536 



A HISTORY OF 



ceth to fall, the other that stands firm keeps him 

 up, and helps him up again. But if he passeth 

 safe, he likewise fastens himself till the other has 

 passed the same dangerous place also. Thus 

 they go about the cliffs after birds as they please. 

 It often happeneth, however, (the more is the 

 pity) that when one doth not stand fast enough, 

 or is not sufficiently strong to hold up the other 

 in his fall, that they both fall down, and are 

 killed. In this manner some do perish every 

 year." 



Mr. Peter Clanson, in his description of Nor- 

 way, writes, that there was anciently a law in 

 that country, that whosoever climbed so on 

 the cliffs that he fell down and died, if the 

 body was found before burial, his next kins- 

 man should go the same way; but if he durst 

 not, or could not do it, the dead body was not 

 then to be buried in sanctified earth, as the 

 person was too full of temerity, and his own 

 destroyer. 



" When the fowlers are come, in the. manner 

 aforesaid, to the birds within the cliffs, where 

 people seldom come, the birds are so tame, 

 that they take them with their hands ; for they 

 will not readily leave their young. But when 

 they are wild, they cast a net, with which 

 they are provided, over them, and entangle 

 them therein. In the mean time, there lieth a 

 boat beneath in the sea, wherein they cast the 

 birds killed ; and, in this manner, they can in 

 a short time fill a boat with fowl. When it is 

 pretty fair weather, andther^ is good fowling, 

 the fowlers stay in the cliff seven or eight days 

 together ; for there are here and there holes in 

 the rocks, where they can safely rest ; and 

 they have meat let down to them with a line 

 from the top of the mountain. In the mean 

 t im some go every day to them, to fetch home 

 what they have taken. 



" Some rocks are so difficult, that they can 

 in no manner get unto them from below ; 

 wherefore they seek to come down thereunto 

 from above. For this purpose they have a 

 rope eighty or a hundred fathoms long, made 

 of hemp, and three fingers thick. The fowler 

 maketh the end of this fast about his waist, 

 and between his legs, so that he can sit there- 

 on ; and is thus let down, with the fowling- 

 staff in his hand. Six men hold by the rope, 

 and let him easily down, laying a large piece 

 of wood on the brink of the rock, upon which 

 the rope glideth, that it may not be worn to 



pieces by the hard and rough edge of the stone. 

 They have, besides, another small line, that is 

 fastened to the fowler's body ; on which he 

 pulleth, to give them notice how they should 

 let down the great rope, either lower or higher ; 

 or to hold still, that he may stay in the place 

 whereunto he is come. Here the man is in 

 great danger, because of the stones that are 

 loosened from the cliff, by the swinging of the 

 rope, and he cannot avoid them. To remedy 

 this, in some measure, he hath usually on his 

 head a seaman's thick and shaggy cap, which 

 defends him from the blows of the stones, if 

 they be not too big ; and then it costeth him his 

 life : nevertheless, they continually put them- 

 selves in that danger, for the wretched body's 

 food sake, hoping in God's mercy and pro- 

 tection, unto which the greatest part of them 

 do devoutly recommend themselves when they 

 go to work : otherwise, they say, there is no 

 other great danger in it, except that it is a 

 toilsome and artificial labour ; for he that hath 

 not learned to be so let down, and is not used 

 thereto, is turned about with the rope, so that 

 he soon groueth giddy, and can do nothing ; 

 but he that hath learned the art, considers it 

 as a sport, swings himself on the rope, sets his 

 feet against the rock, casts himself some fathoms 

 from thence, and shoots himself to what place 

 he will : he knows where the birds are, he un- 

 derstands how to sit on the line in the air, and 

 how to hold the fowling-staff in his hand ; 

 striking therewith the birds that come or fly 

 away : and when there are holes in the rocks, 

 and it stretches itself out, making underneath 

 as a ceiling under which the birds are, he 

 knoweth how to shoot himself in among them, 

 and there take firm footing. There, when he 

 is in these holes, he maketh himself loose of 

 the rope, which he fastens to a crag of the 

 rock, that it may not slip from him to the out- 

 side of the cliff. He then goes about in the 

 rock, taking the fowl either with his hands or 

 the fowling-staff. Thus, when he hath killed 

 as many birds as he thinks fit, he ties them in a 

 bundle, and fastens them to a little rope, giv- 

 ing a sign, by pulling, that they should draw 

 them up. When he has wrought thus the 

 whole day, and desires to get up again, he 

 sitteth once more upon the great rope, giving 

 a new sign that they should pull him up ; or 

 else he worketh himself up, climbing along 

 the rope, with his girdle full of birds. It is 



