Mr. Atkinson's Notice of St. Kilda. 219 



tuting at once their food, the staple commodity of the island, and very 

 generally its circulating medium, for the use and value of money is 

 scarcely known, and all bargains among themselves, and between them 

 and the tacksman, are calculated in fowl. 



With regard to morality, they are in a curiously primitive state, which 

 may be attributed to the absence of the usual inducements to crime, 

 aided by the utter impossibility of escape in case of detection. More- 

 over, they cannot indulge in that beginner of mischiefs, intoxication, as 

 no fermented or spirituous liquor is made on the island, and the 

 supplies of the tacksman are very small. Dishonesty is therefore very 

 rare ; murder has not been committed within the memory of man, and 

 adultery is unknown. In disposition they are cheerful, gentle, and 

 obliging, strongly mindful of their promise, and highly tractable. 



With such materials to work on, Mr. McKenzie has a prospect of 

 being of much utility to them ; in fact, though he had only been there 

 a year, he had got them to attend the church very attentively and re- 

 gularly twice a week. Gaelic is the only language spoken, but one man, I 

 believe, understanding any English. Mrs. McKenzie, a Glasgow lady, 

 does not speak it, and therefore, was, I am inclined to think, very glad to 

 see us, as it must have been six months since she exchanged a sentiment 

 with any one but her husband. 



The complicated machinery of the law, seems as unknown, as it would 

 be useless among them ; but all the interests of the community are 

 managed by a general assembly of the men, on a house somewhat larger 

 than the rest in the middle of the village : on the broad wall of this 

 they sit,* and portion out the rock to the climbers, examine into the 

 state of ropes which have lain by for the winter, and settle any dis- 

 putes which may have arisen among their number ; any thing of more 

 weighty import being left for the decision of the tacksman on his 

 visit. 



The whole front of the vast precipices at St. Kilda is abundant in 

 narrow shelves and ledges, covered with the richest vegetation ; and on 



* I should observe, that the rafters of the houses rise from the inner side of a broad low 

 wall, which leaves the thickness of the wall as a seat, or shelf to place household utensils on- 



