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rW.. Adjh . St^t^Ji^
«5 5 rT
IN THE HEBRIDES
ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF TRAVEL.
BY MRS. MACQUOID.
XV THE ABBEHHES. By Katharinb S. Macquoid. With 50 fine inustration» by Thomas R. Macquoid. Square 8vo, cloth gilt, xos. 6d.
THBOIFOE VOSXA]n>T. By Katharinb S. Macquoid. With 90 Illustrations by T. R. Macquoid. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.
TBXOITOR BBmAVT. By Katharinb S. Macquoid. Illustrated by Thomas R. Macquoid. Crowm 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.
PIOTXnEUSfl MID LE0EVD8 FBOK NORKAHDT AHS BBITTAVT. By Katharinb S. Macquoid. With numerous lUustrations by Thomas R. Macquoid. Sqiiare 8vo, cloth gilt, zos. 6d.
ABOUT T0BK8HIRS. By Katharinb S. Macquoid. With nearly 70 Illustra- tions by Thomas R. Macquoid. Square 8vo, cloth gilt, los. 6<1.
BY ALFRED RIMMER.
OUB OLD OOTTHTET T0WV8. With 54 lUustrations by Alprsd Rimmbx. Square 8vo, cloth gilt. tos. 6d.
BA¥BT.TO BOXmD BTOV AND HABBOW. With 52 Illustrations by Alfred RiMMBR. Square 8vo, cloth gilt, tos. 6d.
ABOUT SHOXAXD WITH DICKENS. With 58 Illustrations by C. A. Vandbr- hoop, Alfred Rimmer, and others. Square 8vo, cloth gilt, los. 6d.
BY MRS. COMYNS CARR.
KOBTH ITALZAB FOZX Illustrated by Randolph Caldbcott. Square 8vo, cloth gilt, 7s. 6d.
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY, W.
IN THE HEBRIDES
BY
C. F. GORDON GUMMING
AUTHOR OF *'AT UOUM. IN riJI," "A LAOY's CRUISB IN A FKBNCH MAN-OF-WAK
"fibs fountains "
" From the dim ihieluig on the misty Island Monntains divide us, and a world of seas ; But stilt our hearts are true — our hearts are Highland, And we, in dreams, behold the Hebrides."
A NEW BDITION triT/I AUTOTYPB FACSIMILE AND^TJif^^TY-TJVO ILLUSTRATIONS
(>*^ ' - ■ ■ • . ^
lonlion
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1883
iAU riikis merved]
^ •
r
\
INTRODUCTION.
The dreamy summer in the Western Isles which funiished the notes for the following pages, was immediately succeeded by a prolonged spell of most delightful wanderings in the Himalayas.
On this, — my first journey to the Far East, — ^my attention was forcibly arrested by many very striking analogies between many of the customs and legends of Western Islanders, and those of Eastern Highlanders.
These, again, suggested such a multitude of unaccountable links between various semi>obsolete customs in Christian lands of the West (which are undoubtedly survivals of ancient pagan practice), and those which form part of the daily religious life in Eastern lands, — ^that my volumes attained dimensions somewhat forbidding to general readera.
I have therefore deemed it expedient to select such notes of my summer in the Hebrides, as appear to me to possess most general interest, omitting all dryer matter.
These notes I now offer to all my kindred-wanderers on our own romantic Western shores and Isles, trusting that they may therein find some suggestions which may add interest to their own summer rambles.
C. F. Gordon Ccmmino.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAOB
The Mull of Cantjre — Campbelton— The Scot-Dalriads— Eil-Eerran — Churches of early Saints — St. Colomba in Cantyre at Kil-Colm-Keil — The Ocean— Cantyre's Dairy Farms — The Monastery of Saddell — Legend of Dunaverty— Kil-Cousland— St Couslan's Weddings — Kil- Kenan— St Coivin's Divorces — Macnahanish Bay— Kelp-Bumers . 1
CHAPTER ir.
FROM CAMPBELTON TO OBAN.
Isles of Gigah and Islay — Meaning of Tarhert — Legend of the Whirlpool — Isles of Elachnave, Oronsay, and Colonsay — Oban— Dunolly — Dun- staffiiage — Seals— Old Tombs — White Stones— A Lake Village — Serpent-8luq)ed Mound — American and other Reptile-shaped Mounds — Gaelic Serpent Lore 35
CHAPTER III.
lONA.
Sacred Isles— The Druid's Holy Isle— Brighit, the Fire Goddess— Traces of Pagan Customs— The 360 Crosses— Rude Stone Monuments— 360 Sacred Stones at Mecca— Black Stones— Magic Crystals— Solar Turns —St Columba— His Work— His Death— Tonsure— Book of Battles- Jacob's Pillow— The Reilig Grain- The Nunnery— Massacre of the Monks— The Ruins— The Inn— Jackdaws— Hill of DunU— Druidic Circle— The Bay of the Boat— Pagan Baptism 66
Viil CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE INNER HEBRIDES.
PAQB
Staffa— From Oban to Skye—Lismore— Mull— Legend of Castle Duart — Legend of Lochbuy — Legend of Loch Awe — Isle of Canna— St. Michaers Eve — How observed in Barra— Nordereys and Sudereys— Isle of Muck — Wild Boar of Scotland— Wolves — Beavers— Isle of Rum— Scuir of Eigg— Proud Lords of the Isles— The Isle of Mists . 103
CHAPTER V.
THE QUIRAING.
Uig— A Terrible " Spate "—Gaelic Churches— Forms of Worship— Island Homes— Timber— The Famine of 1883 — Primitive Agricultural Imple- ments— No Frost— Dr. Johnson— Legend of Castle Ustian — Glens of the Conan and of the Rah— The Quiraing— Monkstadt— Duntulm — Midges — A great Sacramental Gathering 121
CHAPTER VI.
AFLOAT.
A Music-Room— Duntulm Castle— Fladda of the Ocean— Holy Stones — Schloch Maddie Cave — Legend of McCrimmon — Water Kelpies — Prownies — ^Legends — The Kilt Rock — Marine Forests— Flat-fishes — A Basaltic Coast — The Storr Rock — The Ross-shire Coast — Legends of St. Malruba— Sacrifices of Cattle — The Need-Fire— Start for the Herring Fishing — Storms — King Haco's Fleet 164
CHAPTER VII.
MODERN CHIPS OF THE OLD BLOCKS.
Holy Wells in the Hebrides and in the Highlands— Prohibitory Statutes —Wells for the Cure of Insanity — Pilgrims' Rags— Traces of Sun and Fire Worship— Four great Festivals — Beltane — Midsummer in
CONTENTS. IX
I
PAOIC
Ireland, Isle of Man, Stonehenge— Hallow-e*en— All Souls— Yule— Christinas— The Burning of the Clavie— Dread of giving or taking Pire— Festivals in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Baltic, in Paris, in Edinburgh and London — Traces of Moon Worship — An Owl's Question 205
CHAPTEE VIII.
FOOTPRINTS OF THE PAST.
Lonely Chapels — Blended Faiths— Sunwise Turns — East and West Diyination by Smoke — Touch of a Seventh Son— The Royal Touch, a Cure for Scrofula — Burial of a Living Cfx^k for Epilepsy— Legends of Isle Raasay — Of Wild Deer —Of buying a Gale— Witchcraft — Drawing the Tether— A Milk Charm from the Isle of Uist— Ancient and Modem Witches— The Evil Eye— Making Images to injure a Neigh- bour— Cats — Belief in Transmigration— The Luck of leaving a House unswept — Dl-Luck of succeeding an Ejected Tenant .... 23f)
CHAPTER IX.
