Raising the Wind

Raising the wind—so valuable a power in sailing days—was the privilege of a few, and had its votaries down to the last century. Windbound fishermen of the Hebrides, too, used to walk, sunwise, round the chapel of Fladda, in Fladdahuan Isle, and pour water upon a round, bluish-looking stone. This effectually raised a wind. The gods then kept the wind in bags. Not so long ago, old women in the Shetlands would sell wind to sailors.