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which is long, is twisted and braided into halters, and the tail is used for a flybrush. In this wise do these people convert and use the various parts of this useful animal.-Catlin.

ST. KILDA.-PART IV.

WE shall now describe the government, and the manners, laws, and customs of the island; and instead of affecting originality in doing so, shall leave to Mr. Martin the honour of executing this task in his own words, with only the transposition and proper collocation of certain passages; his work being a medley of all kinds of subjects mingled together, without order or arrangement:

"This isle belongs in property to the laird of Macleod, head of one of the most ancient families of Scotland; it is never farmed, but most commonly bestowed upon some favourite, one of his friends or followers, who is called steward of the isle. The present steward's name is Alexander Macleod, who pays yearly to his master an acknowledgment of the various products of the isle. This steward visits St. Kilda every summer; and upon his arrival, he and his retinue have all the milk in the isle bestowed on them in a treat: there is another bestowed on them upon St. Columba's day, the 15th of June, and we had a share of this second treat. The steward's retinue consists of forty, fifty, or sixty persons; and among them, perhaps, the most meagre in the parish are carried thither to be recruited with good cheer; but this retinue is now retrenched, as also some of their ancient and unreasonable exactions.

"The steward lives upon the charge of the inhabitants until the time that the Solan geese are ready to fly, which the inhabitants think long enough; the daily allowance paid by them is very regularly exacted, with regard to their respective proportions of lands and rocks. There is not a parcel of men in the world more scrupulously nice and punctilious in maintaining their liberties and properties than these are, being most religiously fond of their ancient laws and statutes; nor will they by any means consent to alter their first, though unreasonable, constitutions; and we had a striking instance of this their genius for preserving their ancient customs. They have unchangeably continued their first and ancient measures, as the maile, amir, and cubit :

this maile contains ten pecks; the amir, which they at present make use of, is probably the Hebrew omer, which contains nearly two pecks; the cubit, or, in their language, lave keile, that is, an hand of wood, is the distance from the elbow to the fingers' ends: this they only use in measuring their boats. The amir, or rather half-amir, as they call it, is composed of thin boards, and, as they acknowledge, has been used these fourscore years, in which tract of time it is considerably fallen short of the measure of which it was at first, which they themselves do not altogether deny. The steward, to compensate this loss, pretends to a received custom of adding the hand of him that measures the corn to the amir's side, holding some of the barley above the due measure, which the inhabitants complain of as unreasonable. The steward, to satisfy them, offered to refer the debate to Mr. Campbell's decision and mine, they themselves being to propose their objections, and two of his retinue, who were well skilled in the customs of the place, in the time of some of the former stewards, being appointed to answer them; and he promised that he would acquiesce in the decision, though it should prove to his prejudice; but they would not alter that measure if Macleod did not expressly command it, being persuaded that he could not attempt to do so, as his and their ancestors had had it in such esteem for so many ages. So great was their concern about thisamir, that they unanimously determined to send the officer as envoy, according to the ancient custom, to represent their case to Macleod. This was the result of a general council, in which the master of every family has a vote, since every family pays this officer an amir of barley per annum, to maintain his character.

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This officer, as such, is obliged to adjust the respective proportions of lands, grass, and rocks, and what else could be claimed by virtue of the last tack, or lease, which is never longer than for three years, condescended to by the steward; nay, he is obliged always to dispute with the steward for what is due to any of them, and never to give over until he has obtained his demand, or put the steward into such a passion that he gives the officer at least three strokes with his cudgel upon the crown of his head, which is the utmost that is required of him by their ancient customs. to the officer who gave me this account,

I said

what if the steward should give him but one blow? He answered that the inhabitants would not be satisfied if he did not so far plead as to irritate the steward to give both the second and the third. I had the further curiosity to inquire of the steward himself if he was wont to treat the officer in this manner, who answered that it was an ancient custom, which in his short time he had not had occasion to practise; but if he should, he would not confine himself to the number of three blows, if the officer should prove indiscreet.

