Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654
Field | Content |
---|---|
Name: | Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 |
Title: | Nova Descriptio Shetlandiae Descriptio Insvlarvm Circa Scotiam |
Pagination: | 150-151 |
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Translation of text:
they carry on a trade in fish, such as the greater haddock, sturgeon, swordfish, the greater mackerel, the smooth dogfish, in Belgic haye, and others called in English keling, turbot, and skellocks; from this kind of fish when cooked they collect the stickiness and fat, suited to cleaning and washing linen. These fish on each Sabbath day they sell to Bremeners and other Germans, come there to do business. These islands also abound in birds or almost every kind and varied form. There are very many species of duck, which are distinguished by the inhabitants each with their own name. Oxen, bulls and cows are larger than in Scotland, and indeed for the most part white in colour; sheep too are larger. Hides, fleeces, animal skins, also the above-mentioned stickiness are exchanged with strangers and foreigners, and they seek in return the things which they themselves most lack. The inhabitants have rather crude manners, in other ways are quite ingenious and industrious, both in zeal for trade and in forming the laws of their country. They are particularly religious, and highly detest homicide and murder, living quite peacefully and harmoniously among themselves. You would not find any beggars there, or rascals, or thieves; with difficulty they are provoked to oaths. Most live on the spoils from the sea, leading a nautical life; they are careless of their own lives, since they commit themselves to a very stormy sea in small skiffs, which are easily overwhelmed by the tides and waves of the sea, which they call 'roosts'. They cultivate, but rather lazily, the fields, which produce barley and oats; they neglect also cultivation of houses, to which they prefer the sea. You would not find any trees anywhere, and yet from some indications it can be gathered that there have been trees there. They have inelegant houses, but sealed against rains and winds, with only the door opening and an aperture in the roof to let in daylight. They live on meat, fish, cheese and butter, which are kept to pay their taxes and burdens; weights and measures are similar to the Norwegian, as too are other domestic items. Their language most resembles Danish, with a mixture of English words. They are quite inclined to copious drinking, but nonetheless they reach a very advanced age; natives bear witness that a man among them lived to a hundred and sixty. They have firm bodies, strong and well conditioned.
To the west side of these islands is to be seen an island called Thule, but it is doubtful if it is really that Thule mentioned by Virgil and other Roman writers. Statius wished that to be Britain, as he says:
No differently when the blue native of Thule fights,
He surrounds the armies driven by scythed chariot.
Ptolemy places its middle at long. 30? 20?, lat. 63?. Suidas thinks the name is taken from Thules King of Egypt, Isidore from the Sun. I shall transcribe his words: 'Thule, the farthest island of the Ocean between the north and west regions, beyond Britain, has its name from the sun, because in it the Sun makes the summer solstice, and there is no day beyond it. Hence its sea is sluggish and solid.' Reiner Reineck taught that 'tell' in the Saxon language means limit, to which perhaps Isidore referred. About its position therefore there is doubt. Ortelius suspects that the area Telemark of the Norwegian kingdom is the Thule of the ancients. But since from Isidore Thule is situated between north and west, it must be sought elsewhere. Many others wish Iceland to be the real Thule; with them however Saxo Grammaticus, Crantz, Milius and Jovius disagree. Gaspar Peucer in his book on the dimension of the earth states that Shetland was called Thilensell by sailors; if this is so, one might rightly say with Camden that Thule has been found. Certainly Solinus places it next to Britain: 'There are many other islands round Britain, of which Thule is the last; in it at the summer solstice, when the sun makes its transit from the constellation Cancer, there is almost no night. At the winter solstice the day is so contracted that rising and setting are joined. Beyond Thule the sea is sluggish and solid. For those who make for Thule from the promontory of Scotland the voyage takes two days.' Now although in Shetland the North Pole is not so raised up as Pytheas of Marseilles in Strabo devised concerning Thule, yet there are arguments for us to judge it to be the same as Thule: 1. the affinity of the name previously stated. 2. The elevation of the pole exactly agreeing with the Ptolemaic. 3. Because it is a two-days' voyage distant from the promontory of Scotland, from Solinus' description. 4. Because it is interposed between the northern and western quarters, as Isidore noted, that is, between Norway and Scotland, where Saxo Grammaticus also placed it. Finally because it is opposite to the coast of Bergen, as Mela wished: 'Thule, celebrated in Greek and Roman poetry, is opposite the coast of Bergen.' More on Thule will be found in Fr. Petrarch, book 3, epist. 1.
