吉澳人叫指搶劫漁船的海盗”八尺高”。至於為甚麽叫八尺高，大大家都不甚了了。據我所知，吉澳有两次傳說八尺高出沒。五十年代一次，六十年代又一次。五十年代那次我年紀小，印象模糊。六十年代那次適逢其會，知道較多，現憑記憶閒話當年。和我年紀差不多的同鄉大多聽過或參予這件事。大約在六五年前後，年尾時不知如何傳來一個消息，說香港海域有八尺高出沒，搶劫漁船，愈傳愈烈。傳聞引起了吉澳、鴨洲這些偏遠地方的恐慌。故此吉澳有人提議組織一隊人，這個隊伍很快便形成，我記得成員大約有十人左右,是自願參加的，大多是十多歲的黃毛小子，另外漁民村也組織了一隊。偵察隊的總部設在天后宮，上半夜巡完便在那裏休息。大約開始巡夜後的第二晚，半夜十二點左右，突然，有人驚叫說看見有微弱火光一閃，此時大家既害怕又緊張，個個不發一言，金晴火眼的望着那裏，。忽然有人大聲起哄說：「賊佬來了！賊佬來了！」，接着有人高叫：「唔好同佢打，快走！快走！」，跟着帶頭先跑了。畢竟我們只是一隊烏合之眾，有人先跑，大家就跟着跑了，眾人慌不擇路，以參加運動會的速度，不用三分鐘便全部回到天后宮。從天后宮望鴨洲也見電筒光四射，可能見我們這裏有大動靜，以為賊人真的殺到。在屋裏睡覺的吉澳人相信大部份也給吵醒了。

漁民村那支偵察隊聽見風聲也過來天后宮滙合。據說他們那邊也有動靜，由於人手多了一倍壯膽，於是大家膽粗粗前往一察究竟，眾人來到(高地頂)山頂向海那邊的盡頭，大家放目海邊搜尋，也沒有發現不妥，接着巡了一两晚太平無事，大家冷静下來，覺得海盗這事或是謠傳，隊伍便解散，各自回家睡覺。

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The people of Kat O call "Eight Feet Tall" to refer to the pirates and buccaneers who robbed fishing boats. As to why they are called "eight feet tall", I believe most people are not sure. There have been two rumours of eight-footers in Kat O. One in the fifties and another in the sixties. Once in the fifties and again in the sixties. I was so young in the 1950s that I have no recollection of that time. I was young in the 1950s and have a vague memory of it, but I knew more about the 1960s when I was at that time and I am now talking about it from memory. Most of my clansmen of about the same age as me have heard of or participated in this incident.

 

Around 1965, there was a rumour spreading at the end of the year that there was an eight-foot tall ship missing from Hong Kong waters and robbing fishing boats.  As the rumours seemed to be true, they caused panic in remote places like Kat O and Ap Chau. Therefore, some people in Kat O suggested to organise a team of people, this team was formed very quickly, I remember that there were about ten members, who joined voluntarily, mostly teenage boys, and a team was also organised in Fishermen's Village. The headquarters of the team was located at Tin Hau Temple, where they rested after the first half of the night. On the second night after we started our night patrol, at around midnight, someone shouted and said that he could see a faint flickering of firelight, at that moment we were both scared and nervous, we all kept silent and looked at the place, and it seemed to me that I had seen someone lighting a fire and smoking. The flames flickered and disappeared. Suddenly there was a loud clamour, "The robbers are coming! The robbers are coming!" Then someone shouted, "Don't fight with him, go away! Let's go! Then someone shouted, "Don't fight with him, go!” After all, we were only a small group of people, and when someone ran away first, everyone followed. it took less than three minutes to return to Tin Hau Temple. When we looked at Ap Chau from the Tin Hau Temple, we could see the light of a torch shining all over the place. They might have thought that the robbers had really come when they saw the commotion in our neighbourhood. Most of the Kat O people who were sleeping in their houses were also woken up.

 

 The team from the Fishermen's Village heard the wind and came to join us at Tin Hau Temple and told us there was something on their side. Since there were twice as many men, we were bold enough to go there to find out what was going on, and when we arrived at the end of the Peak towards the sea, we didn't find anything wrong! After a night or two of peaceful cruising, we calmed down and thought that the piracy story was just a rumour, so the team disbanded and went home to sleep.

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