Small and unfruitful as is the island itself, yet the sea which surrounds it is rich in produce, abundance of turbot, haddock, sturgeon, and seals, as well as amber, being caught there. The sea is tlierefore the field, the pastui-C; the garden, the road of the islanders, and the scene of all their
THE ISLAND OF RUNOP:. 337
labours and amusements. They take whole shiploads of turbots, haddocks and stromUnge^ to lliga, Pernau, and the small harbours of Hapsal and Arensburt^. In all these harbours the bold fishermen of Runoe are well known, and their wares readily accepted. The produce of this fishery, however, is unimportant, and only helps them to sugar, coffee, and a few other luxuries. Their principal subsistence is derived from the seal fishery, which they follow in winter. The vessels in which they go in pursuit of these animals are small, without a deck, and carry but one sail, and in such a frao-ile vessel it is that they often brave the sea for months together, with its icebergs, storms, and all the other terrors of a northern winter. They o-enerally carry with them provisions for two months, and take leave of their wives for life or death. They either shoot the seals with muskets, or kill them with clubs or harpoons. All these weapons, including the muskets, they make by themselves. The powder they buy at Riga. Their fishery is almost always very successful. As they generally know how to escape safe and sound from the icebergs and storms, they return with full ships to their island, where their wives, when at length they espy the anxiously awaited little fleet on the horizon, receive them with shouts and bonfires, and prepare a general banquet. The skins are pulled off the seals and dried on the ice, the flesh is packed in tubs, and sent to the harbours. As the seal fishery is the joint midertaking of all the islanders, so the profit is common to all, and when their merchandise is disposed of at Riga or Pernau, the money is equally divided among all. All purchases for the island, either of corn, sugar, coffee, tea, or other thmgs, are made in common, and afterwards divided in proportion to the share contributed by each to the seal expedition. In the same way they pay their tribute to the Russian government conjointly.
All the inhabitants of Runoe are of equal rank ; none thinks himself of better blood than another, and all are freemen and joint owners of land and sea. Never did a nobleman possess a spot of land in Runoe. Serfs axe unknown there. The wild sea, which for a great part of the year completely separates the islanders from all the rest of the world, has saved them from slavery. They have their old privileges, respected even by the mighty Emperor of all the Russias, the most important of which is that they arc not called on to contribute recruits to the Russian army. They are very lightly taxed, each inhabitant, on an average, contributing about a silver ruble yearly to the miperitd treasury. Russians never enter their island. The only autliorities they have are their " Hakenrichter.^^ always a German, and their Lutheran pastor.
This Runoe pastor, with his family and that of the Hakenrichter, compose the whole of what may be called the cultivated society of the island. The pastor is the only man who studies books, reads newspapers, and takes care that Runoe do not lag behind the age in intelligence. He is the most celebrated pastor perhaps in all the Baltic provinces. All the world knows the pastor of Runoe, and all sorts of comical stories of his way of life are narrated in Riga, Comland, Arensburg, and Esthonia. Much may be exaggerated, but certain it is that in the reading of newspapers the pastor acts on the following plan : — in spring, when, after six or seven months isolation, Runoe again opens a communication with the rest of the
♦ The other islands of the Rij?a Gulf, as Oescl, Dagoe. kc, are all divided iuta large estates, with serfs attached to them.