Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1979, Side 30

38
Land Tenure, Fowling Rights, and Sharing of the Catch
From Sumba on SuSuroy we have documentation that such
compensation measures might appear in court. In 1773 a case
was brought to court about »fugle-jevnet;:'« (i. e. bird-levelling),
and one of the witnesses declared:
»that he had heard that bird-levelling had occurred in
Sumba, as Jacob Joensen had levelled the Rogen i Skoren::'
and Hiemme i Halsem', and, within the memory of the witness,
Nichlas Thomasen had got a place called Rogen i Bødlhals"',
and that there were still fowling places in Sumba that re-
mained undivided.«
The persons, mentioned in the document, represent the
owners of their third (see p. 33) and obviously the fowling
places have gradually been allotted to the thirds out of com-
mon property. When compared with a document, signed in
the following year, 1774, it is evident that the allotment was
a sort of compensation as fowling places were at that time
taken from one third and allotted to another.
Finally, in 1802—03, one of the owners felt that he »lost
many fowl because the fowling places allotted to this share
of the land were mostly situated in the large fowling cliffs
which could be fowled only with many men, and which were,
accordingly, seldom fowled.« The complaint resulted in a
division of the Sumba fowling cliffs into halves. The case is
comparable to that mentioned on p. 34 from Skúvoy.
Sharing of ihe catch
Although the catch may be shared in different ways, the
aim is always to secure a share of the catch for the owner in
proportion to his share of the fowling rights, which, in turn,
depend on land tenure. However, also the fowler — the man
who actually carries out the fowling — must receive a share.
In two cases the fowler may keep the whole bag for himself,
viz. 1) when fowling is free to all, and 2) when the fowler
worked alone and was the sole proprietor of the fowling rights,
When all owners of a fowling place went fowling jointly