Ships were lost during these dark voyages, and said to have had as the sole evidence of the identity of the lost persons the finding of a small piece of bread in the pocket of a discarded overcoat; a pocketbook, bearing the name of the lost, in the lining of a coat; a handkerchief embroidered with initials; some old silver, a pawn ticket; a child's shoe; the sole of a woman's shoe; the belt buckle of a sailor. What a strange assemblage of human experiences. In some cases a boat has been seen, sailing with her white sails set in the night. When sailors or some other persons find a light still burning, it is not unusual to hear the lament, "He is still a-waiting; " in one version of this, the lost ones themselves give the warning, "He is still a-waiting." If one is found walking on the sea, this is taken as an indication that the person is destined to perish and is taken back. If the person says to those on shore, "I will walk across the waters," he or she is supposed to die. The warning is that they will drown; the superstition is that they will perish in any other way. The ship is held responsible for the death. If the crew see that the man is about to step into the sea, they give him a kick. It is supposed that this causes him to fall in. If the dead body is washed ashore, this is not considered an indication that a person has perished at sea. If his pocket was found full of sea sand or of pieces of driftwood, it is supposed that he came ashore and was washed into the sea, and is therefore considered to be lost. But if his pocket is empty or contains a few pieces of dried seaweed or a bit of a shell, this is taken as evidence that he is still at sea. The belief is that the sand is the substance from which they "take root" and that the more they go ashore the more they become connected with the land. The sailor who leaves his ship and is not on it when it is lost, is considered to have perished; the ship alone is held responsible. If a person was drowned and found floating and he was taken back to his ship, they would say to him, "Throw yourself into the sea; you cannot come ashore." Now there is a curious parallelism in these statements, that he is lost if he is on land, or drowned if he is at sea. While some of the articles are said to be found in the pocket of the person whose body was washed ashore, other articles are found on the dead body. In one case the dead body had a bit of cork in its mouth; in another the dead body was without a handkerchief. In one case a pair of worn-out shoes was found, and in another a shoe was in a person's pocket. In one case a knife was found in the dead person's pocket; in another a ship's rope was tied around the dead person's waist. In one case a whistle was found, and in another a musical pipe was found. In one case a small piece of ribbon was found. In another the feet were tied together by a cord. In one case, a dead seaman had a bit of leather around his neck. In another, a cord was tied around the dead person's waist, but there was no shoelace. In one case, the person's clothing was tied together at the wrists and the body was tied up with ropes. The idea of going off to sea in a boat at night is found in the folklore of other countries as well as that of Europe, but the idea of waiting for a boat to come ashore, as the vessel goes down, to rescue the lost one seems to have arisen solely in the popular belief in England. In India there is a tradition among Hindus that if a person is drowned, a boat from his native village will come to his aid, with a priest, and he is taken ashore. This is an exception to the rule that such superstitions are always based on some idea of the punishment that the guilty person will receive in some future state. In Brittany it is said that if the lost person has been seen in a vessel, the family who lose the member are held responsible for the death of the vessel; and if she was a man who disappeared without leaving word of his intentions, his family are to blame. The belief is that if a vessel goes to pieces and sinks with all aboard it, the loss is the responsibility of some one who has not done his duty toward the persons or things on board the vessel. In case a ship is wrecked, the loss is put down to the carelessness of the owner, and if one of his family has died he is thought to have suffered on account of this disaster. In England a number of stories are told in connection with this belief, and the idea is to express the belief that the family of the absent sailor have something to do with the vessel. In one of the stories, the vessel is represented as sinking because the owner is not on board and is thus liable for the loss. One day a man came ashore with a piece of white ribbon around his neck. When he was asked why he was wearing a bit of ribbon on the day he arrived, he replied, "You see that piece of ribbon around my neck? I fastened it on that night when I sailed on the ship." In another story, a small piece of rope is tied around the sailor's body, and he is carried ashore; another is a piece of leather tied around his neck, and he is pulled out of the water. In one story, he was tied to the stem of a boat by a rope, and he is pulled out of the water by means of the rope. Sometimes it is said that he is a piece of wood floating about, and that he is thrown ashore on account of the bad luck which attends a shipwreck when a person on board has been drowned. Sometimes he is supposed to be a ship made of wood which has been burned on the shore. In a Connecticut story, a man comes ashore to a place where his family is living and calls to them, saying, "Come out, you see me," and when they try to find who he is, they find that he is a block of wood floating about in the water; he is removed to the shore, and is used as a footstool for a number of years. This story comes from the belief that a person, when he goes ashore for the first time, is a piece of wood, because he is not yet connected with anything. The belief that he will not be able to come to land on account of the evil luck which attends the person who is drowned, has been the basis of many stories. Sometimes he is said to be a piece of wood which is floating in the sea, because he is still connected with the vessel; and again he is a wooden image or a cross which has been erected at some point near the place where the person was drowned, as a memorial to him, in order to help the friends of the dead one to find him. In another version he is a dead ship which has been put in a boat and has been going over the sea to some point which has been arranged for him to go ashore, but the boat has met with misfortune, and he finds himself adrift on the sea, where the same belief holds that he will be carried away from the shore. It is the belief that such a shipwrecked person will drift about and will not be able to get to land because he is connected with the vessel, or because he is supposed to have died on her, and that any misfortune that attends him will also befall the vessel. It is said that he should be given over to the water at the point where he was last seen, and this statement is made, because it is supposed that he is at the bottom of the sea. In some versions it is said that, when he was found, he gave a scream of joy, and when this happened they knew that he was the one who had been drowned, and that he was now restored to his friends. In one version a sailor who is drowned finds his coffin waiting for him at the pier; in another, his ship is sent out, and, when it finds him on the shore, they give him a lift and he is safely brought to land; in another, he is on the bottom of the ocean. One story says that the man who was drowned took the captain into his confidence, and asked him to order the vessel to go ashore. The captain said, "Come ashore, we are all ready; " and as he spoke the ship came to the shore. The captain says, "Now don't you come ashore, but swim ashore and rest yourself here until I come for you." In some of these stories it is said that they are not sure that he is drowned until they find the body, and in one case it is said that the body may be taken to the vessel without their knowing of it, as the body is supposed to go along with the vessel and is thrown overboard and goes to pieces by accident, or is thrown overboard and drowned. In some cases he is supposed to have been carried off by sharks, and in this case his friends are not considered to have failed, because he was gone from the land and out of their power. In many of the stories, he is found to be a piece of wood. In one case