All along the northern seaboard of Europe, the story is told of the young man who sees a flock of seals swimming towards a deserted shore under a full moon. They step out of their animal skins to reveal themselves as beautiful young women. As they dance naked on the sand, the young man steals one of the skins, preventing its owner from resuming her seal form. He marries her and they have children, but she constantly searches for the seal skin her husband has hidden.

"One hot day," a Scottish version from North Uist tells us, "her human child comes to her, saying "O Mother, is this not a strange thing I have found in the old barley-kist, a thing softer than mist to my touch." It is her lost skin.