BIRDS. 389 



thilt stands firm keeps him up, and helps hnn up again. But if 

 he jiasseth safe, he iiicewise 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 dowri, and are killed. In this manner some do 

 perish every year." 



Mr Peter Clanson, in his description of Norway, writes, that 

 there was anciently a law in that country, that whosoever climb- 

 ed so on the cliffs that he fell down and died, if the body was 

 found before burial, his next kinsman 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 meantime, 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, and there 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 meantime 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 thereon ; 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, u])oti which the rope glideth, that it ni^y 

 not be worn to pieces by the bard and rough edge of the stone. 

 They have, besides, another small line, that is fastened to the 



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