"The steward bestows some acres of land upon the officer for serving him and the inhabitants. He gives him likewise the bonnet worn by himself when going out of the island; the steward's wife leaves with the officer's wife the kircher, or headdress worn by herself; and she bestows upon her likewise an ounce of indigo. The steward has a large cake of barley presented to him by the officer at every meal, and it must be made so large as shall be sufficient to satisfy three men at a time, and by way of eminence it is baked in the form of a triangle, and furrowed twice round. The officer is obliged to furnish the steward with mutton or beef to his dinner every Sunday, during his residence in the island.

"Notwithstanding these reciprocal acts of kindness, this officer must be allowed to go in quality of an envoy to Macleod against the steward, upon extraordinary occasions, if the commonwealth have any grievances to redress, as that of the amir | now depending; but the commission given him is limited, the whole boat's crew being joined in commission with him, and are a check upon him, lest his dependence upon the steward might be apt to bias him. He makes his entry very submissively, taking off his bonnet at a great distance, when he appears in Macleod's presence, bowing his head and hand low near to the ground, his retinue doing the like behind him, one after another, making, as it were, a chain; this being their manner of walking both at home and abroad, for they walk not abreast as others do; and in making their purchase among the rocks, one leads the van, and the rest follow.

"The number of people inhabiting this isle at present is about one hundred and eighty, who, in the steward's absence, are governed by one Donald MackGill Colin, as their meijre, which imports an officer. This officer was anciently

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chosen, or at least approved of, by the people, before the steward settled him in his office; but now the stewards have the nomination of him absolutely. He is president over them in all their debates, takes care that the lots be managed impartially, that none to whose share they fall may have cause to repine, whether it be for the steward's service or that of the commonwealth. The use of the lots, together with the crucifix, do mightily contribute to their peace and quiet, keeping every one within his proper bounds. It must needs be a very odd case, indeed, that falls not within the compass of either of these to determine. When any case happens which does not fall under the decision of lots, and it is capable of being decided only by the oath of the parties, then the crucifix must determine the matter; and if it should prove to be a case of the highest importance, any of them are at liberty to refer it to his neighbour's oath, without any suspicion of perjury, provided the ceremony of touching the crucifix with the right hand be observed; and this is always publicly performed.

"If any man is guilty of beating his neighbour, he is liable to a fine not exceeding the value of two shillings sterling:

if

any has beat his neighbour so as to draw blood from him, he is liable to a fine not exceeding four shillings and sixpence. These crimes are complained of by the officer to the steward upon his arrival, who either exacts the whole, or dispenses with the fines, as he judges convenient for their future quiet and peace.

"They have only one common kiln, which serves them all by turn, as the lots fall to their share: he whose lot happens to be last, does not resent it at all.

"The officer, by virtue of his place, is obliged, through a point of honour, to be the first that lands in the lesser isles and rocks, from whence they carry their fowls and eggs, and not without some trouble too. This notion of honour exposes him to frequent dangers; and perhaps it may not be unpleasant to describe it, as I have seen it practised; and it is thus :When they come as near to the rock as they think may consist with the safety of the boat, which is not a little tossed by the raging of the sea, those, whose turn it is, are employed with poles to keep off the boat, which is in great danger, in regard of the violence of the waves beating upon the rock, and they are to

"There is one boat sixteen cubits long, which serves the whole commonwealth. It is very curiously divided into apartments, proportionable to their lands and rocks. Every individual has his space distinguished to a hair's breadth, which his neighbour cannot encroach so much as to lay an egg upon it.

watch the opportunity of the calmest | and, therefore, what is over and above, wave, upon the first appearance of which they leave behind in their stone pyrathe officer jumps out upon the rock: if mids. there be any apparent danger, he ties a rope about his middle, with one end of it fastened to the boat; if he has landed safe, he then fixes his feet in a secure place, and, by the assistance of this rope, draws up all the crew to him, except those whose turn it is to look after the boat; but if, in jumping out, he falls into the sea, as his misfortune is so to do sometimes, he is drawn into the boat again by that part of the rope which is so fastened to it, and then the next whose turn it is must try his luck, as it is called: the officer, after his fall, being supposed to be sufficiently fatigued, so that he is not obliged to venture his person again to a second hazard upon this occasion, especially as he is exposed to the greatest danger that offers upon their landing when they return back again to the isle, where the sea often rages, he being obliged then, by virtue of his office, to stay in the boat after the whole crew are landed, where he must continue employing his pole, until the boat be either brought safe to land or split upon the rocks.

