The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-07-20
SAILORS JONAHs.
JACKS sUPERsTlTloNs HAD STRANGE
FORMS IN EARLY DAYS.

al interesting chapter of "Supcrstitions
of the Sea" i'll Tho Century. After
studying them fairly well he doubts if
modern sailors arc moro superstitious
than any other class with equal training
and opportunities. He believes that
everybody is leavoned with supersti-
ton, notably tho noisiest scoffcrs and
those mountebanks, tho Thirteen clubs,
for these gentry protest too much. 1t
seems to be human instinct, modified
by racial lnhcritances and developments.
In tho youth of the world it's manifesto
tions were tho earliest recorded utter
ances of men concerning the visible
phenomena of the universe, and its grip
on simple words was an outgrowth Of
the fear of the unknown. Of all people
sailors must deal at first hand, and help
lessly to some degree, with tho most
unknowable, uncomfortable of material
problems, the sen, and it is only nat
ural that their folklore should be in
part land stories fitted with sea mean
ing and in part of blind explanation of
sea phenomena, both being maintained
valorously by tho grewsome conserva-
causes como to the rescue.
In earlier days superstition was rs
much part of every ship as tho water
she was to float in, for it entered with
tho wood scarfed into her keel and
climbed to the flags and garlands way
ing ut her mastheads. 1t ran riotously
at her launching, controlled her name,
her crew and cargocs. 1t timed her
days and hours of sailing and conveyed
her voyages. 1t summoned apparitions
for her i'll fortune and evoked portonts
and signs for her prosperity. 1t madc
winds blow foul or fair, governed her
successful ventures and arrivals, and
when her work was done promised Il
port of rest somewhere off the shores of
Fiddler's Green, where all good sailors
rest eternally, or threatened foul moor
lngs deep i'll tho uncanny locker of Davy
Jones of ballad memory
In many countries stolen wood was
mortised into the keel, as it made the
ship sail faster at night, though if the
first blow struck in fashioning this keel
drew fire the ship was doomed to wreck
upon her maiden voyage. Silver-usu-
ally a coin-placed in the mainmast step
went for lucky ventures, and misguided
indeed was tho owner who permitted
any of the unlucky timbers to enter into
the construction. Something of the ccrc-
moniOus character given to launchings
survives to this day. Where of old ships
wero decked with flowers and crowns of
leaves flags now fiuttcr The libation
poured on tho deck, tho purification by
the priest, tho amounting with egg and
sulphur, find their exemplars in tho
we'll aimed and wasted magnuns which
are shattered on the receding cutwater as
the craft, released from the ways, slips,
we'll creased, into the sea. Tho jar of
wine put to his lips by the captain and
then ompticd on deck, the cakes and
ale set before tho crew, tho stoup of
vino offered to passersby on the quay
and tho refusal Of which was an evil
omon-all AFRO realized in these saddeS
lustrums by tho builders feast in the
mold loft. Lawyers, clcrgymcn and
women arc over looked at with (lisfavor
on sailing ships as sure to bring i'll luck
Lawyers undoubtedly from the antip-
athy Of sailors to the class, Il dislike so
pronounced that sea lawyer is very
bitter term of rcproach, and "land
shark is n synonym. Clergymen-
priests and parsons-are unlucky proba-
bly, because of their black gowns and
their principal duty on shipboard-that
OF consoling the dying and burying tho
dead-though possibly because tho devil,
tho great storm raiser, is their especial
enemy and sends tempests to destroy
them. Women-who may reason out
their unpopularity?-saye that ship is
the last place for them, or perhaps be-
cause of the dread of witches, for of all
spell workers in human form mono is so
dreaded as the female brewers of hell
broth. Like the priests of the middle
ages, they can raise prime quality of
storm by tossing sand or stones in the
air and, like Congreve's Lapland sorcer-
ess, arc supposed to live by selling con-
trary winds and wrecked vessels. Ger
tain families could never get sea en-
ployment under their own surnames,
not even such members as were born
with cauls, for they wero tabooed,
barred And many animals-hares,
pigs and black cats, for examplc-could
neither be carried nor mentioned on
shipboard, save under very stringent
conditions Scarborough wives kept a
black cat in the house to assure their
husbands lives at sea, but on voyages
every black cat carried gale in her
tail, and If she became unusually frolic-
some storm was sure to follow.
Years ago OH board tho flagship
Franklin I'D the Mediterranean wa
had yarn that illustrated survival Of
this antipathy to certain forms of ami
NAL life. Two old quartcrmastors were
heard during the morning watch ex-
changing i'll the cockpit dismal expert
enccs Of their dreams the night before
One WAS DnrticulArlv narrowing. for the