Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1838 Vol.2.djvu/237

Rh tuting at once their food, the staple commodity of the island, and very generally its circulating medium, for the use and value of money is scarcely known, and all bargains among themselves, and between them and the tacksman, are calculated in fowl.

With regard to morality, they are in a curiously primitive state, which may be attributed to the absence of the usual inducements to crime, aided by the utter impossibility of escape in case of detection. Moreover, they cannot indulge in that beginner of mischiefs, intoxication, as no fermented or spirituous liquor is made on the island, and the supplies of the tacksman are very small. Dishonesty is therefore very rare; murder has not been committed within the memory of man, and adultery is unknown. In disposition they are cheerful, gentle, and obliging, strongly mindful of their promise, and highly tractable.

With such materials to work on, Mr. McKenzie has a prospect of being of much utility to them; in fact, though he had only been there a year, he had got them to attend the church very attentively and regularly twice a week. Gaelic is the only language spoken, but one man, I believe, understanding any English. Mrs. McKenzie, a Glasgow lady, does not speak it, and therefore, was, I am inclined to think, very glad to see us, as it must have been six months since she exchanged a sentiment with any one but her husband.

The complicated machinery of the law, seems as unknown, as it would be useless among them; but all the interests of the community are managed by a general assembly of the men, on a house somewhat larger than the rest in the middle of the village: on the broad wall of this they sit,* and portion out the rock to the climbers, examine into the state of ropes which have lain by for the winter, and settle any dis- putes which may have arisen among their number ; any thing of more weighty import being left for the decision of the tacksman on his visit.

The whole front of the vast precipices at St. Kilda is abundant in narrow shelves and ledges, covered with the richest vegetation; and on wall, which leaves the thickness of the wall as a seat, or shelf to place household utensils on-
 * I should observe, that the rafters of the houses rise from the inner side of a broad low