388 HISTORY or 



what place he will : he knows where the birds are, 

 he understands 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 ceil- 

 ing 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 outside 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, 

 giving 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 him- 

 self up, climbing along the rope, with his girdle 

 full of birds. It is also usual, where there are 

 not folks enough to hold the great rope, for the 

 fowler to drive a post sloping into the earth, and 

 to make a rope fast thereto, by which he lets him- 

 self down without any body's help, to work in the 

 manner aforesaid. Some rocks are so formed 

 that the person can go into their cavities by land. 

 " These manners are more terrible and danger- 

 ous to see than to describe ; especially if one con- 

 siders the steepness and height of the rocks, it 

 seeming impossible for a man to approach them, 



