Show fa erro s s F 4 r r 4 i I 1 I 1 J 7 t J I 1 q W I 1 A N it takes two months to dry a codfish in the faeroes Fa eroes prepared by the national society wahington D CA C service blenk bleak windswept wind swept faeroes I 1 soon will hear the drone of regular mail planes for a new landing field Is planned for becom accommodation mo dation of planes which will ly fly the proposed america denmark air m mall a 11 route the faeroes Fa eroes numbering 21 small islands sprinkled over a small area about miles oft off the northern UP tip of scotland have renial remained ned practically tic tilly unchanged since viking days modern civilia civi civilization liz n tion c can a n find no foothold on their windy cliffs there life can easily exist only when modeled on ancient primitive patterns and so the islanders forever wrestling YAW with wal waves wales es and winds have little time tor for the tourist or his money each of tile the islands rises from the sea with hanks flanks as sheer as a ships sides and with will a plateau top flat like a ships deck in all the fae roes there Is 13 only one small beach of a hundred feet or so a beach which is considered such a remarkable gift of nature that the big island of sando takes lakes its name from the tiny strand didero Is probably the bleakest blea kest island of them all and therefore visitors seldom land there gut but the effort 1 pays a yr for there the dwellings are of the most ancient type customs have been handed banded down unmodified and it Is such a colony ns as alef ericsson might hive have planted there Is no town not even a store low stone farmhouses halt sunk in the ground and girded by outer stone walls to escape the violent winds cling to the barrens sheep graze at will live in smoke rooms so poor Is didero that only one house horse that belonging to the he school master inister a very great man indeed has a glass room such an extravagance Is not for the average vl dero dweller who lives with his family in a smoke room or a con averted smoke room the smoke room which was vas once typical of all rural homes in the lie faeroes and still survives in many harks back to the file feast halls of the vikings usually it Is large since it is often the only room in the house except the stable below it for horses and cows and must serve for the entertainment of the neighbors neigh bora as well weil as for all family uses around the room there are no windows only the en trance tance door and those that open on the original pullman pu Ilman beds which may ilay be single or double deck in the center of the he room stands a low ilav stone forge on which burns peat or rarely brown coal and above the fire hangs a wooden chimney n cy which carries some but not all of the smoke to the outside air while the lie schoolmaster tins ins his stove room and Is the only man of cidern with a glass room nearly fill all the farmhouses on island have glass rooms and in thors havn the capital itself the coni communal stove room has been left out in tile the new concrete houses li A glass room Is an appendage appen dige ot 0 the smoke or stove room having glass windows usually it ts is a par lor and like parlors of an aarper eirl er day can call he be use used only 01 on state occasions for a funeral for a marriage or a reception of a special guest generally the unusual par lor contains the fam ilys only fur alture such as a table a few chairs a vase with paper flowers and religious pictures on the wall frequently the glass room Is opened for tra travelers elers but tile the stranger usually prefers the family living room with its warm stove stone to these parlors which gle forth tile cold musty odor of a cellar closed fur for many years like their food high the store room serves of course as the dining room sheep fish and whale are staples with will tile the islanders the first two are common m enough to most people the method of preparing the food forthe for the table in the faeroes Ia eroes scarcely recommends it to the flie fastidious uke like most primitive northern peoples the islanders prefer high meat and to satisfy this its desire they hang a skinned sheep in an open shed fur for about a year before eating cating it the carcass acquires a crust I 1 lice ca meni bert cheese tills this Is pared of reach man using me lie knife which he carries constantly the rhe highly toned meat beneath the I 1 he crust the natives es eat cat raw similarly whale blubber must sea son for a month or more before the far family tilly makes lilt hig b feast other sea food however rocelus rocel rece lAcs cs different dilY crent treatment newly caught fish art are cleaned and dried and dried and dried until they become so hard that ones teeth can make no impression but with a stout hammer tile islander will powder his durable codfish on a stone and eat its dust so to speak no one goes to the westernmost island of the Fa faeroes eroes unless the trip is necessary for it has tile the most violent surf my gennes consists of a main island supporting about inhabitants who raise sheep and catch fish cursed it Is by winds and waves for the storms storms that leave newfoundland and greenland gather all their forces and loose them here the rest of the faeroes and europe get the storms storing later gets them first and worst at the very western end of the island is a holm or islet separated from the main block by a crevice 75 feet wide at the outer point of the detached piece stands tile the westernmost N li of the fae roes its beacon blazes oat feet above the sea at the foot of the lighthouse cliff their foundations melting year by year in the bossin tossing waters vaters are two pinnacles of roa rock on which in summer the gannets garnets rest life in the lighthouse the lighthouse Is operated by a dane who lives with his family in a house sheltered behind the lighthouse rock the keeper tells of the awesome storms of winter when a screaming whistling blackness descends on the island and the sea lifts up higher higher and higher on their th air rock when the suffocating blast of stinging salt spray that no living creature can stand against races mercilessly but more telling even than his description Is the kerosene inma which hangs from the ceiling of his living room it has a large globe with a hole on either side as if a shot had bid passed through during one winter storm a wave pat hat rose up the cliff dashed over the precipice a pebble which broke his window passed through his lamp and struck against tile the will lie ile shows visitors the water avater worn stone which he retains as a keepsake the farmer fishermen of the north islands like and didero are self supporting living on the fish of the sea and the sheep on their barrens almost independent of what the world has to tell or wishes to buy different conditions obtain however in the southern and more populous islands extensive sive fisheries have long been operated A decline in this major industry hns has been occasioned by ninny many factors the modern equipment used by steam trawlers trailers lers elsewhere newer beiver and quicker methods of packing used in newfoundland and norway and a reduced world demand necessitated a recent extensive pro gram grain of aid by the danish government figures show a tragic loss of trade but to a newcomer newcomer sy dero appears to have nil all tile the fist any island could wish on bright days the rocky shore Is white with the lie coI codfish tish are sj Sy deros chief stock in trade acres of ish fish lie eNey where soaking up the fitful faeroe sunshine fish follow the shore line its as if they had been cast up by the sea toey cover a slope like states slates on a root roof thousands or of oval slabs of white fish meat a thirsty sight I 1 A line two mo hooks honks and some fist fasl or bird intestines into for balt are all the gear a native needs when his boat has been anchored over go the lines and in in come the lish fish for the novice there Is a thrill thrift la in pulling in a tive five to twenty alve pound fish but it Is an old story to the islander fish are cleaned at once and salted down often a ship will return to port with 2 pounds of hand caught fish again it will go out and never return at all these are brave men who go to sea for cod each year numbers of island fishermen lose their lives at their trade kadi each grim cliff Is the tombstone of some scho schooner olier and her crew once safely back in port the schooners ners unload their fish which are passed on to women out on the piers who bond bend over huge rats of water scrubbing tile the cod cleL clean lil pictures of these arduous yorkers workers aro are obtained only with great difficulty for in the faeroes Fa eroes as elsewhere wo mendo do not want their pictures taken unless abes are dressed in their best clothes |