THE FISHERMAN OF COLL

A Coll legend told by one DONALD GRAHAM, who heard it from his nanny (who originally came from Coll) who heard it from. . .

Long ago a fisherman lived on the island of Coll, and every night when the moon was out and the sea was calm, he put his little boat out upon the water and fished for the herring and mackerel which abounded round the shores of the island. And the moon shone whiter than snow upon the surf and foam as it broke upon the rocks of the island, and it shone even more brightly on the silver scales of the fish as they lay in the bottom of the boat.

One night the fisherman saw something afar off which glittered even more brightly than the surf or the silver scales of the fish, and when it drew near, he saw it was a mermaid and she put her head out of the sea and sang to him, and he thought he had never seen anything more beautiful.

And the next night he could hardly bear to put his lines into the sea for wondering whether the mermaid would come again; and she did come, and this time she spoke to him, and the fisherman fell deeply in love with her.

And she would always be persuading him to come and live with her at the bottom of the sea, but the fisherman steadfastly refused, for he knew that only people with no souls can live at the bottom of the sea. But at last he could bear it no longer and cut off his shadow, which was his soul and went with the mermaid to live among the fairy grottoes and the seaweed gardens of the Atlantic.

In the summer they would go to the cool waters of the Arctic and play with the polar bear cubs as they slid down the icebergs into the sea; and in winter they would dart in and out of the crevices, and in the autumn they would return to the fairy grottoes and the seaweed garden of the Atlantic.

But the shadow was left to wander up and down in the world by itself and was very lonely. And once a year he would go down to the sea and tell the fisherman al1 the things he had seen in the world. And the fisherman would listen very carefully, and then he would say 'all you have told me is very wonderful, but here I have love, and what is better than that?' And the shadow would return sorrowfully to the land and wander up and down in it for another year.

But one day he told the fisherman about the wonderful dancing girls of the East, and this time the fisherman was really interested, for he loved to dance, and you know mermaids cannot dance. So he came back to the land and was reunited to his shadow and they went off to the East to look at the dancing girls. But when he got there he was very disappointed and went back to the island of con and put his little boat once more upon the waters. And the moon shone whiter than snow on the surf and the foam and even more brightly upon the silver scales of the fish as they lay in the bottom of the boat. And then he saw something afar off, whiter than the surf and brighter than the silver scales, and when it drew near h.e saw it was the dead body of his little mermaid.