Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 2082, 18 January 1894, Page 40

Life on Lone St. Kilda.

By BINORNIS.

(Specially Written and Illustrated for the

Witness.")

(Continued.)

At the present time the St. Kildans wear clothes made from their own blue and grey homespun cloth. In general appearance they closely resemble the fisher folk of the mainland coasts. When the art of weaving first became known to them I cannot tell ; indeed, it is probably one of those matters impossible now to determine. From a sidelight thrown upon it by Martin, however, it is reasonable to infer that woven cloth began to be worn as clothing by the islanders less than 200 years ago. Martin states that sheepskins had been generally worn shortly before bis visit, and that he saw several inhabitants who had formerly used them. The belted plaid costume, which succeeded the sheepskins, was made up of a short doublet reaching to the waist ; about that a double plait of plaid, both ends being joined together with the leg bone of a fulmar. This plaid reached to the knee only, and above the waist it was girt with a leather belt. I Bnppose the Highland dress of our time is a development of this old barbarous costume.

Until quite recently, a few of the islanders used woolly sheepskin caps, rudiments of their discarded sheepskin clothing. While engaged bird catching— and, indeed, at the most of times — the islanders prefer to go barefooted. They wear common heavy boots now, but up to quite recently they wore Highland brogans of curious and primitive make. The leather was made from the hides of the ponies they used to have on the island. To tan the skins they used bark from tree trunks found under the turf. There is not the vestige of a live tree or shrub on St. Kilda. The brogans were made inside out and turned afterwards ; they were sown with thongs of sheepskin and were straight, fitting either foot. Jackets are rarely worn by the men and boys of St. Kilda except on Snndaya ; but they greatly affect the comfortable garment described by its name, the sleeved waistcoat ; very commonly, too, they go bareheaded as well as barefooted.

The wives and daughters of St. Kilda dress in gowns made of the same heavy, blue stuff that clothes their husbands and fathers. About their waists on high days they tie coloured sashes, and for head covering turkey-red handkerchiefs are in great demand, and are far more highly

thought of than would be the latest Parisian bonnet. Their heavy tweed dresses and plaids could hardly be other than somewhat uncouth, and so those who have seen them describe them as appearing ; but this by no means applies to the wearers themselves, who always have been noted for the vigorous health they possess, and also for their liberal share of physical beauty, whish is as noticeable now as it was when Martin favourably compared them with the great ladies of his own time. One of the most unlikely things in the way of a shoe used to be common, on St. Kilda. It consisted of the head and neck of a solan goose, which was cut so that the crown of the head did duty as a heel, while the skin of the neck was drawn tightly over the foot. This must; have been a droll sub-

stitute for a shoe, and yet it is not long since this curious foot-gear ceased to bo worn. The women alone used ench shoes. A pair of such shoes would do duty for three or four days only. Long since, the islanders sewed with strips of feather instead of thread. Both men and women formerly used certain small bones of the fulmar petrel with which to fasten their clothes. Some of the women still use pins made from large fishhooks with which to fasten their gowns at the neck; to fasten their plaids some of them use brooches made from those old copper pennies which may still occasionally be met with. Upon their heads the elder women wear snowy-white caps, and about their necks kerchiefs to match. Minor articles of clothing — such as stockings — they make entirely from the wool of their own sheep. They card, spin, and knit more of such things than they need, so that when strangers visit them they have surplus stock to sell. The islanders'

environment is still somewhat primitive, but, in some degree at least, civilisation has come to them lately in the form of pins, needles, thread, and buttons. ', The thread for their olotb, &c, Is all spun by the women, and the cloth is woven by the men, who work early and late during the winter at the primitive looms. It is a strange circumstance that the reeds of their looms are made from sub-tropical or tropical canes which drift from America to St. Kilda with the Gulf Stream. Some of the canes are large. Mr Sands saw several taken from the sea, one being several inches in diameter.