THB OUTER HEBRIDES.
The Long Island— Start for Harris— St. Clement's Cathedral— Tarbert— HandmHls — The Thamis — Fincastle — Stomoway — Loch Maddy Market — North Uist — Machars— Shell-fish and Lobsters— Fords- Driftwood- Cornish Blessings — Benbecula — South Uist — Dismal Homes— Wild Fowl— Barra- Kisimul Castle — Eriskay— Wreckers- South Bemera Lighthouse— Mingalay 269
CHAPTER X.
ST. KILDA.
The Sea- Fowl's Kingdom— PrecioUs Fulmar— Population— Means of Living— Accounts by Martin, Kenneth Macaulay,and Dr. Macculloch — Infant Mortality— Mysterious Colds — "No English"— A Life of Exile — High Morality — Primitive Customs — Traces of Heathen Worship— Ravages of Small.pox— Lack of Boats .... 321
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
PAGE
A ROTAL FUaiTIVB . . . 338
CHAPTER Xir.
LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE.
Tidal Current off Yatemish—Scotch Bagpipes— Associations—Dunyegan Castle — Legend of Somerled— MacLeods and MacDonalds — Ancestral Kelics— Fate of Lady Grange— Summer Nights— Seals — Cormorants —Star- Fish— Fish accounted fit for Food— Eels- Turbot— Of Scale- less Fish— Forbidden Meats— Drawing the Nets— Lump-Fish— Jelly- Fish — Barnacle Geese — Families who claim Descent from Seal-Maidens or Mermen— Corn-crakes 350
CHAPTER XIII.
OIL ON THE WATERS.
Grey Rain— Portree Harbour— Becalmed— Whistling for a Wind— Oil on the Waters- St Kilda Puddings— Shetland Cods' Livers— Oily Fish— Fishermen of many Lands —Wrecks averted by use of Oil — Mr. Shields at Peterhead— Application of Oil to Life-buojrs- Wreck Register 375
CHAPTER XIV.
FAREWELL TO T^E ISLES.
Three Weeks alone in the Rock Wilderness— A Family'of " Haavelings " —Yachtsmen— Sligachan Inn— The CuchuUins— Divers Tourists— Loch Corruisk— A Good Day's Deer Stalking— Old Boar Hunt— A Whale Ashore— "5/oc« PcjrcAA "—Giant Fossils on Isle of Eigg— Legends of Clan Fights— The Grave of a Viking's Daughter— Old Churchyards of Snizort, Nigg, &c.— Of Funeral Feasts— The Skye Railway foreseen by Local Seers— Drive vid Balmacarra and Loch Alsh to Shiel House Inn— Eilean Donan Castle— Glen Quoich— Fort Augustus— Castle Urquhart 399
LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAQS
loKA (Auiaype) FrarUispiece
Old Kibktard of Kil-Colm-Kbil. The Mull of Canttrb To face 14
KnUCTARD OF KiLKEVAN 26
Sb&pknt-shaped Mound, near Oban To face 47
Coronation Chair in WEgTMiNSTER Abbey, showing the Kino-
MAKINO Stone To/aee 86
The Cuchullins To/aee 119
The Lodge, Uio 122
DuNTULM Cabtle To/oce ]49
The Quiraxno and Basaltic Coast 151
The Needle. Quiraino 156
The Quiraino To/ace 157
Schloch Maddie Cave To/ace 169
The Kilt Kock 178
EiLEAN Alteveo 237
Home-Sweet Home! 301
DuNTEOAN Castle 851
DumrEOAN Castle To/aee 358
Sets Lassies 877
The Storr 380
Portree Harbour, looking to the Storr 881
Loch Corruisk, Skte To/aee 407
Cabtle of Exlean Donan 423
Glen Quoich 425
Cabtle Urquhart To/aee 426
ERRATA.
p. 68, last line, omit Deisul, i. e. Sunwise
p. 69, line 2, read built it after the Bduge, biU he reversed the course of circuit.
p. 69, line 2\,for and is described read but has also been described by travellers as
p. 70, line 2, omit sunwise
Burton, in his pilgrimage to Mecca, states that the Moslem circuit of cir- cumambulation is widdershin, i. e. from left to right— the left shoulder being turned towards the sacred object, whereas the Hindoo and other nations, making a sununse turn, keep the right shoulder toward the sacred object. This statement is corroborated by pilgrims to Moslem shrines in other hmds.
"SUNDAY WAR."
p. 204, add after line 8 — The ten men who were apprehended were carried to Edinburgh for trial, and were found guilty of mobbmg and rioting, but were recommended by the jury to the utmost leniency of the Court in con- sideration of their ignorance of law, their habitiuil good character, and their strong conviction that they were acting in defence of a religious obligation. The offence was, however, held to be of such gravity that they were sentenced by the Lord Chief Justice to four months' imprisonment.
IN THE HEBRIDES.
CHAPTER L
" Thi beantifiil lales of Qreeoe Fall many a bard has sung : The Ides I love best lie far in the West^ Where men speak the Gaelic tongue.
" Let them sing of the sunny South, Where the blue iBgean smiles, But give to me the Scottish sea. That breaks round the Western Isles !
*' LoYest thou mountuns great, Peaks to the clouds that soar, Oorrie and fell where eagles dwell, And cataracts dash eyermore ?
" Lovest thou green grassy glades, By the sunshine sweetly kist, Murmuring waves, and echoing caves 1 Then go to the Isle of Mist ! "— Shxbift Niohouoh.
Ibe Man of Cantyre — Campbelton— The Scot-Dalriads — Eil-Kerran — Choidies of early Sunta— St Golomba in Cantyre at Eil-Golm-Keil— The Ocean — CSantyre's Dairy Farms— The Monastery of Saddell— Legend of Danaverty— Kil-Cousland — St Gouslan's Weddings — Kil-Kerran — St Ooivin's IHvoroes— Macnahanish Bay— Eelp-Bumers.
It was on a lovely morning in the early spring that we started for the West Coast, without any very definite intention as to where we might drift Our only plan was to spend some quiet weeks
1/ V B
2 IN THE HEBRIDES.
in the most out-of-the-world place we could find ; one where my pencil might keep me busy, while my brother could rejoice in perfect idleness after a course of hard reading ; and what spot more suitable than the Land's End of Scotland, the dear bluff old Mull of Cantyre, which had already given us so many pleasant days 1 — that strange peninsula, in form like an outstretched finger, about forty miles in length, by an average of six in width, extend- ing from the south of Argyleshire, as a mighty breakwater, for the protection of the mainland from the sweeping of Atlantic storms.
So we started, but without reference to our neighbours, and soon found to our cost that they were keepiag holy-day, or holiday, as the case might be. It was a Sacramental Fast — very solemn to one sectibn of the community, but a very " fast " day to the majority. Thus it came to pass that every station was crowded, and the line blocked with extra trains, and hours before we reached Greenock, our steamer had quietly sailed down the Clyde. So far as we were concerned, we had good reason to rejoice in the delay, as it enabled us to test the unfailing hospitality of one of our truest and oldest friends, — but I fear that to some of our fellow- travellers, tlie delay must have proved a serious inconvenience.
The third morning found us under way, and by midday we were watching the changing Hghts on the Isle of Arran, or Ar-rinn— " the land of sharp pinnacles " most riglitly named. Dark shadows were drifting over the granite peaks of Goatfell, and those of Ben Ghoil, the " mountain of the wind," which seemed to tower so high above the mist, though their actual height is only about 2,875 feet.
