fiddlers

A short time afterwards, thousands of little crabs, such as are now called fiddlers, were found near the shore.

Philippine Folk-Tales Fletcher Gardner

Habitually living with the elements and knowing little more of the land than as a beach, or, rather, that portion of the terraqueous globe providentially set apart for dance-houses, doxies and tapsters, in short what sailors call a "fiddlers'-green," his simple nature remained unsophisticated by those moral obliquities which are not in every case incompatible with that manufacturable thing known as respectability.

Billy Budd 1924

But are sailors, frequenters of "fiddlers'-greens," without vices?

Billy Budd 1924

But Death, acting the part of a messenger, naturally took the attitude and movement of the day, namely the fiddlers and other musicians, and the dance of death was the result.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913

Alcibiades, a man who well understood how to make good cheer, banished even music from the table, that it might not disturb the entertainment of discourse, for the reason, as Plato tells us, "that it is the custom of ordinary people to call fiddlers and singing men to feasts, for want of good discourse and pleasant talk, with which men of understanding know how to entertain one another."

The Essays of Montaigne — Complete Michel de Montaigne 1562

Alcibiades, a man who well understood how to make good cheer, banished even music from the table, that it might not disturb the entertainment of discourse, for the reason, as Plato tells us, "that it is the custom of ordinary people to call fiddlers and singing men to feasts, for want of good discourse and pleasant talk, with which men of understanding know how to entertain one another."

The Essays of Montaigne — Volume 19 Michel de Montaigne 1562

The fiddlers are a local favorite for good reason.

courierpress.com Stories Linda Negro 2009

To show how this was, we have heard an old lady say that when she was young, some eighty years or so ago, "musicians, for the most part, were not thought much of" by the most cultivated people of that time; and she assured me that even at a later date, members of military bands, as well as organists and violinists (then called fiddlers) were too often low characters and men much addicted to drinking.

The Olden Time Series: Vol. 2: The Days of the Spinning-Wheel in New England Gleanings Chiefly from old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts Various

I am still more sorry that he is in love with her; for that will take him out of good company, and sink him into bad; such as fiddlers, pipers, and id genus omne; most unedifying and unbecoming company for a man of fashion!

Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman 2005

At first, it must be confessed, she worried her foster-mother a great deal by various queer misfortunes and extraordinary freaks; -- getting bitten by crabs, falling into the bayou while in pursuit of "fiddlers," or losing herself at the conclusion of desperate efforts to run races at night with the moon, or to walk to the "end of the world."

Chita: a Memory of Last Island Lafcadio Hearn 1877