The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-07-18
THE WAVES OF THE SEA.
Queer SuperstitiOns That Have
Arisen From the Movement of the
Water.

The folklore of the sea is infinitely va
ried- All naratinle people have legends
! OF its origin, often of the most fantastic
kind. The idea of the regenerative power
OF the ocean is both old and widespread.
1t has found expression among people so
dissimilar as the ancient Greeks and the
Celts of western Ireland In the former
case it appears in the story of Aphrodite
rising from the sea, and in the latter in
the Celtic legndE of sea-born monsters
The ebbing and the flowing of the tide
are accounted for by innumerable myths.
many of which center round mammoths
OF the deep. Among the Maoris of New
zealand, for example, the tides were at
trtbuted TO the mighty and regular in
breathings and outbreathings of mon
Ster named Parata whose home was SUD-
posed to be in the great deep beyond the
hoI1Zon. Again, the notion that life Gibbs
with the ebbing tide, which Dickens has
Illustrated pathetically in the last hours
OF BarklS, is common to many coast and
seafaring folk
Many other minor classes of sea SUPER
sthions and sayings might be named.
Among these are various ideas connected
with the waves. For instance wave
names form a subject Of considerable in
tereSt. The names given locally to the
waves on different parts of the coast are
curiously varied and sometimes not lit
tie suggestive. Peterhead folk call the
large breakers that fall with a crash on
the beach by the grim name of "NorTawa.
Norway carpenters On the low Lin
colnShire coast. as on the southwestern
misunderstanding shores of these islands,
the grandly long unbroken waves were
known as rollers Tennyson once re-
marked that the waves which broke ON
his native Lincolnshire coast were the
grandest he knew save those at the
Lands End. East AngIians speak of a.
heavy surf tumbling in with an off-shore
wind or in a calm by the expressive
'.SlOcr' while q aT-l-c
swell, rolling in independently of any
wind blowing, is called a home
There's no wind" a Suffolk fisherman
will say, but nasty home on the
beach" The same folk speak of the
bark of the surf, and of the sea COW
cred with foam as feather white" while
the foam itself is "spoondrift.' 1.-THE sea
was all a-feather white with spoondrfft' -
The epithet of this kind most generally
familiar to landsmen is the name Of
white horses" given to the foaming
lite with the poets. Swinburne. in on
Shore" speaking Of the ocean, says:
But for hours upon hours
AS a thrau she remains
SpellbOund as with flowers,
And content in her chains,
And her loud steeds fret not, and lift not
lock of their deep white names.
The Russians on the Black sea. call
these names ''hareS,'' while the French
speak of a foaming crested sea as ia
Ai@L IDOQ lOitiGUSe. Matthew ARNOLD, III
the opening stanZa of The Forsaken
Norman" sings:
Now the great winds shorewards f1ows
Now the salt tides seawards flow;
Now the wild white horses play:
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
Most coast folk have theories of their
own concerning the recurrence of larger
weatherbeaten observer will tell you that
two small waves will be followed by
larger breaker. Somewhere else you may
be told THAI three strong waves in sue
cesSiOn will be followed by a feebler
fourth, and so on with tolerable regular
ity On the northeast of Scotland it IS
a faVoFite theory with the fishing and
seafarinG people that in a storm three
waves are strong and violent, while the
fOurtn is comparatively weak and less
dangerous. This succession they call a
from their fiShing-ground often prove by
experience the truth Of their theory, and
hang back as they come near the shore
to take advantage of the lu1 that fol-
lows, they say, pretty regularly after
three big breakers.
Any visitor to the seaside can test the
notion for himself, but he will find il no
easy matter to make accurate observa-
tons Moreover, the results noted by diff
ferent observers viii rarely be found to
agree Most careful watchers of the
sion that it is doubtful whether any OF
the numerous theories on the subject are
in close agreement with the facts or
whether. indeed, there is any regular re-
currence Of either strong or feeble waves.
The oldest and best known theory on
the subject IS thar each tenth wave IS
bigger and stronger than the preceding
nine. The idea IS as old as the days OF
Ovid, for the Roman poet twice alludeS
to the great wave that overtops it's nine
smaller predecessors. Sir Thomas Browne
descants upon the subject in his Vulgar
Errors" and declares that the notion is
evidently false. nor can it be made out
he continues, ''by observation, either upon
the shore or the ocean, as l have with dill
gence explored both" Other observers,
of equal diligence. have come to a con-
trary conclusion, and have declared that
a large and Overwhelming wave is very
frequently, II not always, followed by
nine and only nine smaller ones. But
the phenomenon, ii is said. is only to be
witnessed when the tide is flowing No
such succession Of waves marks the eb5-
ing of the water.-London Globe.