Here and there were little clusters of tiny brown huts, nestling in the shadow of the great hills, and human beings with collie dogs and flocks of sheep moved to and fro, like atoms scarcely visible.
As we passed gloomy Loch Eanza, with its dark encircling mountains and old ruined castle (once a royal hunting-seat), our attention was called to the boats of the oyster-dredgers ; and we marvelled whether the oysters of Loch Eanza have the same ear for music as their brethren in the Firth of Forth, who require a continuous dredging-song to lull them to their doom, so that the wily fishers must perforce keep up an incessant monotonous chaunt,
VITBIFIBD FORTS. 3
in which all their conversation mast be carried on. Various col- lectors of old ballads have from time to time gone out for a night with the dredgers, hoping to add new songs to their store, but all agree in saying that the same words never occur twice unchanged ; and so they only gain the bitter cold of a night in an open boat in one of the months " with an B," which you perceive excludes all the bonnie summer nights. One allusion to this graceful fancy is found in a charming ballad which begins : —
" The herring loves the merry moonlight. The mackerel loves the wind, Bat the oyster loves the dredging song, For he comes of a gentle kind."
Several prominent head -lands were pointed out to me, in the course of the day, as the sites of so-called Vitrified Forts — strange relics of the past, concerning which nothing ia known certainly. Among the many theories which have been propounded, none has for me such fascination as that which assumes them to have originally been Fire-Temples, the altars of Bel, the Celtic Baal, or Sun-god.
These vitrified circular masses are generally placed on some com- manding height, often too near together to have been used as beacon lights. The stones are fused into glassy masses, the inside more perfectly vitrified than the outside, as would naturally be the ease, if these raging fiery furnaces were the altars, where fire burnt day and night, and where animals and perhaps human sacrifices were offered, at the great Baal festivals. We know that long after Christianity was introduced in Britain, the fire-worship was con- tinued; the land remaining in a strange twilight state, halting between two opinions — the grossness of heathen darkness, miti- gated indeed by Christianity, but still very far from the light of perfect day ; the people in general, having some leaning to the new laith, but a strong hold on the old idolatries.
The golden sunset fell on ALLsa Craig, and the bold headland of Davaar, as we entered the fine land-locked harbour of Campbelton, wherein lay many fishing-boats of all sizes, with rich brown sails.
• B 2
4 IK THE HEBRIDES.
I bethought me of old Pennant's account of this crowded harbour, where in the last century so many as two hundred and sixty « busses " might be seen at once. I fear that the Cockney mind, picturing a l>us of the present day, would be somewhat disappointed to find so very dull a little town 1
Campbelton is chiefly remarkable for the amazing fact that it is the means of annually contributing more than one million sterling to the Inland Revenue, in form of whisky duty I ! That is to say, the distilleries of Campbelton and its immediate neighbourhood collectively produce upwards of 2,657,000 gallons per annum, and whisky-duty is ten shillings per gallon. Of the great sum thus represented £705,560 was actually paid to the Collector of Inland Revenue at Campbelton in the year ending March 1883. The surplus, being shipped under bond, is not included in the local payments. However, whether exported to Glasgow or elsewhere, Campbelton is responsible for the manufacture of this enormous amount of Fire-Water I What a field for the beneficent Blue Ribbon Army, and how justly might they plead that this vast amount of barley should go to feed the thousands, now on the verge of starva- tion, throughout our own North- West I
The whiskies of Campbelton, like those of Lagavulin and Talisker (which are two celebrated distilleries on Islay and Skye), have at least the merit of being accounted first-class; and the distillers give so good a price for barley that there is no longer any induce- ment for the Highlanders to deal with the smugglers, who in very recent times had stills for mountain-dew, all over this part of the country — so extensive a seaboard affording good scope for their trade. The Hebrideans crossed from the Isles, to Rhunahourine (the Heron's Point), thence marching across the hills to Skipness in bands of thirty or forty armed men, whose rough shelties were laden with heavy creels containing the moonlight produce, which was then sent to Glasgow.
The *' stream in the moonlight which kings dinna ken " has not, however, wholly ceased to flow, and I have heard of sundry mys- terious presents of kegs of ''the crathur," very superior in quality to any that is to be procured from the large stills^ And although
THE SC0T-DALRIAD8. 5
the men of Skye seem to have given up this illicit business, there are still many quiet nooks in the dark glens of Western Boss, where it is carried on in secrecy and comparative safety, in snug caves, or deep hollows, near some rippling stream.
Many such romantic spots, long since deserted, do I know in the wilds of Banflfshire, where, in the heart of the dark fir woods, amid richest purple heather, you may note in one place a circle of white- stemmed birches, in another a fringe of golden broom and tangled wild roses clustering round a deep circular cup, where once the Biills, worms and mash-tubs were concealed, and the mountain dew was distilled, but where now the greenest and richest ferns nestle in the cool shade, while wood-doves murmur on every side — plea- sant play-grounds for children on bright summer days.
Old songs are not yet forgotten, whose gleeful point lay in telling bow *' The Deil ran awa' wi' the exciseman," and that official is still an unwelcome visitor in certain remote comers of the land ; but the days are gone by, when the wild Skipness men thought it all fair play to fight their battles with a revenue cutter, and, having overpowered her crew, to turn them all adrift again, without oais or tackle, to be tossed at the mercy of the waves I
To return to Campbelton, or as it was anciently called, Dalruad- hein. Kemcte as it now seems to us, there was a time when it was the centre of Scottish life, and for upwards of three centuries it was, in fact, the capital of Scotland. This continued till the reign of Kenneth II., King of the Scots, who, having finally sub- dued the Picts, and merged both races in one kingdom, selected Forteviot, in Perthshire, as a more suitable capitaL
These Dalriads seem to have come over from Ireland about the year 502 A.D., and to have founded that kingdom known in ScottLsh history as Alba; their power and numbers must have increased rapidly, for not long afterwards, we hear how the King of Alba invaded Ireland and fought the great battle of Moyra, famous in old song. In fact, these Scot-Dalriads held their place as a strong Celtic race, till the Norsemen overran the land, and moulded exist- ing institutions to suit their own convenience. In later days James lY. here held a Parliament, as " Parliament Close " still attests.
6 IN THE HEBRIDES.
There were, however, certaiii turbulent chiefs who would by no means render obedience to his laws ; more especially one Macdonald, whose castle of Cean Loch stood on the very spot now occupied by the large Gastle-hiLl Church. In order to keep this man in check, James Y. came here in person, and repaired the old fort of Kil- Kerran, leaving in it such a garrison as might overawe all rebellious sul^jects. But before the King had got clear of the harbour, Mac- donald sallied out of his castle, took possession of the fortalice, and, in the sight of the King, hanged the new governor from the walls.
This old castle of Kil-Kerran stood about a mile from Campbelton. A very laige old burial-ground, close by, still marks the spot where St ELieran, the Apostle of Cantyre, first taught the people. The cave in which he lived, the Cove a Kieran, lies among the rocks so close to the sea, that you cannot enter it at high water. At all times it is a difEcult, slippery scramble. Once there, you find a fine cave, with a dripping well, filling with clear, sparkling water a rock basin, whence the Saint drank. And beside it, on a great stone, is a rudely-sculptured cross, where, in the solitude of this grand wild temple, guarded from all human intruders by that barrier of mighty waters, he might worship his God undisturbed. Of his church, once the most important in Cantyre, little, if any, trace now remains; but two shafts of broken crosses, carved with galleys, figures and arabesques, are among the very ancient stones in the old kirkyard.
