Arthur Laurenson

“ Then the biscuit-a-day allowance ceased, but not till we were fairly out of the ice—and every man got leave to eat what he liked; but the most of them had picked up wonderfully every hour after that “making sail.” We had a tough job getting the rudder shipped as soon as we cleared the ice: it took us nine hours to ship it, but we managed it. Then, with a gale of W. wind and the Atlantic before us, we felt we were all right. Well, we ran before it as hard as we could, every man getting stronger and heartier with every mile of easting we made. ”

“ An hundred years ago they were yet more so; at that period, in the remoter islands, old people might still be found who could repeat some corrupt Norse which tradition had preserved. Now, however, the relics of the old tongue consist of isolated words and phrases of Norse derivation still in daily use, of the substitution of the singular personal pronoun for the English plural form in all conversation, and of some peculiar modes of expression more Norse or German in idiom than English.
The fishermen retain more of the old words than any other class in the islands. ”

“ But from what I have with difficulty learned, I rather believe the notion is that the man who prevents another from drowning will himself perish instead—that the sea will have its prey, and if a man deprives it of its victim, he himself must supply the victim’s place. ”

“ And one powerful obstacle to getting any information from people who believe in such things, is their conviction that it is forbidden to speak openly of these dark matters, and that to do so is to expose yourself to the displeasure of the unseen powers. ”

“ Well, as night was coming down—the ice getting more and more troublesome—we thought of making fast till daybreak, and seeing how things looked then. We were just alongside the William Torr—both ships shoving through among the loose ice—when her captain hailed ours, and recommended him to bring up alongside a great curving mass of ice which lay quite close to both ships; but our old man, not liking the looks of it, and not thinking it fast, determined to push on a bit farther. The William Torr, however, hauled up to the ice and brought-to for the night. ”

“ The evil spirit—or the god of the sea, good or evil—must have his sacrifice; if you hinder him, you awake his anger, which another victim alone can appease. It is told how a man not only declined to put off his boat to rescue another drowning close inshore, but took the oars out so as to prevent it being used for this purpose ”

“ Perhaps from boats and all pertaining to them having been in use in the days of the Norse occupation, and so having then been named, and that use continuing uninterruptedly, and without the influence of strangers who might have imported their own nomenclature with them, the ancient terms have come down to our days with scarcely any alteration. For it may be observed that of all Scotch immigrants into the islands during the present period of Scotch and English occupation, hardly any devote themselves to fishing or to maritime pursuits. ”

“ The fisherman, brought into constant and close contact with the wild powers of that Nature from which he with hardship wrings a bare subsistence, has a blinder faith in the ancient ways than other men. ”

“ However, from that very day, we went on this allowance. Seven biscuits were served out to each man on Monday morning—these had to last him for the week: on three days a week there was a little pork served out—about as much to each man as he could put in his mouth at once— (I’ve seen a Dutchman with a bigger quid of tobacco) —and we got a little coffee at times. The fresh-water ice gave us good water, and for fuel we took what wood we could safely cut away in the hold. ”

“ That these terms, and others used by the Shetland fishermen at the present day, are of very great antiquity can be easily shown. As an illustration, let us take two or three of the most ordinary words, and trace them back at least one thousand years.
I. Humlabund, i.e., the thong—sometimes of hide, sometimes of rope (in old times always of hide) —which secures the oar of the Shetland boat near the wooden “kabe” against which it is pulled. This thong is rove through a hole in the gunwale, and forms a bight in which the oar is thrust, and so retained in its place. ”

“ Still the Beltane fires are kindled, and the “children passed through the fire to Moloch;” still people are charmed for fairy and troll influences; still magic spells are wrought on men and women; still cattle are bewitched by envious neighbours, and have to be re-charmed into health ”

“ ON CERTAIN BELIEFS AND PHRASES OF SHETLAND FISHERMEN. By ARTHUR LAURENSON, Esq., Lerwick.
The native population of the Shetland Islands is Norse in blood and origin. There is not, nor has there been, any appreciable Celtic element in it. To this day the Norse physiognomy of the people is distinctly marked; nowhere do you find the Celtic type. The language, now rapidly merging into English, has for the last three hundred years been departing from the old Norse which was once the tongue of the islands ”

“ It is, however, always difficult to ascertain the extent of this pagan survival. As a general rule, it is useless to inquire of the people about it. You will obtain hardly any information if you are suspected to be asking in a sceptical way, or out of idle curiosity. ”

“ For example, two things may be mentioned which are to this day believed in and acted on by living men. At any rate, within living memory they have in numerous cases been known as certainly as anything can be. ”