Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/27

27

THE ISLAND HOME.

engulfs his corpse ; and deep-rolling billows flow over
the ground just now marked by the footprints of the
victim.
  By way of distinction from the larger islands, which
are protected by dykes and downs, the smaller ones are
called halligs. A hallig is a flat grass-plot, scarcely
two or three feet higher than the level of ordinary
tides, and consequently, being protected neither by
nature nor by art, is often overflowed by the rolling
sea, especially in the winter months, and sometimes
twice in a day. The largest of these halligs are less
than half a German square mile in extent ; the
smaller, often inhabited only by a single family, are
barely a couple of thousand feet in length and breadth ;
the smallest halligs are uninhabited, and only produce
a little short thin hay, which is often swept off by
the waves before it can be secured. The hay is stored
in stacks, over which is thrown a covering of plat-
ted straw loaded at the ends with stones, and it be-
comes so solid, in consequence, that the supply for
daily use must be cut with a hay-knife ; and the
stacks near the dwelling often serve as a secure retreat,
when the walls of the house yield to the violence of
the waves. The habitations are erected on artificial
mounds of earth, or wharves, seldom leaving more
space than is required for a narrow walk around the
house, on the sloping side of the wharf. On most of
the halligs, therefore, there is no patch of garden
ground for any kitchen vegetable, not a bush to yield
refreshing berries, or a tree lo afford a resting-place in
its shade. For such enjoyments the wharves must be
larger, but small as they are, their erection and main-