Until quite recently such boats as the St. Kildans owned could hardly be described as seaworthy. They were used for visiting Boreray and the lesser rocks during the birdcatching seasons ; but for a 50-mile voyage, say to Harris or Uist, they were quite unfit. As there are no harbours at any of their rocky hunting grounds, there is great danger in approaching them ; bub to this I have already alluded. It is usually necessary to jump into the sea at some favourable spot; and scramble ashore anyhow. Two men are left in the boat to see to its safety. The lower parts of the cliffs are searched from below, the men climbing far up among the jagged projections, and returning laden with slaughtered geeee or fulmars, whichever is being pursued. The old fulmar petrels are caught in summer as they sit upon their eggs, a noose attached to the end of a rod being slipped over their heads. In August the young fulmars are easily caught, being still unable to fly. They do not like to be caught, however, and resist by spitting their evil-smelling oil in the men's faces. Getting at ths fulmars from above is really a terrible occupation. The men work in pairs. One with a rope fastened about his body slips over the edge of the precipice, and, clinging with bands and (shoeless) feet, works his way dowu, down, till he is loat to

sight, busy all the while collecting his unwilling victims. The other man remains above attending to the rope, and ready to haul up if called upon. They use good hempen ropes now, but a few years since they were still usiDg their old ropes, some of hemp, but others of horsehair, and still others of straw. In use the rope is often attached to a strong iron peg driven into the brow of the cliff, but this is nob always the case. Sometimes

St. Kildan fowlers at Work— from an Old Print.

it is merely held by one or more of the islanders on the brink, who shift their position according to the directions shouted up from below. Even though the cliffs be slippery and wet, the islanders move about upon the extreme edge with the most amazing unconcern. Without a thought of any danger they advance to the utmost verge of their enormous precipices and hold lively converse with those of their number who are busy below. The dangers of their trade is very apparent to strangers looking on, but they themselves are oblivious to them.

As they work, now and then large stones become loosened and bound with terrific violence from rock to rock till they reach the sea. As before-mentioned, resultant bumps are numerous, yet serious casualties are few.

Their skulls, I daresay, get accustomed to that sort of thing. After working along the face of the cliffs for a sufficient time, the men often free themselves from their ropea and climb by steep and perilous paths to the summit. At certain spots among the cliffs there are grassy slopes, to the bottoms of which the men bring the birds. From thence the young women carry them to the top. Some of the girls carry 2001b weight up these almost perpendicular paths. They bring cheese and oaten cakes to eat, and in little tubs with bottoms of raw sheepskin they carry ewe milk to drink. Upon this humble fare

they subsist while performing such tasks as would quickly prostrate almost any ordinary man. So healthy and physically well developed are they that they consider such burdens to be nothing out of the common. After bringing such a load they merely pause for a few minutes to recover their breathing ; then start off again with as little concern as though their message was but to fetch a loaf of bread.

The islanders are as slow to adopt new diseases as to adopt new ideas. Their mode of living entails plenty of hard exercise, but leaves very little time or inclination for dissipation, even of the mildest kind. It may well be thought that rough, coarse food, exposure to cold and wet, and the insanitary houses in which they till recently lived, would all tend to foster disease. Yet, despite these and various other possible causes, the adult population of St. Kilda ie singularly free from congenital or other diseases. They have some queer remedies of their own — home-made ones, so to speak. Perhaps their freedom from disease results in great degree from the terribly drastic weeding-out process which exterminates so many of the infants soon after birth. Very few of the children born on the island survive more than a few days. In great cities it is common, as we know, for two children out of every three to die before reaching the age o£ five years. It is sad to think that of those who so early die the greater number have only lived a few years of misery. In St. Kilda, if statistics of infant mortality were collected, a much higher death rate than that of any large city would be found to prevail.

