Questions 470–476 are based on the following passage.
This passage, from research conducted for the Library of Congress Folklife
Center, discusses the various folk beliefs of Florida fishermen.
Beliefs are easily the most enduring and distinctive aspects of maritime
culture. Traditional beliefs, commonly called superstitions, are con-
victions that are usually related to causes and effects, and are often
manifest in certain practices. Common examples include beliefs about
good and bad luck, signs for predicting the weather, interpretations of
supernatural happenings, and remedies for sickness and injury.
Because maritime occupations often place workers in a highly unpre-
dictable and hazardous environment, it is not surprising that fishermen
hold many beliefs about fortune and misfortune. A primary function of
such beliefs is to explain the unexplainable. Watermen can cite many
actions that invite bad luck. These actions include uttering certain words
while aboard a boat, taking certain objects aboard a boat, going out in
a boat on a certain day, or painting boats certain colors. Among Florida
fishermen, saying “alligator,” bringing aboard shells or black suitcases,
and whistling are all considered bad luck while on a boat.
Beliefs about actions that invite good luck appear to be fewer in
number than those about bad luck. Beliefs about good luck include
breaking a bottle of champagne or other liquid over the bow of a ves-
sel when it is launched, participating in a blessing-of-the-fleet cere-
mony, placing a coin under the mast, carrying a lucky object when
aboard, and stepping on or off the boat with the same foot. There are
many beliefs about predicting the weather and the movement of fish.
These beliefs are often linked to the detection of minute changes in
the environment and reflect fishermen’s intimate contact with the nat-
ural environment.
A Florida shrimp fisherman told a researcher that when shrimps’
legs are blood red you can expect a strong northeaster or strong south-
easter. The direction of the wind is used to predict the best location for
catching shrimp. Other signs for weather prediction include rings
around the moon, the color of the sky at sunrise and sunset, and the
color and texture of the sea. Sometimes beliefs are expressed in concise
rhymes. An oysterman from Apalachicola, Florida, uses the rhyme,
“East is the least, and west in the best” to recall that winds from the
west generally produce conditions that are conducive to good catches.
Beliefs related to the supernatural—the existence of ghosts, phantom
ships, burning ships, or sea monsters—are also found in maritime com-
munities. Many fishermen are reluctant to discuss the supernatural, so
these beliefs are less conspicuous than those about luck and the(1)
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