"They furnish themselves with ropes to carry them through the more inaccessible rocks. Of these ropes there are only three in the whole island, each of them twenty-four fathoms in length; and they are either knit together and lengthened by tying the one to the other, or used separately, as occasion requires. The chief thing upon which the strength of these ropes depends, is cow's hide salted, and cut out in one long piece: this they twist round the ordinary rope of hemp, which secures it from being cut by the rocks. They join sometimes at the lower end two ropes, one of which they tie about the middle of one climber, and another about the middle of another, that these may assist one another in case of a fall; but the misfortune is, that sometimes the one happens to pull down the other, and so both fall into the sea; but if they escape, as they commonly do of late, they get an incredible number of eggs and fowls.

"The ropes belong to the commonwealth, and are not to be used without the general consent. The lots determine the time, place, and persons for using them. They get together in three days a much greater number of fowls and eggs than their boat is able to carry away,

"Every partner, in summer, provides a large turf to cover his space of the boat, thereby defending it from the violence of the sun, which (in its meridian height) reflects most vehemently from the sea and rock, upon which the boat lies. At the drawing it up, both sexes are employed in pulling a long rope at the fore end. They are determined in uniting their strength by the crier, who is therefore excepted from his share in the labour.

"There is but one steel and tinderbox in all this commonwealth; the owner whereof fails not upon every occasion to strike fire in the lesser isles, to go there, and to exact three eggs, or one of the lesser fowls, from each man, as a reward for his services. This by them is called the fire-penny, and this capitation is very uneasy to them. I bid them try their crystal with their knives, which, when they saw it produced fire, they were not a little astonished, and at the same accusing their own ignorance, considering the quantity of crystal growing under the rocks of their coast. This discovery has delivered them from the fire-penny tax, and they are now no longer liable to it.

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They have likewise a pot-penny tax, which is exacted in the same manner as the fire-penny was, but is much more reasonable; for the pot is carried to the inferior isles for the public use, and is in hazard of being broken; so that the owners may justly exact upon this score, since any may venture his pot when he pleases.

"When they have bestowed some hours in fowling about the rock, and caught a competent number, they sit down near the face of it to refresh themselves, and in the meantime they single out the fattest of their fowls, plucking them bare, which they carry home to their wives or other females as a great present; and it is always accepted very kindly from them, and could not indeed well be otherwise without great ingratitude, seeing these men ordinarily expose themselves to great

danger, if not to the hazard of their lives, to procure these presents for them.

"They take their measures, in going to the lesser islands, from the appearance of the heavens; for when it is clear or cloudy in such a quarter, it is a prognostic of wind or fair weather; and when the waves are high on the east point of the bay, it is an infallible sign of a storm, especially if they appear very white, even though the weather be at that time calm. "If the waves in the bay make a noise as they break, before their beating upon the shore, it is an infallible forerunner of a west wind; if a black cloud appears above the south side of the bay, a south wind follows some hours afterwards. It is observed of the sea betwixt St. Kilda and the isles Lewis, Harris, etc., that it rages more with a north wind than when it blows from any other quarter. And it is likewise observed to be less raging with the south wind than any other.

"They know the time of the day by the motion of the sun from one hill or rock to another. Upon either of these the sun is observed to appear at different times; and when the sun does not appear they measure the day by the ebbing and flowing of the sea, which they can tell exactly, though they should not see the shore for some days together. Their knowledge of the tides depends upon the changes of the moon, which they are likewise very exact in observing.