While speaking of saintly names associated with this town, I cannot forbear to remind you of one, the mention of whose birth- place cannot fail to recall to multitudes (and assuredly to every Scotchman, of whatever denomination) the name of the great, and good, and genial Norman Macleod — a teacher as influential and beloved, and one as unsparing of his work, as the mightiest of those Celtic Fathers; one who needs no canonization at the hands of earthly Councils to rivet his hold on the afiections, and his influence on the life, of multitudes, even of those who were never privileged to hear hia voice, but who, nevertheless, were followed to the utter- most ends of the earth by his good and loving words — so tender, and yet so strong and invigorating — learning from him year by
ANCIENT CHT7BCHES. 7
year sometbing of deeper reverence for things human and divine, and perchance catching from his large-hearted liberality, something of a broader and more glowing charity, such as would fain enfold the whole great world in its own boundless love. Truly, were it only for having given birth to one such son as he. Canty re may henceforth claim to be not least among the provinces of Scotland.
In the market-place of Campbelton there stands a very fine cross of hard blue whinstone, covered with well-carved figures, foliage, and runic knots, and bearing an inscription, — but whether this is Saxon or Lombardic is still disputed. It is supposed to have been brought over from lona, where at one time there stood 360 stone CToeses. These, the Synod of Argyle, in a.d. 1560, pronounced to be ** monuments of idolatrie,'' and commanded that they should be thrown into the sea. Some, however, were rescued, and taken to old churchyards and market-places in the neighbouring islands, or on the mainland. They are all very similar, being monoliths, generally of whinstone, and covered with elaborate designs.
The most casual traveller in Argyleshire cannot fail to be struck by the number of little roofless, fern-fringed, chapels, distinguished by the prefix of kU or cell, marking the spot as that where some early preacher of the Cross established himself, perhaps in yet heathen days. Such are Kil-Choman, Kil-Michael, Kilcoinan, Kilkeran, Kilcoivan, Kilkevan, Kilcousland, Kilraven, Killdavic, Kileolan, Kill-blaan, Kil-ewen, Killean, Kil-Kenzie, where the graves are irregularly scattered in picturesque confusion among Bandhills or grassy knoUs. Most of these have some carved stones — sometimes knights, sometimes ladies, always swords.
On some we find the galley of the Isles ; on others deer-hunts, hounds, otters, creatures like griffins with wonderful tails of scroll- work, winding about in intricate patterns of foliage or other tracery ; sometimes birds fighting ; sometimes shears or other implements of work. All, or almost all, are alike nameless, covering the dust of long-forgotten heroes. Some have niches, in which lie sculptured efBgies of bishops, with their pastoral crooks and mitres, or else knights with broadsword and battle-axe. Many have one or more of thoee round-headed, upright crosses, which we identify with lona,
8 IN THE HEBRIDES.
almost all of a grey whinstone — a hard stone, not much affected by centuries of wind and storm. Some have inscriptions in the Saxon character, unintelligible to the unlearned.
Some of the sculptures in the best preservation, are in the chapel of St Cormac, at Kiels, in North Enapdale (north of Cantyre), where there are an unusual number of such memorials. Indeed throughout Knapdale, such links to the past are especially abundant, and such spots as Kil-Michael Lussa, Kiels, and Kilmory, by turns invite attention.
Some very interesting remains are to be seen on the Eilan More, a little isle at the entrance to Loch Eillisport Here there is a small chapel, and a vaulted chamber, divided into two cells, one of which was apparently the dwelling-place of the hermit. In the other is a stone coffin, supported by four grotesque figures. On the lid is the figure of a priest in his cope, surrounded by elaborate tracery. Outside the chapel lies a plain stone coffin and a broken cross. Another cross stood on the highest point of the Isle ; on one side was depicted the Crucifixion, with the women standing by; on the other, elaborate Kunic knotting. But now the cross has fallen, and oiJy broken fragments remain.
At some of these old churchyards there now remains literally no trace of the ancient cell, only the silent God's Acre, where sleep so many generations of the simple folk, whose one ambition was to die where they were bom, and where they lived their uneventful lives, hoping at last, to be laid to rest beside their forefathers, in this quiet spot, which, from their earliest infancy, has been to them a place of awe and reverence.
Such lonely burial-grounds always recall to my memory Words- worth's lines :
" Of Church or Sabbath ties
No vestige now remains. Yet thither creep Bereft ones, and in lowly anguish weep Their prayers out to the wind and naked skies. Proud tomb ub none ; but rudely sculptured knights^ By humble choice of plain old times are seen Level with earth, among the hillocks green."
The majority, however, still retain some ruins of the old churches.
CHUBCHTABDS ON THE SEABOARD. 9
OthezSy again, do not betray their character by their name, as Patchen, an enclosore among the sand-hills, where the old tombs are half overgrown with bent, ^nd half veiled with salt drifting sand.
Many a sad story these churchyards of onr seaboard could tell ; of terrible nights in which all the bread-winners of a hamlet have been lost, and none but lads and women left to fight life's battle. Such women, though ! so brave and hardy ; and withal so leal to the dead. In one of these quiet little churchyards in Yorkshire is a simple headstone, and the fishers will tell you that the man who lies there, was drowned one awful night, and the sea did not give up her dead till the end of eleven weeks ! — ^from December till March ; and during all those bitter wintry days his wife followed every re- eeding tide, scanning each ledge and crevice of the black rocks,— each pool beneath the slippery, tangled, sea-weed. Yainly did the neigh- bours urge her to forego the hopeless search. Early and late the sad solitary woman was at her po8t> reckless of the beating storm and bitter frosty wind, still keeping her weary vigil ; and at last, when almost despairing of success, her prayer was granted, and the waves brought him to her feet So she buried him in '' mother clay," and watched by the green mound for upwards of thirty years, ere she was laid by his side.
It really is curious to remark how largely the numerous early saints of this district have left their impress on the land. In look- ing over a list of the parishes in Argyleshire I find the following goodly proportion, which still retain the name of some once vener- ated father, and, of course, each parish may, and generally does, contain several churehes dedicated to othen of perhaps equal note.
In other counties the parishes with this prefix are comparatively few, as here shown.
Parishes in ArgyJe-^ire.
Kil-finichen and Eil-vickeon (lona), Eil-Brandon and EjI- chattan, Kil-calmonell and Kil-berry, Eil-choman, Kil-charenan, Kil-dalton, Kil-mun, Eil-malic, Kil-finan, Kil-arrow, Eil-meny, Kil- lean, Eil-chenzie, Eil-malie, Eil-martia, Kil-morich, Eil-modan, Kil-more, Kil-ninian, Kil-inver, Kil-melford, Kil-bride (St Bridget).
10 IN THE HEBRIDES.
Paiishes in Renfrew,
Kil-lellan, Kil-barchaziy Kil-malcolm.
ParUliea in Ayr, Kil-mamock, Kil-birnie, Kil-wiimiiig, Eal-biide, Kirk-Michael, Kirk-Oswald.
Parishes in Lanark. East Kil-bride, Kirk-Patrick-Juxta.
Parish in Linlithgow, Kirk-liston.
Parish in Edinburgh, Kirk-Newton.
Parishes in Haddington,
Preston-kirk, White-kirk.
Parish in Berwick. Lady-kirk.
Parish in Peebles, Kirk-urd.
Parishes in Selkirk. Kirk-hope, Sel-kirk.
Parislies in Roxburgh, Elirk-town, Ash-kirk, Kel-so.
Parishes in Dumfries. Kirk-connel, Kirk-mahoe, Kirk-Michael, Kirk-Patrick, Fleming Wester-kirk.
