Editing St Kilda, Scotland (section)

===Diet===

Another significant feature of St Kilda life was diet. The islanders kept sheep and some cattle, and were able to grow a limited amount of food crops such as [[barley]] and [[potato]]es on the better-drained land in Village Bay; in many ways the islands can be seen as a large mixed farm. [[Samuel Johnson]] reported in the 18th century that [[Domestic sheep#As food|sheep's milk]] was made "into small cheeses" by the St Kildans.<ref>Johnson, Samuel (1775) ''A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland''. Republished, Chapman & Dodd, London, 1924. Page 121.</ref> They generally eschewed fishing because of the heavy, northern seas and unpredictable weather.<ref>The St Kildans fished from the rocks and even organised fishing trips from their boats from time to time, but these were occasional events, sometimes undertaken to pay rent, rather than crucial aspects of day-to-day island life. See Maclean (1977) pp 102–03, who also quotes J. MacCulloch's 1824 ''Description of the Western Islands of Scotland'' as stating "The neglect of fishing proceeds from the wealth of the inhabitants. They possess already as much food as they can consume, and are under no temptation to augment it by another perilous and laborious employment".</ref> The mainstay of their food supplies was the profusion of island birds, especially [[gannet]] and [[fulmar]]. These they harvested as eggs and young birds and ate both fresh and cured. Adult puffins were also caught using [[fowling]] rods.<ref name=Keay/> The method involved the use of a flexible pole with a noose on the end; a flick of the wrist would flip the noose over the puffin's head and it was killed before its struggles could alarm other birds.<ref name=boag>{{cite book |last1=Boag |first1=David |last2=Alexander |first2=Mike |year=1995 |title=The Puffin |publisher=Blandford |place=London |isbn=0-7137-2596-6|pages=112–113 }}</ref> A 1764 census described a daily consumption by the 90 inhabitants of "36 wildfoul eggs and 18 wildfoul" (i.e. seabirds).<ref>BBC News – Census find sheds new light on St Kilda's history (29 December 2016) [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38450471] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505184401/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38450471|date=5 May 2021}}. London. ''The BBC''. Retrieved 29 December' 2016.</ref>

This feature of island life came at a price. When [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]] visited in 1799 he noted that "the air is infected by a stench almost insupportable – a compound of rotten fish, filth of all sorts and stinking seafowl".<ref name=Cooper>Cooper, Derek (1979) ''Road to the Isles: Travellers in the Hebrides 1770–1914''. London. Routledge & Kegan Paul.</ref> An excavation of the ''Taigh an t-Sithiche'' (the "house of the faeries" – see below) in 1877 by Sands unearthed the remains of gannet, sheep, cattle, and limpets amidst various stone tools. The building is between 1,700 and 2,500 years old, which suggests that the St Kildan diet had changed little over the millennia. Indeed, the tools were recognised by the St Kildans, who could put names to them as similar devices were still in use.<ref>Maclean (1977) page 26.</ref>

[[Razorbill]], [[guillemot]], and [[fulmar]] eggs were collected before the late 1920s in St Kilda's islands by their men scaling the cliffs. The eggs were buried in St Kilda [[peat]] ash to be eaten through the cold, northern winters. The eggs were considered to taste like [[duck eggs]] in taste and nourishment.<ref>The Daily Mail April 18, 1930: article by Susan Rachel Ferguson</ref>

These fowling activities involved considerable skills in climbing, especially on the precipitous sea stacks. An important island tradition involved the "Mistress Stone", a door-shaped opening in the rocks northwest of Ruival over-hanging a gully. Young men of the island had to undertake a ritual there to prove themselves on the crags and worthy of taking a wife. Martin Martin wrote:
[[File:Mistress Stone.jpg|thumb|right|The Mistress Stone]]
{{Blockquote|In the face of the rock, south from the town, is the famous stone, known by the name of the mistress-stone; it resembles a door exactly; and is in the very front of this rock, which is 20 or 30 fathom [{{Convert|120|to|180|ft|m}}] perpendicular in height, the figure of it being discernible about the distance of a mile; upon the lintel of this door, every bachelor-wooer is by ancient custom obliged in honour to give a specimen of his affection for the love of his mistress, and it is thus; he is to stand on his left foot, having the one half of his sole over the rock, and then he draws the right foot further out to the left, and in this posture bowing, he puts both his fists further out to the right foot; and then after he has performed this, he has acquired no small reputation, being always after it accounted worthy of the finest mistress in the world: they firmly believe that this achievement is always followed with the desired success. This being the custom of the place, one of the inhabitants very gravely desired me to let him know the time limited by me for trying of this piece of gallantry before I design'd to leave the place, that he might attend me; I told him this performance would have a quite contrary effect upon me, by robbing me both of my life and mistress at the same moment.<ref name=Martin/>}}

[[File:Machias Seal Island puffins.jpg|thumb|[[Atlantic puffin]] (''Fratercula arctica''). Seabirds were the mainstay of the St Kildan diet.]]
Another important aspect of St Kildan life was the daily "parliament". This was a meeting held in the street every morning after prayers and attended by all the adult males during the course of which they would decide upon the day's activities. No one led the meeting, and all men had the right to speak. According to Steel (1988), "Discussion frequently spread discord, but never in recorded history were feuds so bitter as to bring about a permanent division in the community".<ref>Steel (1988) pages 44–6</ref> This notion of a free society influenced [[Enric Miralles]]' vision for the new [[Scottish Parliament Building]], opened in October 2004.<ref>Balfour, Alan, and McCrone, David (2005) [http://www.alanbalfour.com/books/parliament/chapter1/index.html ''Creating a Scottish Parliament''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828040922/http://www.alanbalfour.com/books/parliament/chapter1/index.html |date=28 August 2008 }} Edinburgh. StudioLR. {{ISBN|0-9550016-0-9}}. Retrieved 4 January 2008. Miralles wrote:
:"Late XIX St Kilda Parliament
:To Remember this is not an archaic activity
:My generation (myself) has experienced that emotion
:Consider how different movements exist in present times
:Architecture should be able to talk about this."</ref>

Whatever the privations, the St Kildans were fortunate in some respects, for their isolation spared them some of the evils of life elsewhere. Martin noted in 1697 that the citizens seemed "happier than the generality of mankind as being almost the only people in the world who feel the sweetness of true liberty",<ref name=Martin/> and in the 19th century their health and well being was contrasted favourably with conditions elsewhere in the [[Hebrides]].<ref>See for example Steel (1988) page 71 quoting Macauley in 1756, MacCulloch in 1819 and Ross in 1887.</ref> Theirs was not a utopian society; the islanders had ingenious wooden locks for their property, and financial penalties were exacted for misdemeanours.<ref>Fleming (2005) pages 107 and 110.</ref> Nonetheless, no resident St Kildan is known to have fought in a war, and in four centuries of history, no serious crime committed by an islander was recorded there.<ref>Steel (1988) pages 33–4.</ref>{{refn|A 19th-century commentator wrote: "If St Kilda is not the Eutopia so long sought, where will it be found? Where is the land which has neither arms, money, care, physic, politics, nor taxes? That land is St Kilda". Maclean, Lachlan (1838) ''Sketches on the Island of St Kilda''. McPhun.|group="note"}}