Work was of the greatest importance on Hirta, as I suppose it must be in every part of God’s creation, and even without admonitions such as the one my father had given me I understood as well as everyone else that, if we did not do it, we would surely perish. Yet it should not be thought that our lives consisted of nothing but work. There was our religious instruction, of course, which was considered indispensable even if, while it may have kept us alive spiritually, it did not do so physically.
There was music, too, nearly all the time. In addition to the songs which, as I have mentioned, were composed for feast days, there were the hymns we sang in church, and more songs sung by the women when we gathered together to milk the cows and ewes, or to grind corn, or to snare puffins, or carry loads, or any other activity involving two or more of us, and more still sung by the men as they sailed to and from the hunting grounds, though not, I was told, during the hunts themselves, when lack of concentration might easily lead to death, and the birds had in any case to be stalked in utmost silence.
Less common, but more exciting, were the games, of which there were many. They were designed to show off strength and bravery, and were therefore undertaken by the men, who required both in their daily lives, while we women, who would watch and give support to our favourites, needed merely strength, and felt no need to display it.
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