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Show WHERE SEA TERMS ABOUND People of Nantucket Prodigal U of Language That Has a Flavor of Salt. Nantucket probably has n higher average to the Inhabitant of funny yarns, queer sayings, odd views of life and also local pride nnd assurance than any other town in America. Nantucket speech Is a museum of nautical expressions. When a Nantuck-eter Nantuck-eter has luck he is running before the wind. To scud is to hasten, and one who becomes involved in his statement is on his soundings. "Masthead" means any point high up. Anyone who Is quite flattened out in health Is "keel out." "I've been keel out for a week with the grippe." Whaling terms come in here, too, for when a man says he Is "pretty nigh fin out," he means that he is "all in" in reference to the fact that the dying whale rolls over on his side, showing a fin above water. "Tending "Tend-ing the kettle halyards" means, with women, simply doing the housework. When a man gets excited in argument he Is told to "case off." . When your guest departs, you say, "Well, a fair wind to you." Every figure Is derived from the sea. When Obed Gardner, master mariner, mar-iner, wrote his will, in 1841, he worded word-ed it as follows, and it held fast: "Item. I have cruised with my wife, Iluldy Jane, since 1S11. We signed articles, ar-ticles, in town, before the preacher on Independence day. I want her and my son Jotham to be captain and mate in bringtn' to port whatever I leave and to see that every one of the crew gets the lay as writ down, on this paper. pa-per. I put mother in command. I know sheel be captain anyway, for six months after we started on our life cruise I found out that I was mate and she was master. I don't mean that she ever mutinied, but I know that whenever when-ever we didn't ' agree she always manoovred to windward. "Item. I want mother to have the house on Union street till she goes aloft. Then I want it to go to the children in equal lays, etc." A for whaling, a Nantucket boy tied one end of his mother's darning cotton to a steel fork and tried to harpoon har-poon the family cat. As the animal sought to escape, mother entered the room and picked up the ball. "Pay out, mother, pay out!" screamed the boy; "there she sounds through the window!" win-dow!" Boston Transcript. |