Parishes in Kirkcudbright, Kells, Kel-ton, Kirk-bean, Kirk-cudbright, Kirk-gunzeon, Kirk- mabzeck, Kirk-Patrick-Durham, Kirk-Patrick-Irongray.
Parishes in Wigtown. Kirk-colm, Kirk-cowan, Kirk-inner, Kirk-maiden.
Parishes in Ross and Cromarty. Kil-leaman, Kil-muir-Easter, Kil-team.
Parishes in Inverness, Kil-malie, Kil-moniyaig, Kil-morack, Kil-tarlity, Kill-muir Kirk-hilL
SAINTLY CELLS. 11
Parishes in Aberdeen, iric-michael, Eil-dniinmy.
Parishes in Perth. Kil-lin, Kil-madock, Kil-spindie^ Eil-MichaeL
Parishes in Fife. Kil-many, Eilrennj, Kirk-caldj, Eil-conquhar.
Parishes in Stirling. KU-leani, Kilsyth, Fal-kirk.
Parishes in Dumbarton. Kirk-intillocli, Kil-maronock, Kil-patrick.
1 do not know whether the prefix kin is a corraption of kit, as L-loss (Ahbey in Morayshire), Kin-ioss, Kin-loch-spelvie, Ein> loch-rannoch, Ein-loch-lnichart, Ein-cardine, Ean-fanns, Kin- daven, Ein-naird, Ein-nell, Ein-tore, Ein-nethmont, Ein-gossie, Kin-tail, Ein-garth, &c., &c.
I also find Eil-chnm, Eil-menny, EJl-benrie, Eil-bucho, Eil- cr^ggan, Eil-finan, Eillundine on the Moryen coast, and Eilin- tointaik (which last was the cell of St Winifred) ; Eillouian on Isle Colonsay, was the cell of St. Oran* Eil-michael Lussa is near to Eiels and Eilmory, in Enapdale. Cantyre has a special cluster of saintly cells — Eil-Eerran, Eil-Michael, Eil-Chouslau (pronounced Kooslan), Eol-Coivin, ELil-Eevan, Eil Choman, Eil Colmkeil, Eil- Baven, KillDavie, Eil-Eolan, EiU-Blaan, Eil-Ewen, Eil-lean, Eil-kenzie.
It is probable that some of the saintly names here quoted may be those of St. Columba's predecessors, for there seems every reason to believe that the honour of having first introduced Christianity to this district has been erroneously attributed to him, St. Eieran, whose church and cave we saw near Campbeltown, having, it is said, come over from Ireland with a colony of Christian Dalriads, who settled in Argyleshire, some fifty years before Columba, the fiery Abbot of Durrow, had quarrelled with, and been banished from Ireland by, the Ardriagh, or President.
It seems that when attending a great meeting of the lords
12 IN THE HEBRIDES.
temporal and spiritual of the Green Isle, Columba was rash enough to take with him a young son of Aodh, King of Connaught, who was at enmity with the Ardiiagh. Even the sanctity of the Abbot proved no protection for the young man, who was treacherously slain. Then followed war, in which Columba sided with the aggrieved father, and eventually received that command to quit Ireland, which brought his fiery energies to the aid of the little Christian band of Dalriads in Cantyre ; whence he moved onward to that Isle where, in after years, kings and rulers craved permis- sion to lay their dust near that of one so holy.
St. Kieran is not the only pioneer of the faith whom we are apt to rob of honour due, while heaping veneration on St. Columba. How constantly we hear the latter spoken of, as though he first had brought to our Western Isles that light of Christianity, which thence radiated to the farthest comers of the mainland ! So far from this being the case, we know that for a century before the birth of Columba, a series of duly ordained bishops had ruled over Scottish dioceses in various parts of the land ; these being, for the most part, native Christians, who, of their own accord, had gone to Bome to study. Their existence as Christians gives some colour to the belief that, so early as the third century, Christ's Name was known in this land.
The first bishop of whom we hear was that St. Ninian who, in the end of the fourth century, returned from Eome to his native county of Galloway, where, we are told, *' he ordained presbyters, consecrated bishops, and organized parishes.'' At Whitehom may still be seen his Caiidida Casa, the first Christian church built of stone in Britain* Here he was buried, about the year a. d. 430.
In the following year St. Palladius was sent to this country as " Primus Episcopus to the Scots believing in Christ," and about the same period St. Patrick appears on the scene. He was bom about the year a.d. 373, in Dumbarton, the place of his birth being named in his honour, Kilpatrick. Having been captured by pirates and carried over to Ireland, he was filled with an exceeding long- ing to Christianize the Hibernians. Histoty records how he
EARLIEST PREACHEBS OF THE CB06S. 13
escaped horn slayeryy and oontriTed to reach the shores of Gaol, where he stodied the Scriptoies for thirty-fiye years before he was ordained priest Nor was it tiU he was about sixty years of age that he was sent back as Bishop, to commence his mission in the Emerald Isle. The patient student proved a long-lived teacher, and 18 said to have died at his poet in his 120th year.
Early in the sixth century, we hear how St Kentigem (better known to ns as St Mnngo, the patron saint of the beantifal old cathedral at Glasgow), fixed his see at the place where that city now stands. To him the credit seems dne of first Christianizing part of Wales. He owed his early training to St Ser^ the Apostle of the Orkneys ; so those remote Isles must have had their first rays of light, long before the disciples of lona went thither " as doves from the nest of Colomba." The fame of that most energetic worker certainly has no need to borrow lustre by defnnding his predecessors of their rightfol share; doubtless, when he landed on this wild shore of Cantyie, lus heart was gladdened by the knowledge that the light he strove to diffuse was already glimmer- ing in diveis comers of the land.
In defiance of the commonly received account of his having first landed on Isle Oronsay, near Golonsay, and having thence departed because he could still see Ireland, which he had vowed never to behold again, — ^the tradition in Cantyre is, that he first landed at the southernmost point of the Moyle ; and that, although in full view of the Irish coast, he here built his little church, where he preached for some time before he went to lona, leaving lus saintly mark on many a nook. At the southern extremity of the Moyle or " Mull " the men of Cantyre still point out the '' Bay of the Boat,^ as the spot where his frail currach, of wicker-work covered with hides, first touched the shore, whence he was to make his way to the court of Connal MacCongail, King of the Northern Scots, to whom he was nearly related, being himself of the blood-royaL Connal and his people, being already Christians, gave him warm welcome, and sent him under safe escort to Brude, the King of the Picts. He too declared himself a Christian ; and his chiefs and people were not slow to follow his example. Soon even Broichan, the
14 IK THE HEBRIDES.
Arch-Druid, was converted, having been cured by St Columba of a dangerous and sudden illness.
To those who accept this form of the tradition, perhaps the most interesting ecclesiastical site of Cantyre is the aforesaid little chapel, known as Kil-Colm-Keil, the Cell of St. Columba, at Keil, situated at the extreme end of the Mull of Cantyre, — just such an one as that where King Arthur was laid, when sorely wounded in that battle among the mountains beside the winter sea —
'' A ruined shrine, beside the place of tombs. Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men, Old knights. And over them the sea wind sang Shrill, chill— with flakes of foam."
It is a tiny roofless ruin — its grey walls veiled by luxuriant ferns which cling to every crevice, and form a soft, green coping. It lies so close to the sea, that the salt foam dashes over the old tombs, and the tough green bent creeps up amongst the stones, while bright sea-pinks gleam through the mossy grass. A steep crag of reddish rock rises directly above it ; and, just beyond, the bluff headland of the Moyle itself rises abruptly from the sea, which here scarcely ever knows calm, but seems to revel in its joyous liberty.
