The Helena independent., 1890-12-28

wnere they can only founder in mighty
struggles, or high and dry on land, where
forts to escape their butchery, which 10 al
ways savage and sickening sight, proceeds
with wonderful dispatch. In this bloody
work the hardy and powerful Shetland
women take gleeful and most frenzied
part.
The chief industry Of the Shetlanders
nust always be that Of fishing. Cod, ling
IND herring are taken. The boats former
y used were s'sixerns." or ancient six
Dared boats, of about twenty feet keel. and
fiddle shaped" at bow and stern; but the
great loss of life in 1881, which occurred in
lines, in which ten boats went down and
ffty-eiRht fishermen persisted, paved the
way for the adoption of tho large
decked boats described in q recent article
Of this series on the herring fisheries of
Scotland. Cod and ling fishing is extern
smacks going as far as the Farce islands
and to Iceland. The number of these two
varieties of fish taken by Shetland vessels
in 1888 was ], ,h56, ,446, representing weight
of $3.50, GOO pounds when cured and dried;
more than one-third Of this class of fishing
for all Scotland for the same year. In gen
eral, however. Shetland annually produces
fully one-half of the total catch for Scot
land.
The Shetland csofter differs little in
character and environment from the
Scottish Highland crofter of the north
and west shores of the Scottish mainland
lie IS God-fearing, rugged, hardy, hon
est, simple fellow, with scarcely other
than the two impulses Of being, in living
and right living. II he possesses faults,
they are inherited rather than acquired.
His sodden fatalism, despite his almost
fierce religious faith, is the outcome Of
those curious. superstitions of all lowly
races living alongside the material relics
and remains of Pagan proQenitors: and
his apparently easy-going nature. which
cheerily contemplates most of the bur-
dens of home-life and croft-toil falling up
on his faithful spouse, is the traditional
one existing among all seafarlng people.
woes, or arms of the sea, the crofts are
generally situated along the shores of
these. Croft holdings comprise from three
to ten acres of arabic land, with hill-pas-
ture in common. The latter is known
here as scattald, pronounced by the ma
tives ''scathold;' but the land is reckoned
by so many merks value, the merk being
an old Morse coin worth about $3.22-thus
"5-merk croft" ''20-merk croft" etc.,
the value, rather than the size, of the
croft being thus indicated.
Tie truck system, that barba-ous in
iquity still prevalent in some portions of
our country, which formerly kept Shet-
| landers in precisely the same abhorreut
condition Of slavery as that suffered by
the miners of Pennsylvania, Indiana and
Illinois, having few years since been
extirpated from Shetland by the same
British public sentiment which fixed
fair rents for Scottish crofters generally
the Shetland fsher-crofters are prosperous
and content upon their bits of land, as the
result of their labor upon the crofts and in
fishing; for every Shetland peasant is both
| fisher and crofter. At each croft-home
will be found few sheep, great focks of
geese, often cow, and always the stumpy
little Shetland pony and cart. The ponies
are very hardy, wondrously sure-footed,
and. being as much companions as beasts
of burden, are left pretty much to the
freedom of their own Wills when not re-
| quired for use.
These ponies are Of course used in all
manner of carrying capacities like the lit
tie donkeys of the Azores, but one irresisti-
bly, connects them in the thought with peat
carrying. You can hardly turn your eyes
upon any road or pathway in Shetland with.
hidden under great straw panniers, OF
"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 dos 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 land
ing 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. This is creel
made of twisted and woven straw like the
"maysies." It is also written .'cassie." and
its PRONUNCIATION is best indicated in the
spelling "kyshire" or "kishie:" shet-
| land REQO nff niuoh1v vuif1,
from seventy to eighty pounds weight in
their "kashies,'' but knit, knit, knit for.
ever and forever. Peat is the principal
burden, for there is no wood fuel in Shet-
land. Nearly all the high interior surface
of the islands consists of wild, dreary scat
talds or peat-mosses, common for pasture
as we'll as for peat; and from these nine
tenths of the Shetlanders secure their fu-
el supplies. For peat-cutting in Shet
land, long. narrow 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, md the size
of the '.toysker,o as the peat-spade is
aalled, determines the size of the peat
When cut each block is about one foot long
six or seven inches broad, and about three
inches thick. The peats are then laid in
rows on the bank, like unbaked brick, fol
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 ''tnaysies'' on the ponies hacks, OF
in the "kashies'' on the women's backs
when they are usually stacked along
side the cabins for winter use, as on tht
Scottish mainland.
The stranger will still find many curious
and interesting relics of olden DAYS and
ways in Shetland. The ancient village OF
'toun" of Sound. two miles from Lerwick
is veritable nest of odd, old folks and
things. The inhabitants piQue themselv ei
on possessing the exact spot of ground on
which their ancestors dweltsfor more than
thousand years. They show fine scorn
for ''oopstart Lerwick'' in the oft. quoted
couplct,
Sound was Sound when Lerwick was name:
6oundll be Sound when lerwick is dune!"--
and the Sound wives'' still visit Ler.
wick OH Saturdays with their '.kashies'
on their backs, their knitting in full
swing and their noses high in lofty con.
tempt, waiting on one another until ull are
done with their errands or shopping, and
then returning to Sound the embodiment
of haughty liberation. The old imple.
ments of labor and ancient costumes are
vet common in some quarters. You will
still find men clad in jackets and trouser,
reaching a little below the knee. oi
roughly tanned sheep-skins. the large
blue bonnets of the Tam O'Shanter varie.
ty on their heads. and their feet encased
in s'rivlns," the '.pampootas' of the half.
naked W;etches Of the Irish Arran Islands
consisting of oblong patches Of ravhide