Fisherman's lucky jersey and other Shetland fishing supersti...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1958.183.2
Original Tape ID
Summary
Fisherman's lucky jersey and other Shetland fishing superstitions; sea words for taboo terms.
Margaret Umphray tells how her husband has a lucky black and white mottled jersey which he always wears at the fishing and an unlucky one that he never wears.
Fishermen have certain words that are always used at sea:
the minister: the upstander;
cat: scaafin;
pig: curly or hirkie;
seal: roundhead.
There are also unlucky people to meet on the road who can cause the fishermen to turn round and head home again. There are also those who are unlucky to have aboard. Whalsay fishermen did not want anyone on board wearing red.
Item Notes
For 'scaafin' see 'The Scottish National Dictionary' s.v. skaave (shave, scratch). For 'hirkie' see s.v. harky (imitative of grunting).
See:
'The Scottish National Dictionary', available online [[http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/]] (accessed 6 January 2009)
Recording Location
County - Shetland
Parish - Yell
Island - Yell
Village/Place - Bouster
Item Location
County - Shetland
Language
Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good