There is not a sailor or a fisher on all this coast, or the opposite shores of Ireland (Antrim being but twelve miles distant), who does not dread the mighty green waves that are for ever raging in their ceaseless battle with the stem old Moyle. In quick succession the booming breakers burst on the unfeeling rocks, which have with- stood them for such countless ages, and now fling them back once more. With swift rush, the baflBed waters fall back on the advanc- ing wave, and thus reinforced, renew the ceaseless, hopeless attack, — then, ** white with rage," dash themselves to atoms, and fall in dazzling spray and foam over the cliff.
If you count the waves, you will see that about every sixth is larger than the others, a chieftain in fact ; and if, as it curls proudly over, you can catch a gleam of light through the transparent water, you will see its wonderful clear green, at the very moment that the land breeze carries back its crest in tossing spray, like the mane of some white sea-horse. Most beautiful of all, is the moment when
'god's acre' akd god's ocean. 15
two wayes, whose courses differ slightly, come to a yiolent collision, and dash their white spray heavenward, — an encounter which you will here see to perfection, as two strong currents meet at this point. Perhaps if the sea is not very angry indeed, there will come a lull — an amnesty, — and the graves that were drenched with the salt sea ^lay, will dry in the sunlight ; and the shepherds can put oflf their boat^ and row to the grassy islands to see how it fares with their sheep.
It was on one of these unwonted days of rest, that I found my way to KilcolmkeiL Let each who loves the peace of nature, picture the scene for himseli The heetling crag, — God's-acre hathed in light, — earth and sky, gleaming with that clear shining that cometh after rain. And the hush and silence of the calm wide ocean, noise- lessly stealing on and on, till the great hrown rocks, with their wealth of golden seaweeds, lie hidden, like purple shadows, heneath the cool and quiet blue, and only a tiny edge of white rippling foam, marks the lip of the lazy wave as it glides to and fro, or brims over the ribbed sand, glancing and gleaming in the bright sunlight. Only here and there, the still surface of the waters is broken by a broad leaf of brown sea-ware, waving idly from the forest below, with quivering motion, like some curious wriggling sea-enake ; or a floating tangle, like long human hair, washed to and fio, suggests some fancy of the sea giving up her dead, to this green resting-place. Kow and then, there is the quick flash of some white-winged gull, as it darts upon its prey, and then again floating upward, hangs idly poised in the sunny air.
Altogether it is a scene of most blessed peace, such as sinks into the heart with strange sweet power, soothing and lulling the turmoil of its cares. For there ia no more dear companionship than that of the sea, which in its ever-changing moods, seems almost like some human thing, that one day claims our sympathies with its own wild joys or sorrows, ready in its turn to weep or laugh with ours ; to-day so calm and peaceful, laughing in the sunlight ; to- morrow roused to mad excitement, lashing itself into wild rage ; then, when its wrath is spent, subsiding as though repentant, lying still and silent beneath the cold mists, dreary and desolate and sad, — *like a sorrowful spirit^ when all life's energies are subdued. ^
16 IN THE HEBRIDES.
They only, who have been cradled and nartnred within sonnd of that ceaseless song of the wild waters, can fally realize their subtle charm, or tell the unatterable yearning for their music, — ^the crav- ing for their breadth, for their reflections of the great clouds, — ^for their incessant movement, which oftentimes comes over the spirit^ when the body is tied to some monotonous inland region; the unspeakable longing for sight and sound of the great green waves, the tossing spray and screaming sea-birds, and the wild breeze that rushes past, laden with the salt sea-biine. None else can under- stand the intensity of that passionate love which the sea and its shores can inspire — the thousand memories linked with those wide white sands — those slippery rocks — that brown, wet tangle, each leaf of which seems to have some hidden power whereby to twine itself round the innermost depths of the souL None else can sympathize with the bitter disappointment of awakening from some blissful vision of shell-gathering, or idling by those great waters, to find that in truth it was but a dream.
To such I say, if you would see Old Ocean in its glory, come to Cantyre ; but those who desire true mountain scenery had better stay away, for when once you leave the seaboard and turn inland, you will find that you have left all beauty behind you ; the great swelling green hills do indeed rise to a height of 2000 feet ; but the very name Cnoc Maigh, or the Hill of the Plain^ suggests mere shapeless high ground. Much of this is arable, but at the time of our visit, a sore pest was troubling the land, owing to the lack of &06t in the previous whiter. This was a gluttonous grub, which had appeared in countless myriads, and had eaten bare all the fair green crops, leaving only fields of parched red earth. Some of the farmers were brave enough to hazard a second sowing, but with small hope of better success.
But the glory of Cantyre lies in her dairy-farms ; the rich fine soil yielding abundant pasture, and supporting from twenty to thirty cows on each farm. It is a land flowing with milk and money, with comfortable, well-to-do inhabitants, who thankfully told us that the cattle plague had as yet never found its way to their shores. But though the fanner will offer you wine and
L
CO-OPERATIVE DAIRY-FARMS. 17
spirits in abundance, you must not test his hospitality so cruelly a^ to expect such a bowl of creamy milk as any old ** Caillach" in h black bothy would be proud to offer you, should slie own but one gentle " Crummie." At these great dairies, the farmer prides him- self on his unbroken pans of rich milk, therein estimating prospect- ive pounds of butter and cheese for a sure market.
Looking on these prosperous dairy-farms, the idea very forcibly suggested itself, that such farms, worked on a co-op3rative system, may yet bring gold and comfort to many a district, where, although the soil is unfit for cultivation, it assuredly affords rich natural pastures, which could hardly be more usefully employed, both for the farmer and the public.
To the antiquarian, Cantyre offers some special attractions. I am told that no part of Scotland is richer in relics of pre-Christian times ; cairns and barrrows, monumental pillars erected above stone coffins, and rude urns containing the ashes of bodies that had been burnt, haWng been found in many of its green downs.
There are countless old legends attached to thepe green hills, and to the cliffs and caves along the shore ; talcs of the warrior and mighty hunter, Fingal, and his faithful hound Bran; wonderful lioles in the rock, that have served for his cooking pots, wherein to boil rude kettles formed of the skins of the deer, and filled with flesh, such as he loved to eat half raw, and caves that have been honoured by his presence ; but these tales have been so carefully collected by Campbell of Islay, that all lovers of such lore need only refer to his * Tales of the West Highlands ' for an inexhaustible store of wild Gaelic legends.
Though by no means one of the most ancient ruins, the fine
old Castle of Saddell, with its mined monastery and picturesque
kirkyard, are among the most remarkable ecclesiastical remains
on Cantyre. Here quaintly-sculptured tombs of ecclesiastics and
warriors lie beneath the shadow of some fine old trees close to the
shore. Two of these represent knights clad in armour, and round
them there are inscriptions in Saxon character, setting forth that
these were Macdonalds of Saddell. Several fine old Crosses have
fallen, or been overthrown, and their broken fragments lie half-
c
18 IN THS HEBRIDES.
hidden by the tangled brambles. little of the monastery now remains, as it unhappily proved a useful quarry for ruthless hands, and the modern dwelling-house has been in a great measure built at the expense of the church, all the hewn stones haying been removed, and the offices paved with gravestones — a species of sacrilege which, until the present generation, was terribly common throughout Britain; and indeed it needs all the efforts of antiquarians to check it even now.
