ABSTRACT
A measuring jar is of little use when it is so worn that its original rim has entirely disappeared. That was the problem in 1697, when an 80-year-old wooden measuring jar was at the centre of a confrontation on the remote and windswept island of St Kilda, some 55 km west of the Outer Hebrides in the Western Isles of Scotland. It was the annual visit of the steward, the sub-chief of Clan MacLeod who visited the island each year with a retinue of up to 60 followers to collect the rent. He claimed that the original size of the jar could be estimated by putting your hand against its side, and heaping the barley up to that level. This clearly gave him more barley to take back to his chief ’s headquarters at Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye. The islanders, naturally, disagreed, and ended up voting to send their representative to Skye to put their case to the chief himself (Fleming 1999a: 189-90; Martin 1698: 267-8).
