Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654
Field | Content |
---|---|
Name: | Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 |
Title: | Nova Orcadvm Descriptio Chorographica |
Pagination: | 144-145 |
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Translation of text:
Of herd animals (though there are no goats there) cattle and sheep are not infrequent; hence they make much use of milk, cheese and butter (that which they eat themselves is excellent, but of what they pay as tax, to the Royal collectors or to their Masters, they do not greatly care about the purity). There are also very many herds of pigs, grazing more cleanly than in Britain on the meadows, mountains and moors. Sea and land birds are innumerable. There is there a great supply of fish of almost all kinds, as too of whales, seals and sea-boars; also shellfish, such as lobsters, oysters, crabs, mussels, and snails, are found there in large numbers. There is no poisonous animal there, and not even any that seems deformed in appearance, except the toad. They also have ponies (in the vernacular they call them ‘shalties’), contemptible in form, but incredibly strong for all purposes.
There is no tree anywhere there (except in Kirkwall, and some bushes in Hoy), except heather, and that not so much by a defect of climate or soil, as by the carelessness of the inhabitants: this is easily shown from the many tree-roots which are dug from the ground in very many places there.
In their daily life the common people, especially in the countryside, still retain much of the old parsimony. And so they enjoy great and almost continuous health of mind and body; diseases are rare among them, and many die weakened only by old age. Ignorance of luxuries, deriving from honourable poverty, does more among them to safeguard health or to restore it if lost, than does the art of physicians (of whom they have none) among other peoples. Most have a quite intelligent nature, capable of learning any skill or discipline; many are distinguished by a tenacious memory, an elegance of form, and a tallness of stature, cheerful in countenance, strong and spirited, and they display strength and a fearless spirit for fighting privately or publicly, when the occasion presents itself. They are themselves acute speakers according to their education, or avid listeners to and retailers of what is put forward acutely by others. They either express or try to express the humanity and civility which they have taken from Scots who live among them. Even the country people listen carefully to sermons, and by mutual repetition of what has been heard recall them to mind in a surprising manner.
They celebrate Christmas and Easter with a great gathering in the churches, to partake of the Lord’s feast. In the Orkneys there is a large number of inhabitants: when a count of heads was taken, which sometimes happened at their consecrations of arms, in the lifetime of the last Earl of Orkney, near Kirkwall, in a neighbouring very lovely meadow, ten thousand men were counted, apart from those who were watching at home against the destruction of individual ploughs and sewn fields.
If parents at their death have left any land, the surviving children, whether male or female, divide it among themselves in equal portions, and to sell one’s inheritance is considered as sacrilege.
In watermills (for there is no windmill there) they mill their grain in the cold of winter, before the water is frozen, not by turning it into particles as in Scotland, but by dividing it into rather larger parts, so that it can be seen both in their bread baked under ashes, of which there is more frequent use there, and in bread pounded above an iron or stone rim. But when the watermills are still with ice they mill their grain in a handmill (in the vernacular they call them ‘quearnes’) worked by women, who sing in a sweet voice, softening the somewhat inherently unpleasant sound of the handmills.
They weigh their goods with weights of two kinds, the greater (they call it ‘poundlar’ in the vernacular) for quantities of crops, and the smaller (it is called ‘bismet’ in the vernacular), with which they check wool, which is a little rougher in some places among them, butter, cheese, linen and other smaller objects.
The parties, which they begin to hold shortly before Christmas and continue almost through the great part of the winter, especially in Kirkwall (in order either to make their enjoyment of life greater, or to establish new friendships or renew and confirm old ones that had for some reason lapsed) are for them profuse, with varied and excellent food (as the country supplies) and drink, especially beer, brewed sometimes with, sometimes without hops, very strong and clear, and full of colour that invites one to drink.
The kind of beer that is best known in Leith, Edinburgh and many other places in Scotland was once brewed, in country houses of lower Scapa (it is a place, a mile from Kirkwall to the south, now actually in the town) the merchants have it brewed, of such strength sometimes that even a drop of it thrown on to the fire rises up in flames, like aqua vitae; and for a long period, that is more than seven years, it carries its age freshly and bravely.
