Nova Scotia Moments

Clint MacNeil teaches history, geography, and world religion at St.
Charles College in Sudbury.

Nova Scotian Clary Croft is well known to Atlantic Canadians from his
CBC Maritimes radio series on folklore and folkmusic. This carefully
assembled assortment of trivia and folklore from his cherished province
provides a fun-filled survey of Nova Scotia’s five centuries of
history.

Croft’s hundred of topics cover everything from the paranormal and
home remedies (one of which involves “wear[ing] the tooth of a corpse
around your neck to prevent a toothache”) to immigration and the
origin of the Nova Scotian tartan. His profiles include intriguing
figures such as Ann Swan (who stood seven feet four inches and was a
regular attraction at P.T. Barnum’s museum in New York), Captain
William Kidd (the infamous pirate who some still believe buried treasure
on Nova Scotia’s Oak Island), and William Robert Wolseley Winniett
(who is credited for his efforts in ending the African slave trade).
Croft’s informative vignettes highlight the unusual. For example,
readers will learn that prisoners on Melville Island during the early
1800s were dissuaded from escaping because guards kept a hungry shark in
nearby waters; polydactyl, or six-toed cats, are common in Halifax
thanks to Loyalist settlers; and tattoos of roosters or pigs, both of
which despise water, were believed to prevent a sailor from being
drowned.

The book includes a generous selection of historical pictures and a
comprehensive bibliography. Readers will delight in this lighter side of
life in Nova Scotia’s colourful past.