THE WOMEN OF ST. KILDA. 19 



This, however, did not abate my respect for the 

 woman one jot, as I would infinitely rather see a 

 member of the fair sex with her attire stuck full 

 of French nails than one decorated with birds' 

 wings. 



The younger women wear hats and bonnets 

 whilst in church, but the elder ones still adhere to 

 the picturesque, many-coloured handkerchief and 

 shawl over their shoulders. I was considerably 

 struck by the brooches with which they fasten their 

 shawls. These are of two sorts one, a large 

 copper ring, said to be made from an old penny 

 beaten out, and the other consisting simply of a 

 ship's brass washer, with a wire pin attached to it. 

 In both cases the sides of the shawl to be fastened 

 are pulled through the ring and then transfixed by 

 the pin. 



I was much puzzled by seeing the women 

 tramping about amongst the grass in the enclosure 

 round the Tillage bare-foot and bare-leg with their 

 skirts tucked up to their knees, pulling dock leaves. 

 It turned out upon inquiry that the cows refuse to 

 be milked unless they are being fed the while with 

 this weed. Poor women of St. Kilda ! theirs is a 

 hard lot. They shoulder an immense load of dock 

 leaves which they carry up the tremendously steep 

 hill separating the Village from the Glen, where 

 the cows are milked, and often fetch back an 

 equally great load of turf in addition to their 

 buckets of milk. They also milk a number of ewes 

 on the island, but although we tried every device 

 to get them to allow my brother to photograph 

 them in the act we failed. They would not permit 

 this to be done for love or money, under the im- 

 pression that people who saw the picture would 

 laugh at them. 