I well remember with what difficulty my father stopped similar devastation at Kinloss Abbey in Morayshire, where its stones were rapidly being carried off by neighbouring farmers, to build bams and dykes, bridges and gate-posts. One fine old stone coffin had been converted into a pig's trough ! There have even been cases where a neighbouring farmer has spared himself the trouble of stealing the stones, and therewith building byres, by the simple expedient of making use of the grey ruins of the old church itself, as a convenient substitute for cattle-sheds, sheep-pens, or even pig- styes! These neglected churchyards were also treated as monu- mental storehouses, whence beautifully-sculptured slabs might be selected to mark fresh graves, the modern name being roughly chiselled over the weather-worn escutcheon of some brave knight of old ; or perhaps the robber went so far as to smoothe the slab, as in the case of that beautiful stone at Hilton of GadboU, where the elaborate tracery has been completely obliterated from one side, and replaced by an inscription to the memory of ''Alexander Duff, Esq. and His Thrie Wives " !
The Monastery of Saddell is one of considerable interest It was founded in the twelfth century by one of the Lords of the Isles — ^whether by the great Somerled or by his son Ronald seems uncertain, but it very soon acquired a reputation for sanctity, and great men of old craved to be buried there. Of Somerled, and his wars with Godred, King of Man, both old Sagas and Gaelic legends tell many tales. There were terrible sea-fights, [in one of which the Manx fleet of galleys was so sorely beaten, that Godred was compelled to yield all the Sudereys, or Southern Isles, including '* Yla and Kintyre," retaining only the island of Man itself. The
CASTLB OF SADDELL. 19
wife of Somerled was a daughter of Olaf the Swarthy, King of Man and the lalea.
Various accounts are given of the manner of his death, but whether in a sea-fight with pirates, or by assassination in his own tent, seems uncertain. One version is that he sailed with 160 galleys to besi^ Benfrew, and fell in action with the Scottish army. In any case his body seems to have been brought to Saddell for burial, and laid where so many turbulent warriors now sleep in stillneas, and the only unrest is that of the restless ocean.
In the castle is shown an old dungeon where Macdonald starved a luckless Irishman who had the misfortune to own too beautiful a wife. At first he only confined him in a granaiy ; and the prisoner found means to get at the grain, and so was kept alive. Then he changed his prison ; but through the barred window a kindly hen came daily, and gave him her egg. So the flickering flame of life still burned. Once more he was removed, and cast into this deep noisome cell, where nor bird nor beast could bring him supplies — and here at length he died, having gnawed his own flesh in the agony of his hunger. Then Macdonald gave him burial ; and the beautiful wife, looking down from the high tower, espied the funeral, and asked whose it was ; when she knew that it was her own liege lord, she cried in bitter anguish that she would be with him anon, and with one wild spring, she dashed herself from the battlements, and was buried by his side.
The ruins of another old prison still remain in the wood dose by, and many tales of the treachery and vengeance of the lords of SaddeU are told in connection with these grey waUs.
This part of Cantyre also has one or two traditions of Bobert the Brace ; and the little Isle of Bachrin, off the Irish coast (distinctly visible from the Mull), was to him a haven of refuge in times of danger.
In the old Fort of Dunaverty he also found warm welcome. A
few scattered stones, on a rocky promontory, are all that now mark
this old Castle of Dunaverty, ''the Fort of Blood," once a mighty
atronghold of the Danes, whose fleet were wont to anchor near the
opposite Isle of Sanda, still known to the Highlanders as the
c 2
20 IN THE HEBRIDES.
gathering-place of the Danes, by whom it was called Avoyn, * the Island of Harbours.' Upon it are the ruins of St. Annian's Chapel, once a place of refuge, where all outlaws might find sanctuary.
On the ruins of the Danish Fort a new castle was built by the Macdonalds, who held their own in Cantyre till the days of Mont- rose, whose cause they espoused even unto death. But when the star of the Covenanters was in the ascendant, and the Royalists were driven even to this Land's End, Sir Allister Macdonald sailed for Ireland, there to raise new forces. He left his castle in the hands of his broth»^r, with a garrison of three hundred men.
Very soon General Leslie, with three thousand of Argyle'a men, advanced to besiege the old fort. Bravely it was defended, but after awhile, I^ie discovered that the only well for the supply of the garrison lay outside the walls, and that the water was brought in artificially. Of course this was at rmce cut off, and not one dn)p was to be had , to quench their raging thirst. It was midsummer, and even the kindly rains from heaven forgot U) fall. Vainly were all cye-« strained to watch for Sir AUister's return, across the sea, whose cool green waves dashed their salt sea foam so mockingly in the faces of these dying men, at their last extremity. Sir Allister had been slain in battle ; so they might watch till they wei-e weary, but all in vain.
At length they were forced to capitulate, and for five days were kept prisoners on their rock together with a hundred more who hud been captured in a cave, or rather, smoked out of it, as the manner was. Leslie seems to have inclined to mercy towards the captives, but he was hounded on by a Puritan preacher, Nave by name, and knave by nature, who insisted on the slaughter " of these Amalek- ites." At length his counsel prevailed, and all the helpless cap- tives were either put to the sword, or dashed from the precipice into the sea, where they lighted on hard, cruel, jagged rocks. And so they perished (all save one man, and one infant), and from time to time, bleached bones and skulls are still washed up from the clefts of the rocks ; and the fishers tell how, when the wind drifts the sand from the bank close by, heaps of human bones are sometimes seen, which the next kindly wind covers up again with a fresh layer of soft yellow sand.
THE BROODING FEVER-CLOUD. 21
The escape of the little infant was the only gleam of light in that day's devilish work. Its nuise caught it up naked in her arras and fled along the shore. She was stopped by a Campbell, and vowed the child was hers : '' It has the eye of the Macdonald " was the answer. Nevertheless, the heart of Craignish was soft, and, divid- ing bis plaid, he gave her half for the naked baby, and suffered her to escape. During those five days of waiting on the rock, another Macdonald drew near, with a small body of men, to relieve the garrison. As soon as the piper perceived them, he struck up a note of warning to bid them turn back, llius they were saved from the cruel fate that awaited their brethren; but the piper paid dearly for his tune, the enraged Campbells cutting off his fingers to prevent his ]»laying any more such strains.
Thus it was, that Cantyre passed from the hands of the Macdonalds to tho.<«e of the gleed (squinting) Marquis of Argrle and his clansmen. It seemed as though Heaven's righteous retribution soaght them out, when, ere many years bad past, a terrible plague came and utterly depopulated the whole of Cantyre. It was the same year that the Great Plague was raging in London. The pesti- ]**nce swept over the land in visible form, as a great white cloud laden with death — just such a cloud as, in later days, has rested on Mal^a, and other cities, in times of cholera (on Dumfries, for instance, where in 1843 the cholera raged for mouths, nor ever stayed its ravages till one-third of the inhabitants were laid in great pits in the overcrowded churchyards. And during all the time that tlie Angel of Death thus brooded over the city, a pestilential cloud hung like a death-pall, floating in mid-air, above the circle of hills which enclose the city as in a cup. It was a dull heavy film, through which neither the foul air could escape nor could fresh air circulate, but all was dead stagnation ; even the sunbeams passing throagh were discoloured, and fell with lurid glare upon the scene of horror below). The fever-cloud rested long on Cantyre, and left its traces for many generations. So sorely did Argyle's estates suffer, that moneys were voted by Parliament for his relief, while
the poorer folk received such help as the churches could collect. A sunnier legend of Dunaverty in its palmy days, tells how its
22 IN THE HEBRIDES.
chief rescued the fair daughter of the King of Carrickfergos from the pillion of O'Connor, the King of Innisheon, who had ran away with her against her wilL He restored her to her father, and con- tinued Ms honoured guest till, in his turn, he claimed the maiden's hand, and was cast into a dungeon to rue his presumption. Thence rescued by the damsel, he escaped to Dunaverty ; but once more returning in quest of his love, found that she too was now in dur- ance vile, for haying aided his flight So, like the hardy Norse- man of old, he showed that neither bolt nor bar could part him from his own true love, and carried her safely across the sea to his own old castle. The wrathful king followed in his galley, with many mighty men of war, vowing swift vengeanca Happily counsels of peace prevailed, and the lady obtained pardon for her lord; so they all went back together to the Emerald Isle, and lived merrily to the end of the chapter, and their children became kingei, from whom the Earls of Antrim claim descent.
