712 K I 1 
rieJ away by one-of his relations next year ; and thus was 
the infection communicated, which made fuch havock, 
that only four grown perfons were left alive. The houfes 
are built in two rows, regular, and facing one another; 
with a tolerable caufeway in the middle, which they call 
the Jirect. Thefe habitations are made and contrived in a 
very uncommon manner. Every one of them is fiat in 
the roof, or nearly fo, much like the houfes of fome of 
the oriental nations. That from any one of thefe the St. 
Kildans have borrowed their manner of building, no man 
of fenfe will entertain a fulpicion. They have been taught 
this lell'on by their own reafon, improved by experience. 
The place in which their lot lias fallen is peculiarly fub- 
jeft to violent fqualls and furious hurricanes ; were their 
houfes railed higher than at prefc-nt, they believe the firft 
winter-ftorm would bring them down about their ears. 
For this reafon the precaution they take in giving them 
roofs much flatter than ordinary l'eerns to be not altoge¬ 
ther unneceflary. The walls of thefe habitations are made 
of a rough gritty kind of Hones, huddled up together in 
hafte, without either lime or mortar, from eight to nine 
feet high. In the heart of the walls are the beds, which 
are overlaid with flags, and large enough to contain three 
perfons. In the fide of every bed is an opening, by way 
of door, which is much too narrow and low to anfwer 
that purpofe. All their dwelling-houfes are divided into 
two apartments by partition-walls. In the divifion next 
the door, which is much the largelr, they have their cat¬ 
tle flailed during the whole winter-feafon ; the other ferves 
for kitchen, hall, and bedroom. 
It will be readily expected, that a race of men and wo¬ 
men bred in St. Kilda mult be a very llovenly generation, 
and every way inelegant. It is indeed impoflible to de¬ 
fend them from this imputation. Their method of pre¬ 
paring a fort of manure, to them indeed of vaft ufe, proves 
that they are very indelicate. After having burnt a con- 
fiderable quantity of dried turf, they fpread the allies with 
the nicelt care over the floor of that apartment in which 
they eat and lleep. Thefe allies, fo exactly laid out, they 
cover with a rich friable fort of earth ; over this bed of 
earth they fcatter a proportionable heap of that dull into 
which peats are apt to crumble away: this done, they wa¬ 
ter, tread, and beat the whole compoft into a hard floor, 
on which they immediately make new fires very large, and 
never extinguilhed till they have a fufficient ftock of new 
allies on hand. The fame operations are repeated with a 
never-failing punctuality, till they are juft ready to fow 
their barley; by that time the walls of their houfes are 
funk down, or, to fpeak more properly, the floors rilen 
about four or five feet high. To have room enough for 
accumulating heaps of this compoft one above another, 
the ancient St. Kildans had ingenuity enough to contrive 
their beds within the linings of their walls; and it was 
for the fame reafon they took care to raife thefe walls to a 
height far from being common in the other Weftern 
Illands. 
It is certain that cieanlinefs muft contribute greatly to 
health, and of courfe to longevity; but, in fpite of that 
inftance of indelicacy now given, and many more which 
might have been added, the people of this illand are not 
more Ihort-lived than other men. Their total want of 
thofe articles of luxury which have fo natural a tendency 
to deftroy the conftitution of the human body, and their 
moderate exercife, together with fome other circumftances, 
keep the balance of life equal enough between them and 
thofe who are abfolute ftrangers to fiovenlinefs. 
