Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28

quired for use. These ponies are of course
used in all manner OF carrying capacities
like the little donkeys of the Azores, but
one irresistibly connects them in the thought
with peat-carrying. You can hardly turn
your eyes upon any road or pathway In
Shetland without somewhere seeing Shet-
land pony half hidden under great straw
panniers. or "maysies," as the natives call
them, going for or returning with peat,
while the Shetland guidwife or maiden jogs
along in company, knitting with an almost
savage sedulousness and energy.
But there is another carrier here that does
almost the work of the Shetland pony.
That is the Shetland woman. All the
manure for the crofts, comprising thousands
of tons of gathered seaweed, the millions of
fish in the operations of landing and curing,
and large portion of the peat, is carried
not on ponies backs. but on the backs of
women in the universal "kashie" of the
islands. Shetland women step off nimbly
with from 20 to 80 pounds weight in their
'kashies," but knit, knit, knit forever and
forever. Peat is the principal burden. for
there is no wood-fuel in Shetland. Nearly
all the high interior surface of the islands,
consists OF wild, dreary scattalds or peat
moses, common for pasture as we'll as for
peat; and from these nine-tenths of the Shet-
landers secure their fuel supplies.
CUTTING THE PEAT.
For peat cutting in Shetland, long. mar
row spade with sharp iron edge, and an
iron plate some seven inches long, placed at
right angles, is used. Peat banks or beds
are generally three peat lengths in depth,
and the size of the "toysker," as the peat
spade is called, determines the size OF the
peat. When cut each block is about 1 foot
long, 6 or inches broad, and about inches
thick. The peats are then laid in rows on
the bank, like unbaked brick, for the first
drying. After lying for three weeks they
are then "raised," that is, stood on ends in
small piles, for complete drying. Leading
the peats" is taking them home in the ''mav-
sizes" on the ponies backs, or in the "kash-
les" on the womcn's backs, when they are
usually Stacked" alongside the cabins for
winter use, as on the Scottish mainland.
The stranger will still find many curious
and interesting relics of olden days and ways
in Shetland. The ancient village or "toun"
of Sound, two miles from Lerwick, is a veri-
table nest of odd, old folk and things. The
inhabitants pique themselves on possessing
the exact spot OF ground on which their an
cestors dwelt for more than 1000 years.
They show fine scorn for "oopstart Ler-
wick" in the oftquoted couplet:
Sound was Sound when Lerwick was name;
Soundll be Sound when Lerwick is dune!-
| and the "Sound wives" still visit Lerwick
on Saturday with their "kashies" on their
backs, the knitting in full swing, and their
noses high in lofty contempt, waiting on one
another until all are done with their er-
rands or shopping, and then returning to
Sound the embodiment OF naughty tolera-
tion.
THEY CLING TO THE OLD.
The old implements of labor and ancient
costumes are yet common in some quarters.
You will still find men clad in jackets and
trouser, reaching little below the knee, of
roughly-tanned sheepskins, the large blue
bonnets of the Tam O'Shanter variety on
their heads, and their feet encased in
"rivlins," the "pampootas" of the half
naked wretches of the Irish Arran Islands,
consisting of oblong patches of rawhide,
tied over the feet with thongs. The hair is
next the foot; and the sole and sides only
are covered. The ancient "clivins" or fire.
tones frequently weigh 90 pounds. Grain
is universally cut with the sickle, threshed
with the fail, and winnowed by being
tossed in the breeze.
The old wooden harrow is common; crook
ed wooden ploughs are still seen; many
households possess the quern or stone hand.
mill as old as Aryan history; and little huts
OF water-mills, where larger querns are
whirled about by rude wheels against which
water from little rills is shot horizontally,
and where the grain is fed into the upper
stone by hand, are numerous in the islands.
The Shetlanders as a people are most
frank, engaging ard courteous, though
underneath it all there is wise canniness
of reserve far exceeding that of the main
land Scotch. A genuine charm to the
stranger is their softness aud almost liquid
fly Of speech; although it is at first difficult
for even Scotchman to wholly understand
the language. EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.