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They use for their diversion short clubs and balls of wood; the sand is a fair field for this sport and exercise, in which they take great pleasure, and are very nimble at it. They play for eggs, fowl, hooks, or tobacco; and so eager are they for victory, that they strip themselves to their shirts to obtain it. They use swimming and diving, and are very expert at both.

"The women have their assemblies in the middle of the village, where they discourse of their affairs, in the mean time employing their distaffs, and spinning in order to make their blankets. They sing and jest for diversion, and, in their way, understand poetry and make verses." There is to this day little or no change in the various matters above touched upon. The remoteness of St. Kilda and its limited intercourse with the world, rendering every thing connected with its government and peculiar usages, remarkably uniform and stationary. Its chieftainship still continues in the ancient family of Macleod, whose present repre

sentative being in India, the management of his property is vested in a legal agent resident in Edinburgh; so that the embassies of the St. Kildan's to their lord in Skye, above spoken of, have for some time been discontinued. The island is now farmed by a gentleman in Sutherlandshire, who pays for it 40%. of rent annually, and exercises all the superior rights formerly administered by the chief, as limited by the acts for the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions. In this respect alone, is there any change in its government. The inhabitants still pay their rents in kind, and are still annually visited by a steward, or the tacksman himself, for their collection; but without such a large and hungry retinue as in the good old times of Mr. Martin. It is now the custom for this annual visitant, to take with him regularly such a supply of clothing and other necessary articles, as will purchase whatever surplus produce the natives may have after settling for their rents; and thus the island has latterly obtained a kind of market, through which various things of modern use, both in clothing and industry, have gradually been imported. The summer visits now made to it occasionally by steam, and the example and wants of a respectable resident clergyman, with his lady and family, have given, and must still give, a great impulse to the process of reclaiming and modernizing it. And much is this wanted; for in regard to clothing, food, and cleanliness of house and person, they are in a state which claims much active sympathy and improving interference.

TAKE GOD'S WORK TOGETHER.

BE not sudden; take God's work together, and do not judge of it by parcels. It is, indeed, all wisdom and righteousness; but we shall best discern the beauty of it when we look on it in the frame, when it shall be fully finished, and our eyes enlightened to take a clearer view What endof it than we can have here. less wondering will it then command!— Leighton.

FOUR BOOKS.

GOD has given us four books: the book of grace, the book of nature, the book of the world, and the book of providence. Every occurrence is a leaf in one of these books: it does not become us to be negligent in the use of any of them.-Cecil.

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House of Commons in the Time of the Protectorate. ENGLISH HISTORY.

PROTECTORATE.-PART I.

CROMWELL hastened, without loss of time, to issue a declaration from the council of officers, vindicating the late proceedings, assigning reasons for dissolving the parliament, and directing all civil officers to proceed with their respective duties: addresses from many places were sent in return, approving what had been done. A council of state was formed, consisting of eight military officers, four others, and Cromwell. For some time directions for government were issued, some by one of these councils, some by the other, and some by the protector himself. But on June 8th, 1653, he summoned 156 individuals by name, chiefly of the independent party, and recommended by the congregational churches, to meet at Whitehall on July 4th, to consider as to the administration of affairs. One hundred and twenty met, when Cromwell, after an address, presented to them a writing under his own hand and seal, stating that

with the advice of the council of officers, he devolved the supreme authority of the commonwealth on them, to act as a sort of parliament till November in the following year, when they were to choose their successors, who also were to act for a year. Rouse, provost of Eton, was chose speaker, but this assembly was generally called "Praise-God Barebone's parliament," from the name of a leather-seller, who took an active part in the debates. The members were, for the most part, men of independent circumstances, as well as of the religious views so called, and however mistaken they may have been in many respects, they acted with more than usual attention to the dictates of their own consciences, refusing to become the tools of him by whom they were appointed. But it was a matter of surprise to many, that the more respectable part of this assembly should assume the supreme authority, considering that they derived it only from Cromwell and his officers.

The naval war with Holland continued. In June, Monk was victorious in a sea

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