Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/138

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Folk-Lore

the exact spot. These were called klakaskurrs, and sometimes seats, and were named chiefly from their landmarks. Perhaps in some cases their names were indicative of the kind of bottom, as quite a number of these names ended in the suffix Mö, as Hoolnamö, Helyersmö, Fjelsmö, Tongamö, etc. Now, all these have soft or sandy bottoms, which may be implied in the particle Mö.

Outside the inshore fishing grounds, some five or six miles from land, were the fram seats or raiths, all marked and named as I have described. The usual fishing practised here was by handline, but the haf lines were also set during aevaliss (unsettled) weather.

Let us, gentle reader, imagine ourselves on board a haf boat. The crew have just completed the “setting” of the tows. The bow (buoy) is floating close at hand, attached to the boat by means of a vaarline. Not a breath stirs the air, not a

wave disturbs the bosom of the deep.

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