Perhaps known to most of us through Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem 'The Ancient Mariner' (1798). The poem reflects a majority of beliefs associated with the albatross, as the bird is seen to carry the soul of dead mariners. If a sailor kills the bird, bad luck would fall upon him for the rest of his natural life. Yet this was not a universal belief as it was also known that the feet of the albatross were once used as tobacco pouches. When seen flying around a ship the albatross was reputed to indicate that stormy weather was imminent.