On the Personal Superstitions thread, rynner wrote:
"When I was at sea I subscribed to the sailor's superstition of not allowing whistling on board, which was thought to bring bad luck. There are a couple of explanations for this. One says that Finns (for some reason) are often witches who can whistle up a storm."
Dana mentions this belief in Two Years Before the Mast, where the ship's cook is terrified of the German carpenter, who he thinks is a Finn:
"I asked him the reason for this, and found that he was fully possessed with the notion that all Fins are wizards, and especially have power over winds and storms... He had been in a vessel at the Sandwich Islands, in which the sailmaker was a Fin, and could do anything he was of a mind to...
He had heard of ships, too, beating up the Gulf of Finland against a head wind, and having a ship heave in sight astern, overhaul and pass them, with as fair a wind as could blow, and all studding sails out, and find she was from Finland."
Is this superstition limited to sailors, or are Finns widely associated with occult powers?
"When I was at sea I subscribed to the sailor's superstition of not allowing whistling on board, which was thought to bring bad luck. There are a couple of explanations for this. One says that Finns (for some reason) are often witches who can whistle up a storm."
Dana mentions this belief in Two Years Before the Mast, where the ship's cook is terrified of the German carpenter, who he thinks is a Finn:
"I asked him the reason for this, and found that he was fully possessed with the notion that all Fins are wizards, and especially have power over winds and storms... He had been in a vessel at the Sandwich Islands, in which the sailmaker was a Fin, and could do anything he was of a mind to...
He had heard of ships, too, beating up the Gulf of Finland against a head wind, and having a ship heave in sight astern, overhaul and pass them, with as fair a wind as could blow, and all studding sails out, and find she was from Finland."
Is this superstition limited to sailors, or are Finns widely associated with occult powers?