362 BOYNDIE KITCHEN-MIDDEN. CHAP. xvn. 



been used for cooking purposes. One very common 

 ingredient among the fish was that part of the head 

 known as the " lug been," a bone usually given to 

 the children of the family to pick. 



" A remarkable fact/' says Edward, in his account 

 of the Boyndie kitchen-midden, " and one not men- 

 tioned in any account of a similar place, is, that 

 whilst some of the shells crumble to dust almost with 

 the least touch, others are still so hard that they 

 would require the fingers of a giant to pound them. 

 The enamelling of some of the limpet and mussel 

 shells is still as beautiful as almost to persuade one 

 that the animal had been but newly taken out. On 

 the other hand, some are so far gone and so soft, as 

 to feel like a piece of wet blotsheet. But what ap- 

 pears to be the most remarkable peculiarity in these 

 two very opposite extremes is, that the shells thus 

 spoken of may be found in the same handful and 

 from the same spot. Another very striking feature 

 is, that in handling the old 'muck,' one's fingers 

 soon get nearly as black as ink. Here also, as in all 

 the other shell-accumulations, the larger bones are 

 broken not cut, but broken up longitudinally, or 

 what might rather be called splintered. This has 

 been done, it is thought, to get at the fat or marrow, 

 of which these early people seem to have been very 

 fond. They broke the bone just as we break up with 

 some heavy instrument the large toes of a lobster 

 or parten in order to reach the food." 