The diuease that carries off the St. Kildan babies is called " nine-day fits," and douttws differ fereatly as to the cause of it. Some

say that it arises from the mot'.ers living on seafowl ; others that it is due to weakening of the blood from long-continued intermarriage ; others that the infants are smothered with peat smoke ; while some aver that improper feeding is the true cause. Whatever the cause of it, the fact remains that only a few of the children grow up to be men and women. Soon after birth they are seized with convulsions and lockjaw, and death quickly follows. It must be a sad thing for the mothers of St. Kilda to know that their children have many more ohances to die than to live. The mother's heart is the same everywhere, and the terrible pathos of the struggle of life against death is not less at St. Kilda than elsewhere. Earnest endeavours to avert the fate that ever threatens native-born children are not wanting. It is not unusual for married women to make long and perilous voyages, mostly in open boats, to Uist or Harris, 30 that their children may be born away from St. Kilda. The actual distance may not be very great — 50 or GO miles perhaps — but the difficulties are immense, and the dangers very real and groat. The voyager may have to remain away for 10 or 12 months without receiving or >e|ag able to send either message or letter chl ing the whole time. The chance of a passage back must be patiently awaited, and while the St. Kildan is waiting for thq opportunity to return to her horne — 50 miles away 1 — another traveller- may leave London, reach Australia or New Zealand, spend a few months there, and, returning at leisure, find the poor St. Kildan still waiting. Thore is surely something of the truly heroic in the maternal devotion of the island mother.

Those who survive childhood enjoy a wonderful immunity from sickness, and, apart from accidents, usually live to old age. Both sexes look strong and healthy, have bright , eyes, teeth like new ivory, are tough and hardy, capable of long-continued exertion, and among them, while weather-beaten faces are common, care-worn faces are few. Considering their general freedom from disease, ii is singular that an epidemic all their own has

periodically raged in t St. Kilda during hundreds of years. This " trouble," aB the islanders call it, takes the form of a very severe cold, affecting the head and throat chiefly— it being, in fact;, influenza of an aggravated type. It attacks young and old alike — from the nurseling in the cradle to the patriarch in the ingle. Martin, who visited St. Kilda at the end of the seventeenth century, described how " they contract a cough as often as any strangers land and stay for any time among them, and it continues for eight or ten days." Since Martin's time many visitors have made mention of the " stranger's cold," as it has coma to be called. In 1860 a Government vessel, the Porcupine, called at St. Kilda, with the usual curious result that a few days afterwards the entire population, youog and old, were prostrated by a severe attack of " the trouble." In 1877 an Austrian ship was cast away near St. Kilda, and the captain and crew for Borne time shared the hospitality oE the islanders. No one had been ill on the island for six months before this event, yet in a few days they were all down with the "stranger's cold." No matter where the vessel comes from — the Clyde, London, the Orkneys, Skye— the •• stranger's cold " invariably results. The Sb. KUdans themselves say that if the vessel is from Harris or Uist, the attack is more severe than if caused by a ship from distant parts. This, however, may be an exaggeration, as the St. Kildans greatly affect to look down upon the folk from the big islands. Harris they usually describe as being a poor place — airty, shabby, and the people greedy, and so on. Mothers in Harris threaten to send their children, when naughty, to St. Kilda. The Hanis folk call the St. Kildans " g'ougan" — a Gaelic name for* young solan geeee.

Dr Samuel Johnson, when he and Boswell voyaged among the Hebrides, attempted to thrown ridicule upon the " stranger's cold " as being a mere imaginary figment. Many explanations have been offered, but few of them are of any value, and some are quite foolish. Some think that the wind which blows the vessel also blows the disease to the island ; but the mischief is as great from a steamboat as from a sailing vessel. Others,, find a sufficient reason in the exposure to which the inlanders subject themselves when they run into the water to greet new arrivals and help them ashore. If ths St. Kildans were mashers of the knob-sucking type this might do; but it is sadly foolish when said of those whose lives are a series of exposures to all sorts of weather. Long since, when chance visitors were very rare, and the " factor's smack " was the only vessel catling frequently at St. Kilda, when the ".factor " brought them their usual supplies he invariably brought the influenza with the other things.

A medical man, Dr Parsons, who lately took up the subject, maintains that the straDgers bring the trouble with them in the I shape of disease germs to which they them- [ selves are inured, but which are new to the dwellers in out-of-the-way islands. This view lam inclined to adopt myself. I think we are at any rate justified in believing that disease germs do pass hither and thitber, and that fatal epidemics often are caused by their growth and development. "Whatever the cause of it, the " stranger's cold " at St. Kilda, though milder, is quite as umgible and real as the recent scourge of infl lunza from which the whole world suffered so [ terribly. .

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