Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-21
struggle.

|
 The houses of tLe western Highland and
 Island crofter. fishers are not bright places.
 Nearly all their cabins are built on a line
 with the slope of the rocky brae or hillside
 the rear roof-slope forming an obtuse an.
 gle. The walls are often not more than
 five feet high; but they are frequently four
 feet thick. Some are neatly thatched with
 straw. Most are covered with bracken or | heather.
 Some "beastie," a COW, sheep or pig has
 its psrtitioned byre within. The place is dark, damp, noisome. Little apertures, l closed at night, answer for windows. The peat fire which never goes out, and fills the place to suffocstion with smoke, is built in little stone trough in the center of the hut; half-bsrrel, set in the thatch- | ing above, answers for a chimney; and an iron chain hanging from the roof supports the huge iron pot in which the porridge, the potatoes and the "kail- -brose" are cooked
 The furniture is an odd tumble of sn- cient oak, cloudy delph, olden iron and pewter with Gaelic 'methers." There are square hunks in which an entire family might repose, hammocks from rotten nets, and ruder beds of lines and barrel slaves Creels and tubs are many and various. Chests black and huge are ranged along the walls. And there are stools and chairs constructed of drift-wood and tree limbs, and seats of square-he stone.
 Most of the able bodied men engage in the early summer in msekerel fishing of the southwest coast of Ireland. They are no more than at home from this when they depart for the northeast SOOttish oossy herring fisheries. If there be winter her ring fishing in the ses-lochs near their western island homes, it is prosecuted in small open boats of from eighteen to twen- ty-two feet keel, at much bodily risk and under torturous seventies of wind and weather. In these boats all the fire they have for cooking and warmth is kept in huge iron pots; and in sleeping they tlm- ble down snywhere in their clothing and oil-skins and cover themselves with rags and sails. .=
 The wives and daughters of these crot- er-fshers are, from the conditions of their | husbands toil, less fshwives in fact, dress | and custom than those of any other fish | ing community of Scotland. Some of | them engage during the summer season in | the east coast curing work. But all till | the little croft patch of ground; spin and | "waulk" or full" the noted handmade | woolens of Skye and Harris; and in their | ceildihs or gossiping parties knit, knit, | knit, with the same rapidity and as cease | lessly as they wag their nimble Gaelic | tongues.
 The lives of the esst-coast fsher folk are far less hard and sunless. Their houses are fairly good. They contain two and sometimes three and four rooms As is also true of the Newhaven folk, at least one room of the house is neatly furnished, and is always bright if hum ble picture of tidy-hsnded housewifery. On the Banffshire and Aberdeenshire coasts they are intensely religious, and .,s +-- theological questions They love dearly to harry and worry their ministers "out- side O kirk" with wise and serious ar guments. Their old drinking customs are dying out. Thrift, sobriety and excellent weekly newspapers are working & genu- | inc revolution among them.
 The herring fishing industry has with | in a few years given both the Orkneys and Shetlands unusual prosperity. as their | total catch of all fish is now equaling | one-third of the entire catch for all Scot land. Cod and ling fishing is extensive | ly prosecuted, msny of the Shetland smscks going as far as the Farce islands | and to Iceland. All the fishers of these | islands are crofters and seem to be pros- porous and comfortable. Croft holdings comprise from three to ten acres of ara ble land, with hill pasture. called scat tsld, in common.
 At each croft home will be found 6 few sheep, the feeces of which are never shorn, but 'rued," that is pulled; great fiocks of geese; often a COW; and always the stumpy, sure-footed little "Sheltie" or Shetland pony. These with the Shet- land women are the beasts of burden. The latter will step of nimbly with sev- enty or eighty pounds weight of peat, kelp or fish in their "kashies" or creels. These fisher crofters of the island as Ia akrfn and courteous, though underneath it all there is & grave canniness and reserve far eK- ceeding that of the mainland Scotch
 Next to Highland crofters all these fisher folk are the most superstitioxs people of Scotland. Their customs and folklore which have been the natural out growth of their vocation have been prsc- tically changelss for half thousand years; and their portents and omens are count | less.
 In Skye if 6 woman crosses the water where fishing is in progress, and among the Newhaven men if the name of 'Broun- ger"-that of an old Newhaven reprobate who was the impersonation of bad luck and once lived among them-be mentioned, fishing will be st once discontinued. Skye and Harris fishermen have been known to beat their wives dreadfully, not from any ill feeling, but to propitiate and attract | the fish.
 All Scottish fishermen note carefully the | first person upon whom their eyes alight | in the morning. Their '1uck" for the day will depend on whether the person was | well or i'll favored. It is 6 curious com mentary upon the standing and influence of clereymen among them that clergy man, pig or a cat are the most sbhorred of all objects as fleets are sailing out of the harbor The sight of either, or the dis covery of the footprint of & hst-tooted person in the sand, bodes all manner of i'll luck; and to utter the name of cler- gymsn or any four-footed beast on board of Scotch ishing-boat would render the offender subject to bodily peril, and st least destroy all hopes of success on that day.
 Along the west coast, however, they make better use of the dreaded cat. They secure favoring winds by burying it alive in the sands of the seashore with its head opposite the desired course of the wind. Up in the Shetlands and Orkneys fisher men wear 6 lucky belt containing dried of- fal of three different herrings; snd a per feet child's csul, which wards of evil in- huences and brings good fortune. hanging in the cabin of fishing boat, is worth from five to eight guineas in any prosper ous fishing village.