DESCRIPTION
OF THE ISLANDS
AROUND SCOTLAND
FROM CAMDEN.
HEBRIDES (Section Note)
From here [scil. from the Isle of Man] to the Mull of Galloway or Promontory of the Novantes, there are no islands except really small ones; but this being passed, in the Clyde estuary or Dunbarton Firth, the island Clyde rises up, which is mentioned by Antoninus, and is now to the Scots Arran, whence the Earls of Arran in Scotland; and neighbouring it is the one which was formerly Rothesay, now Bute, from the holy cell which Brendan put here (for this is the word for cell in Scots). Then Hellan, formerly Hellan Leneow, that is, as J. Fordoun translates, Island of the Saints, and Hellan Tinoc, that is, Island of Pigs, are seen in the same gulf. But we have discussed them previously. (23)
Outside the gulf islands lie packed together. The Scots who live in them call them Inch-Gall, that is, Islands of the Gaels perhaps; the English and other Scots, The Western Isles; writers of former times, Hebrides; but the ancient Moraliser, Beteoricae; and Giraldus elsewhere, Inchades and Leucades; Pliny, Solinus and Ptolemy, Ebudae, Hebudae and ´Εβυδαι. I cannot work out the meaning of the name, unless I should guess that they were so named, because crops do not grow here; for Solinus relates that their inhabitants have no knowledge of crops and live only on fish and milk; and 'Eb Eid' in British means 'without crops'. 'The inhabitants', as Solinus says, 'are ignorant of crops and live only on fish and milk. There is one King for all; for however many they are, all are divided by a narrow channel; the King has nothing that is his own; everything belongs to all; for equity matters are held in check by fixed laws: and lest avarice should distract from the truth, he learns justice from poverty, since he has no family property: truth is nourished from public ownership. No woman is given to him for his own, but in turns, he takes for his use whichever one he is stirred by, whence neither vow nor hope of children is conceded to him.'
It is commonly asserted that there are 44 of these, when in fact there are many more; Pliny wrote that there were thirty; but Ptolemy counts five. The first is Ricina, in Pliny Ricnea, in Antoninus Riduna, now Racline
Between Islay and Scotland lies Iona, in Bede Hy and Hu, given by the Picts to the Scots' monks because of the propagation of the Gospel among them. It is famous for the Monastery, the burial-place of the Kings of Scotland, and the great number of saintly men, among whom Columba the Apostle of the Picts was of the first rank; from his cell the island is also called Columb kill, as also the man himself was called with the composite name Columbkill, as Bede witnesses. Here finally, as some claim, the Episcopal seat was constituted in the village of Sodor; hence all the islands were also called Sodorian, because it is reckoned in its diocese. Then there is Ptolemy's Maleos, now Mull, which Pliny seems to mention, when he says 'Of the rest Mella is said to be larger than 25 miles.' For so the oldest Venice edition of Pliny reads, where the vulgate has 'Of the rest none'. Eastern Hebuda, now Skye, then stretches for a long distance along the coast of Scotland; and Western Hebuda, turning more to the Ocean, now Lewis, which is under MacLeod, and in the old book of Man is called Lodhus, steep with mountains, rocky, and little cultivated, but the largest of all. Uist is separated from it by a narrow channel. The rest apart from Hirta are ignoble, either rough with stones or impassable because of rocks, and clothed with barely green turf. Yet all of these, classed as the foundation of their empire, were bought by the Scots with money from the Norwegians (as we have said), even if they would gain very little profit therefrom. For the inhabitants, scil. the old Scots or Irish, men of upright mind and manifest boldness, do not allow themselves to be bound by the severity of laws and fear of courts.