Befides the dwelling-houfes already deferibed, there are 
a prodigious number of little cells difperfed over all the 
ifland ; which confift entirely of (tones, without any the 
fmalleft help of timber. Thefe cells are from twelve to 
eighteen feet in length, and a little more than feven in 
height. Their breadth at the foundation is nearly equal 
to the height. Every ftone hangs above that immediately 
Iselow, not perpendicularly; but inclines forward, fo as to 
L D A. 
be nearer the oppofite fide of the grotto, and thus by im¬ 
perceptible degrees till the two higheft courfes are near 
enough to be covered by a Angle flag at the top. To hin¬ 
der the rain from falling down between the interftices 
above, the upper part of the building is overlaid with turf 
which looks like a fine green fward while new. The in¬ 
habitants fecure their peats, eggs, and wild fowl, within 
thele fmall repofitories ; every St. Kildan has his (hare of 
them, in proportion to the extent of land he poffeffes, or 
the rent life pays to the fteward. From the> confirmation 
of thefe cells, and the toil they muft have coft before they 
could have been finifhed, it feems plain, that thofe who 
put them together, were, if not more ingenious than their 
neighbours in the adjacent iflands, at leaft more induftrl* 
ous than their own fucceffors. 
The St. Kilda. method of catching wild fowl is very en¬ 
tertaining. The men are divided into fowling-parties, 
each of which confifts generally of four perfons diftin- 
guilhed by their agility and (kill. Each party muft have 
at leaft one rope about thirty fathoms long; this rope is 
made out of a ftrong raw' cow-hide, falted for that very 
purpofe, and cut circularly into three thongs all of equal 
length ; thefe thongs, being clofely twilled together, form 
a three-fold cord, able to fuftain a great weight, and du¬ 
rable enough to laft for about tw'o generations ; to prevent 
the injuries it would otherwife receive from the (harp 
edges of the rocks, againft which they muft frequently 
ftrike, the cord is lined with fheep-fkins, dreffed in much 
the lame manner. This rope is a piece of furniture indif- 
penlably neceffary, and the raoft valuable implement a man 
can be poffeffed of in St. Kilda. In the teftament of a fa¬ 
ther, it makes the very firft article in favour of his eldeft 
fon ; fliould it happen to fall to a daughter’s fhare, in de¬ 
fault of male heirs, it is reckoned equal in value to the 
belt two cows in the ifland. By the help of fuch ropes, 
the people of the greatelt prowefs and experience heretra- 
verfe and examine rocks prodigioufly high. Linked to¬ 
gether in couples, each having either end of the cord faf- 
tened about his waift, they go frequently through the molt 
dreadful precipices ; when one of the two delcends, his 
colleague plants himfelf on a ltrong flielf, and takes care 
to have fuch lure footing there' that if his fellow-adven¬ 
turer makes a falfe ftep, and tumbles over, he may be able 
to fave him. The i’olan goofe, after the hard toil of the 
day at filhing without intermiffion, rifing high in the air 
to get a full light of the filh that he marks out for his prey 
before he pounces upon it, and each time devouring it be¬ 
fore he rifes above the lurface, becomes fo fatigued at 
night, that he deeps quite found, in company with fome 
hundreds, who mark out fome particular fpot in the face 
of the rocks, to which they repair at night, and think 
themfelves fecure under the protection of a ccntinel, 
who Hands awake to give the alarm, by crying out 
bir, bir, in time of danger, to awaken thofe under his 
guard. The St. Kildans watch with great care on what 
part of the ifland thefe birds are molt likely to light at 
night; and this they know by marking out on which fide 
of the illand filh are, among which the geefe are at w'ork 
the whole day ; becaufe in that quarter .they are ready to 
betake themfelves to deep at night. And, when they are 
fairly alighted, the fowlers repair to the place with their 
panniers, and ropes to let them down, with profound II- 
lence, to try their fortunes among the unwary throng. 
The fowler, thus let down by one or more men, who hold 
the rope left he fliould fall over the impending rocks into 
the fea, with a white towel about his breaft, calmly Hides 
over the face of the rocks till he has'a full view of the 
centinel; then he gently moves along on his hands and 
feet, creeping very lilently to the fpot where the centinel 
Hands on guard. If he cries bir, bir, the fign of an alarm, 
he Hands back ; but if he cries grog, grog, that of confi¬ 
dence, he advances without giving an alarm, becaufe the 
goofe takes the fowler for one of the llraggling geefe 
coming into the camp, and fuffers him to advance. Then 
