A Folk Tale - The Seal-Catcher

       The Seal-Catcher

    - A Folk tale from Scotland

    
   There was once a man who lived at the very north of Scotland. He made his living by catching fish of all sizes and types, but he had a particular liking for killing those wonderful animals, half-dog, half-fish, called Seals. No doubt he liked killing the seals so much because he got a fancy price for their skins. 

   Now one day the fisherman stabbed a seal with his hunting knife, but he failed to kill it completely. The seal let out a loud cry of pain and slipped off the rocks and into the sea, taking the knife with it.

   After that the fisherman returned home. Later that night, a stranger came to visit him in his cottage. The man said that he had been sent by his master who wanted to buy a large number of seal skins. The fisherman was very glad to hear this news. The two men both mounted the stranger’s horse, and rode off at great speed, their faces cutting through the sharp, salty air. Finally they reached a great cliff that overhung the sea, and the stranger told the fisherman that they had arrived.

   “But where is the person who want to buy seal skins?” asked the astonished seal-catcher.

   “Soon you shall see!” replied the stranger, and with that the stranger seized the fisherman with irresistible force, and they both plunged over the cliff and headlong down into the sea. After sinking down and down, nobody knows how far, they at last reached a pearly gate which opened onto a palace. The rooms of the palace were filled not with people, but with seals those could speak and feel like human. And the seal-catcher was surprised to find that he had been changed himself into the form of a seal.

   
   “Am I to spend the rest of my days here, like this?” the seal-catcher asked in great distress.

   “Your suffering need not last much longer,” replied the stranger, and saying so he produced a huge knife. The fisherman, who thought he was about to be killed begged for mercy, but the creatures of the deep gathered round and assured him that he would meet with no harm.

   “Did you ever see that knife before?” asked the stranger. The fisherman looked at the weapon again and recognized it as the knife that he had lost in the back of a seal.

   “Oh, yes, it is my own!” said the seal-catcher, and he was surprised to see his own knife there.

   “Well sir,” said the stranger, “The seal that made away with it is my father, and these past hours he has laid seriously ill from his wound. Only your healing hand can save him.”

   The fisherman was led into another room, in which he found the injured seal. He was asked to pass his hand over the injury, which he did, and to his surprise it immediately healed. The seal rose from his bed in perfect health, and the mood of the sea-creatures all around changed from mourning to rejoicing.

   The seal-catcher thought that he would stay under water as a seal for the rest of his life. But the stranger told him that he could return home on one condition – that he took a promise that he would never harm another seal again so long as he lived. To this, the seal-catcher readily agreed.

   And then they swam out of the gates of the palace, and up to the bottom of the sea. From there they made their way onto land, and up to the top of the sea cliff where the horse was waiting for them. By now they had regained human form, and they rode back to the cottage where they had begun their unbelievable journey. 

   The seal-catcher had already begun to doubt how he would make his living in future. But the seal-catcher need not be worried - the stranger made him a gift. He presented him with a heavy bag which he carried into his cottage and placed on the table. And when the seal-catcher opened it, he discovered that it was filled with gold.

Note:  This is an old story from Scotland, is about a man who makes his living by killing seals and selling their skins. He does not really think about the animals he hunts have feelings whether or not, until one day he has a chance to know about that. In this story the seals are consider as an animal which is like half-dog and half-fish even though they might look a bit like that. The truth is that these animals are neither a dog nor a fish, but in the folk tale they are illustrate like that. They are of course a mammal that has flippers instead of feet and powerful tales for swimming.

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