{"id":16944,"date":"2015-11-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-hakamagwp.pantheonsite.io\/news\/may-crosh-be-you"},"modified":"2018-07-25T10:45:30","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:45:30","slug":"may-crosh-be-you","status":"publish","type":"custom_quick","link":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/article-short\/may-crosh-be-you\/","title":{"rendered":"May the Crosh Be With You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"descriptive-text\"><em style=\"font-size: 16.002px; letter-spacing: 0.54px;\">\u201cCan you see anything?\u201d<\/em><em> Henry Carter was asked in 1923 as he peered into King Tutankhamun\u2019s tomb. \u201cYes,\u201d he replied, \u201cwonderful things.\u201d This column explores other wonderful things\u2014intriguing artifacts or technologies that give insight into coastal cultures.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 you of all people should possess a bollan cross\u2014country roads are misleading,\u201d Sophia Morrison, an Isle of Man (or Manx) folklorist, wrote to a friend who was well known for getting lost. The letter, sent on September 28, 1910, enclosed a bollan cross \u201cfor luck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An amulet fashioned from a fish\u2019s throat bone, the bollan cross (or <em>crosh bollan<\/em> in Manx Gaelic) has long been part of life for Isle of Man fishermen. For the fish\u2014the ballan wrasse\u2014the T-shaped bone, with its row of teeth, served as a powerful tool to grind its mollusk dinner; for the sailor, it offered powerful protection against bad luck. That the bone resembled a cross made it a natural talisman for the superstitious Manx fishing community, with its comprehensive set of rules and rituals to ensure both the success and safety of its fleet. Seamen banned the use of certain words, avoided being the third boat to leave port by tying two ships together, and insisted on having lucky objects on board, the bollan cross among them.<\/p>\n<p>But the bollan cross offered protection away from the sea, too. On land it was believed to ward off fairies\u2014the finicky supernatural creatures who had a dangerous, mercurial nature. \u201cSearch for the cross,\u201d a Manx verse instructed those who caught a ballan wrasse, \u201cwhen found you\u2019ll value it \/ For ever\u2014\u2019tis the Manxman\u2019s safety-charm \/ By land or sea, where\u2019er he chance to roam.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI suspect Manx fishermen are still fairly superstitious,\u201d says Yvonne Cresswell, the curator of social history at Manx National Heritage. \u201cThere may still be some who carry a crosh bollan<em>.<\/em> In the past, I have met elderly Manx ladies who carried [one] in their purses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like the old Manx couplet by poet A. W. Moore says:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;If bollan cross<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Be in your purse<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;You\u2019ll never stray<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and lose your way<\/p>\n<p>Because in fish we trust.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" ><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/bollan-cross_0.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/bollan-cross_0.jpg\" width=\"1200\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image courtesy of Manx National Heritage<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forget that lucky rabbit\u2019s foot; try a fish bone instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12871,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":{"hero_video_url":null,"hero_video_caption":"","deck":"Forget that lucky rabbit\u2019s foot; try a fish bone instead.","authors_group":[{"by_group":"by","contributors_group":[15636]}],"word_count_override":"","podbean1":"","podbean2":"","redirect":"","geolocation":{"address":"54.154140, -4.591477","lat":54.15414,"lng":-4.591477},"related":[17189,16881],"twitterimage":14410,"facebookimage":13909,"twitterdescription":"","edited":"","factchecked":"","code":"","no_old_story_flag":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/custom_quick"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24466,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16944\/revisions\/24466"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16881"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/17189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}