In Icelandic legend the story is told of a clergyman named Paul Rasmussen whose son was kidnapped by English raiders and put aboard one of their ships. Acting impulsively, Rasmussen picked up three shells from the beach, each representing an English ship, and made black magic with them. When the shells sank in the water, so did the real ships. Rasmussen only realized that his son had been on one of the ships when the boy’s body washed up at his feet. He began laughing a horrible laugh that did not stop even after he died, a laugh which the superstitious say is really what you hear when you think sea birds are calling in the distance.