The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-11-02
A Baby's Caul.

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short of faith and preferred cork jackets, |
don't know. All | know is, that there was
but one solitary bidding, and that was from
an attorney connected with the bill-broking
business, who offered two pounds in cash and
the balance in sherry but declined to be
guaranteed from drowning on any higher
| bargain; consequently, the advertisement was
withdrawn at a dead loss, y and ten
years atterward the caul was put up in aratfie
down in our part of the country to fifty mem
| bers at half crown a head, the winner to
spend five shillings The caul was
won, | recollect, by an old lady with a hand
| basket. 1t is fact to be long re-
membered as remarkable down there that she
was never drowned, but died triumphantly in
bed at ninety-two | have understood that it
was to the last her proudest boast that she
had never been on the water in her life, eX
cept upon a bridge. DAVID COPPERFIELD.
TO SEA CAPTAINS "A BABY'S CAUL FOR
L sale. Address III - street.
Puddle Ledger advertisement.
Capt. John H. Young, United States
Shipping Commissioner at this port
was a sailor for fifty years, and he is
always willing for the benefit of others
to draw upon his almost exhaustless
stores Conformation gathered in long
and active life in all parts of the world.
Captain, | want you to tell me
about the sailors superstition regarding
'babys caul, " said visitor to Capt.
Young, the other day.
"A baby's caul?" said the old sailor,
in a sort of amused surprise. He gave
himself comfortable hitch, settled
himself in his chair as though a pleas
ant train of thought had been awak-
ened, and for a minute or two sat mus
ing upon the long ago, while smiles
played upon his weatherbeaten face.
These sailor superstitions," he said,
at length, "have mostly died out, eX-
cept among the very ignorant. Some
of them are very curious and amusing,
and do you know" he added, smiling
curiously, "that was so imbued with
those notions when boy, that L am
superstitious yet to certain extent
eff | were to take command of a
ship tomorrow | would not allow any,
one to injure or kill storm petrol, or
one of Mother Cary's chickens, as they
are called by sailors. In olden time
every sailor believed in the transmigra-
ton of souls. and they believed that
when a sailor died his spirit became one
! of Mother Cary's chickens, and that SUI
perstition was 50 firmly established and
so general that in an experience of fifty
years in seafaring life l have never
known sailor, not even the most in
telligent Captain, who who would per-
nit one of those little birds to be in
iured. They look something like a
swallow, are entirely black except a
small tuft of white that grows on the
"Pope's nose;" are web-footed, and
their legs are about four inches long
Their body is not bigger than my thumb,
and their feathers and down are so
long and thick that you can hardly part
them so as to see the skin. They never
alight, but are frequently seen hopping
along, their feet just touching the water
and their wings Tapping. have never
seen one sitting, and have never seen
anyone else who has. They are found
everywhere-in the Arctic. Ocean and
under the Equator, in storm and in
calm. During very heavy storms you
will hear them under the stern of the
ship, tit, tit, tit-tit, tit, tit-tit, tit,
tit'-one takes up the cry as another
leaves it off. They are very easy. to
catch. We often caught them, but al
L
is one curious fact which you may not
know. There is not a marine bird, from
Mother Cary's chicken to an albatros,
that can rise and fly from the deck of
ship. They will flap their wings help
lessly upon the deck, but can't rise.
9oa must give them a toss into the air
and then they are all right | cannot
account for it, but it is fact
60 But about the caul, Captain?n
"Ah, yes, the caul. 1t is an old
superstition among sailors that caul
insures to its possessor all kinds of
good luck, and gives him supernatural
powers. He will never be in want of
shilling. He can forsee and guard
against calamities; his ship never will
be lost; he will never be drowned; he
can gain any woman's love-fn fact
there is nothing he cannot do. He pos
sesses all the powers of one who has
sold himself to Satan, but without run
ming the risk of being whisked down
to the internal regions at last. | sup
pose you know" continued the captain,
after a pause, "that a sailor never
goes to hell? That was almost a uni
versal belief among them until within
the last fifty years. When sailor dies
he goes to 'Fiddlers' Green 'Fiddlers'
Green is the place where Davy Jones'
locker is kept. The locker is small
cupboard where the records of the
sailors sins are preserved. These are
taken out daily and read to them as a
punishment. The rest of the time is
spent in singing, dancing and drinking
rum punch, which is the sailors ideal of
bliss.
There is the Flying Dutchman
who is forever beating against the cur
rent off the Cape of Good Hope; but he
has been so well described by Captain
Marryatt that there is no use talking
about him. Whoever sees Captain
Vanderdecken's phantom ship is sure
to meet with rough weather, and the
luckless skipper who is prevailed upon
by the Dutch captain to take letters to
mis- friends in Amsterdam dead for
more than two hundred years) is
doomed to certain destruction. 1t is
easy to account for the superstition of
the Flying Dutchman.' Owing to
some peculiar condition of the atmos-
phere off the Cape of Good Hope, what
| suppose would be called optical illu-
sions are seen there sometimes. have
been told by a very intelligent captain,
and one not at all superstitious, that he
had seen there, apparently within