While drinking at parties, if there is any Spanish or French wine (of which quite large amounts are conveyed to Kirkwall from Leith), some gorge themselves the more freely; others, who would drink more moderately, are forced to drink several times, beyond their real wish, by the proposal of the names of absent friends. That very large cup of St Magnus, which they called the beaker, was many years ago taken to Glasgow by Bishop Law (14), and accordingly from its emptying by the bishops who came to them (since now there is no bishop there) they do not guess at his prosperous or inconvenient fortune (as their forebears used to do).
The holder of the highest magistracy, who has charge of the Capital Court in cases and affairs greater and smaller, lives in Kirkwall, where both political and ecclesiastical councils meet; justice is declared to all who gather there from the islands, at appointed times, namely on the 1st of November or thereabout. Under the Chief Magistrate four lesser magistrates (in the vernacular they call them bailies) are appointed at Kirkwall each year by the votes of the Chief Magistrate (who is also the Provost of Kirkwall) and the members of the Town Council; they are present to hear lesser cases, when the Chief Magistrate goes round all the islands to hear disputes and declare justice. Wrongdoers, having been accused and apprehended, convicted and condemned either by their own confession or by the most definite proofs and incontestable evidence, with the previous examination and approval of the Ministers of the Church, are consecrated to Vulcan.
The Pastors of the Word of God gather in Kirkwall each month in summer time (for in winter they do not venture to entrust themselves to the very savage sea), and proceed in the same way to transact ecclesiastical business as in Scotland itself (from which for the most part they come).
The Ministers are in number seventeen in total: three in the southern islands, eight in the Mainland, and six in the northern islands, having care of the churches and matters pertaining thereto, and exercising ecclesiastical discipline on delinquents with great diligence and severity.
All today are of the Reformed Religion.
Who were the first to hold the Orkneys is not quite certain. All maintain that they were of German origin; but from which tribe of Germans they came is not stated. If one may conjecture from the language, one might imagine they derived from Norway or Denmark; for formerly, and also today, in many, not in all the islands of the Orkneys, they use the old Gothic or Norwegian language, but much corrupted, and the method of weighing is common to them and the Norwegians. But today the vernacular of the Scots (of whom a large number live among them, especially holding office in the Church and State) is in use by some of them alongside their own Gothic. Some think they were Picts, mostly from this argument, that the strait dividing them from Caithness is named Pictish; and in addition, that in various places of the Orkneys, some small underground houses (which the natives are even now persuaded belonged to Picts) are found. But on an uncertain matter nothing certain should be affirmed.
ANOTHER
DESCRIPTION
OF THE ORKNEYS
Northern Scotland has islands neighbouring its mainland, the Orkneys on the north side, the Hebrides on the west, and Shetland farther to the north. There are 28 inhabited Orkney islands, apart from many others without inhabitants, which serve only to pasture animals. In the vernacular they are called Orkney, separated from each other by small spaces. An ancient parchment calls them thus as if Argath, that is above the Getae; Camden prefers above Cath, for they lie opposite the region of Scotland Cath, which because of the promontory they now call Caithness, and whose inhabitants seem to be wrongly named Carini for Cathini in Ptolemy. At the time of Solinus they were empty of people and rough with rushes, but are now cultivated. They are part of the Scottish Empire. Yet formerly they were subject to their own kings. The Annals of Scotland recall three: the first Gavus (as some think) was carried off to a triumph with his wife and children by Claudius Caesar, mentioned by Suetonius, Bede and Eutropius. The second Belus laid violent hands on himself, having been defeated in battle by Evenus King (15) of Scotland. The third was Gethus, brother of Gethus King of the Picts, who fled from Albion and was made King here. It is uncertain who first held these islands, Picts or Saxons or Danes and Norwegians; the last is most likely, because they are most like the Danes in language, customs and place-names; however Scotland has mixed its own idioms and customs with these. The whole region lacks trees, but is very fertile in barley and oats. There is no snake or poisonous animal in them, as also they are lacking in Ireland. They rear quite innumerable herds of animals. There are here many hares, rabbits, cranes and swans. Also plentiful here is fishing, from which the inhabitants derive a very rich income. Julius Agricola, the first to circumnavigate Britain with his fleet, discovered the hitherto unknown Orkneys and tamed them; far