rejected both as ballast and as lug-stones for the herring-nets; but in Portessie a "boret-stone," that is a stone bored by the pholas, is looked upon as particularly lucky for ballast.[1]
It is accounted very unlucky to take a stone of the ballast from another man's boat, and, if one did so, he would be resisted. Neither would one allow a "waicht" (weight) of a herring-net to be taken away. These weights, used for sinking the nets, are small stones tied to the lower side of the net. A man had to cross his neighbour's boat to reach his own. In doing so he lifted a weight to use as a hammer to drive a nail in a part of his own boat. He intended to restore the stone; but the owner, in very surly fashion, ordered him at once to lay it down. The luck of the fishing was supposed to go with the stone. (Nairn.)
Some will not give away a "fry o' herrin," that is, a few herrings as a dish. The luck of the fishing goes with them. (Nairn.)
If one of the crew makes his water over the boat's side before casting the nets, the boat would have been brought back at once without the nets having been shot. (Porthnockie.)
When the herring fishing was going on in a poor way, in the words of the fisherman that told me—"Fin we wiz jist driven t' desperation," he would say, "Wife, for God's sake, turn your sark!" (Portessie.)
Another mode to get herring is to put the boat through the "main riggan." My informant said that a friend of his told him he once tried this "fret," and lost his "main riggan."
Another mode of securing herring is the following:—The "tail bow" (buoy)—that is, the buoy fixed to the net thrown first overboard, and, therefore, the farthest from the boat when the whole of the nets—"the fleet"—are overboard,—is cut off in the name of some one reputed as carrying luck. For example, a fisherman of Portessie would say, before beginning to cast the nets, "Cut aff the tail bow in Meggie Bowie's name," to bring the fish into the nets.
J. Watt was engaged in the herring fishing at Gardenston. He was not at all successful, and for over a week had caught nothing
- ↑ Folk-Lore Journal, vol. iii. p. 308.
