THE FAROES AND ICELAND 275 



sleep except where they can find room enough to drift on 

 the sea so that they shall not strike the land. The in- 

 habitants then row to those places either solely for the 

 sake of the bird or to fish at the same time : they move 

 the oars softly along, so that they shall not awaken the 

 bird, and it is struck with a ' blooy ' on the head, rowing 

 thus backwards and forwards where any Hafsula are seen 

 to drift ; they always try to hit the head or the neck so 

 that they may thereupon wring it. The second occasion 

 when one looks out for Hafsula is when they are hunting 

 after Sild, for the bird is wont to fly high over the water 

 and look for them, as it has very sharp sight and when up 

 in the air it perceives a shoal of Sild, it at the same instant 

 falls or shoots like an arrow into the sea, often by many 

 hundreds close to each other. If this happens near the 

 land, and there should not be depth enough, but the bird 

 strikes on a rock, it unfailingly breaks its long neck and 

 comes to the surface dead. Under the water the Hafsula 

 catches and swallows as many small fish as it can find 

 room for, so that when it comes up again after a couple of 

 minutes it is quite heavy and sluggish, so that it cannot fly. 

 The hunters thereupon row to it in haste while the bird is 

 under water, for it is not afraid to shoot down a short 

 distance from the boats, since it is both hungry and greedy ; 



and when the Hafsula come up, as many as can be got are 



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