the name of such a one is used as a talisman. Thus (Buckie) when beginning to shoot the lines one of the crew will say, "We'll try in 's name for luck." When the line, on being hauled, sticks on the bottom, it is said, "Up, or rise ." Sometime ago, the name of Maggie Bowie, an old woman, was frequently used. (Portessie.) In Buckie a talisman was "Nelltock," the familiar name of a well-known woman, and the saying was, "Blow up, Nelltock."
The cat, the rat, the hare, and the salmon are all bringers of ill-luck, and the words were never uttered during the time the lines were being baited. (Crovie.)
To meet the cat in the morning as the "first fit" was the sure fore-runner of disaster that day.
A. R, of Crovie, did not leave his bed in the morning without calling out "Hish, hish, hish," to drive away the house cat, lest it might be lying near, and thus be his "first fit."
