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National Geographic : 1936 Apr
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LOW ROAD, HIGH ROAD, AROUND DUNDEE Photograph by Maurice P. Dunlap LIKE A MOSLEM CEMETERY, THE HOWFF IS GRAVEYARD AND MEETING PLACE Situated in the center of Dundee's business district, the Howff was once the site of a monastery (see text, page 551). A city ordinance forbids loungers to pillow their heads on a skull and cross bones or a cherub, but the unemployed and laborers at lunch time throng this city of the dead. Last, and most important of all, came Kate. It is nearly 500 years since the first Lady Katherine was hostess for her uncle the Bishop, but her fame still endures. A bell still hangs in a tower, inscribed with her name, the "Katherine Bell," and every year she sits in the coach by her uncle's side and is driven to pay her respects to the Lord Mayor. All the participants in the parade are young men and there is always much guess ing as to who "Kate" will be. Tradition says that Kate must be a "beardless fresh man," but the students' choice is kept secret until "she" actually steps forth before the public eye. I followed the coach and the crowd to the Town Hall where Kate was received by the Council in robes of scarlet and ermine, then out along the cliffs. Here the parade passed over the spot where Wishart was martyred, into the castle just beyond. As each character crossed the moat a spotlight was fixed on him, for it was twilight now, and an announcer called the name. They tell that once when the procession reached the cliffs, the marchers saw a terrible sight. A gale was sweeping the coast and two ships were being driven up to their doom on the rocks below. They had probably been deceived by the torchlight flare! The students rushed down to the lower ledges to give help, but in vain. The keels were crushed to splinters, the lifeboats capsized, the struggling sailors drowned, every one. A stone in the churchyard tells the date, March 5, 1881. Even the castle has succumbed to the lash ing of those mighty waves. There is an 557
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