TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. IO5 



we at last discovered to be the houses, twenty-six in 

 number : on the hills, more such molehills, rather 

 smaller, for cutting peats. This is the town, or city 

 of Hirta, or St Kilda. It contains 100 inhabitants ; 

 and the rest of the island is only broused by some 

 sheep, horses, and cows. The view of this village is 

 truly unique. Nothing in Captain Cook's voyages 

 comes half so low. The natives are savage in due 

 proportion ; the air is infected by a stench almost 

 insupportable a compound of rotten fish, filth of all 

 sorts, and stinking sea-fowl. Their dress is chiefly 

 composed of a coarse stuff made by themselves, some- 

 what like tartan. They wear this chiefly in trousers 

 and jackets, with coarse brogues, also made by them- 

 selves. They make brooches of clumsy iron rings, 

 with pins across : these are worn by the women to 

 tuck up their plaids. Needles coarse in proportion ; 

 thong-ropes for ascending the rocks in quest of nests 

 and birds ; fish-hooks finer than the other articles ; 

 thread and horn-spoons are the remaining manu- 

 factures of this place infinitely coarser and more 

 clumsy, and made in smaller quantity and less 

 variety, than those which navigators have found 

 in any of the Pacific islands, New Holland in the 

 south excepted. A total want of curiosity, a stupid 

 gaze of wonder, an excessive eagerness for spirits and 

 tobacco, a laziness only to be conquered by the hope 

 of the above-mentioned cordials, and a beastly degree 

 of filth, the natural consequence of this, render the 

 St Kildian character truly savage. To all this our 