About two miles from Campbelton lies the old kirkyard of Kilcousland, one of the many which, to me, give an especial charm to these green shores ; lying, as they do, almost within reach of the wild spray, which, dashing heavenward, falls in lightest showers over the rank grass and golden iris, and mossy stones, beneath which sleep so many forgotten generations. Kilcousland has no gravestones of especial interest, but (half hidden by large-leaved coltsfoot and dockans, and stately tall white hemlocks) are many which are quaint and old, and though the majority only show crowns and shields and grotesque death' s-heads-and-crossbones, and fat-faced cherubs with lumps of moss for their eyes, or else such growth of golden lichen as Old Mortality would have loved to scrape away, there are some devices which tell the daily work of the sleeper forcibly enough. Thus, a ploughman has quite a grace- f 111 grouping of reins and harness ; a carpenter keeps his hammer and saw and sundry other tools ; whUe the tailor carries his shears and his goose to the end of time.
On the broken shaft of an old cross, a carved galley tells of some forgotten Island chief, while a neighbouring stone bears a knight's two-handed sword, surrounded with runic knotting. The next
ST. couslan's weddings. 23
tomb bears only a heavy da^^r on a shield, no name to mark who aleepe beneath.
I sat for many hours in this calm " God's acre/' in the shade of the rained church, watching the ever-changing colours of the quiet sea, lipping up to the foot of the gteen hill on which I rested ; constant changes from blue to green, and purple and silvery greys, all blended by the reflection of every tint of sky and cloud, according as the angle of the broken* wavelet either mirrors these, or lets us see beneath its surface, into its own depths ; giving us hints of the wonderful world helow the waters. There were hroken reflections, too, from the hills of Arran, and from Ailsa Craig, which is a very line rock-islet, at the entrance to Campbelton harbour. In form it resembles the familiar Bass Bock, rising precipitously from the sea to a height of 1100 feet. It is a mass of grey columnar basalt, which to the north-west presents a very grand face of great hasaltic oolomns. On the opposite side are the ruins of an ancient square tower, on a high rock-terrace overlooking the sea. It is a very green isle, and afl^ords pasture to many goats. A multitude of rabbits and innumerable sea-birds also hold the Craig in possession.
Kow and then I watched a white sail round the lighthouse, and
enter the quiet haven. I thought of the words of one whose dying
prayer was —
** Lay me beneath the grass, Where it dopes to the south and the sea ; Where the tiying I love may pass. And, passing, may think of me ** —
and I thought that just such a churchyard as this was the resting- place for which she craved. It was a scene of great peace, and I lingered till the blue sky of noon had changed to that pale primrose against which each form of earth cuts with such intensity of colour; and the evening breeze, rustling among the tall flags, sounded like a mysterious whisper from the sleepers around me. The saint to whom this spot was dedicated, was a certain kindly old 8t Conslan, whose sympathies were all on the side of young couples whose true love was thwarted by stem parents and goaidians. To make matters easy for them, he set up near his cell
24 IN THE HEBRIDES.
a large stone with a hole in the centre, and announced that run- away couples who succeeded in reaching this stone, and here joining hands, should be considered indissolubly united. Here we have a trace of the earlier paganism — a survival of that old Norse custom of betrothal, which bade lovers join hand$< through a circular hole in a sacrificial stone. This was called the promise of Odin, and was practised in the Northern Isles long after they had embraced Christianity.
The custom was long observed in Orkney, where, a little to the cast of one of the two clusters of large standing stones (the stones of Stennis) there was one stone with a hole right through it. To this stone of betrothal came all the Orkney lovers, to plight their troth by clasping hands through the perforated stone. This ceremony was considered so binding, that there was no downright necessity for a subsequent marriage with Christian rites. Indeed there were certain advantages in dispensing with such a ceremony, as those who were joined together with the sanction of the Church could never more be parted, whereas those who had dispensed with it, and had only bound themselves by the promise of Odin, might, should they grow weary one of another, legally annul their marriage, by merely entering the Church of Stennis, and there parting.
" They both came to the kirk of Steinhouse," says Dr. Henry of Orkney, " and after entering the kirk the one went out at the south, and the other at the north door, by which act they were holden to be legally divorced, and free to make another choice."
The celebrated perforated stone of Stennis is known to have been an object of veneration to the men of Orkney, long before the Northmen came, and called it after Odin, and the people continued to hold it in reverence till the beginning of this century, when it was destroyed.
A simple and more poetic form of betrothal was for the lad and lass to stand on either side of a narrow brook, and to clasp hands across the stream, calling on the moon to witness their pledge.
Sometimes the young couple each took a handful of meal, and kneeling down, with a bowl between them, emptied their hands therein, and mixed the meal ; at the same time taking an oath on
ST. coivin's divorces. 25
the Bible never to sever, till death should them part. A case was tried in Dalkeith in 1872, where this simple marriage ceremony was proved hj Scotch law to be legally binding.
Bat the commonest and certainly the most curious custom of betrothal, was that of thumb-licking, when lovers licked their thumbs and pressed them together, vowing constancy. This was held binding as an oath, and to break a vow so made, was equivalent to perjury. This custom is still quite common in Ross-shire, on concluding all manner of bargains, such as sales of cattle or grain. Hence the saying, " 1*11 gie ye my thumb on it," or. " I'll lay my thoomb on that," expressing that the statement last made is satis- factory. There are men still in the prime of life, who remember when the custom of thumb-licking was the recognized conclusion of business transactions, even so far south as the Clyde, and not unknown in Glasgow itself.
Whatever may have been the origin of this quaint ceremony, it is carious to remember that the ancient Indian custom on sealing a bargain or conferring a gift was to pour water into the hand of the recipient, as is shown on many sculptures. Probably the thumb- licking was a convenient substitute for the original symbol.
Another saintly Father, who was reputed to take considerable interest in the matrimonial affairs of his people, was St. Coivin, who gets the credit of having established a most extraordinary law of divorce, which assuredly savours of earlier pagan days. He is said to have invited all unhappy couples to meet at his cell on a given night, when, having blindfolded each person, he started them on a pell-mell race thrice sunwise round the church. Suddenly the saint would cry ^ Cabhag ! " t. e. seize quickly ! and each swain most catch what lass he could, and be true to her for one whole year, at the end of which, if still dissatisfied, he might return to the saintly cell, and try a new assortment in the next matrimonial game at blind-man's-buif !
The spot where these strange games at blindfold love were played, 18 the old kirkyaid of Kilkevan, on the high ground overlooking Macnahanish Bay, one of the most attractive, though loneliest, reaches of our sea-coast Here the finest golden sands stretch for
26 IN THE HEBBIDX8.
milee along the shore, where the gnat green waves break oeaseleBaly. To me St Cotvin'e cell waa a epecially attnctive sketching-ground, with its distant view of the five bine peaks of Jura, its pleasant snr- ronndings of grassy downs, fragrant with lilac orchids and the quiet iTj-covered rains. Ifany of ita sculptured gravestones are of unusual beauty. Some of these hear the figures of knights, with sword sa long as that of Rohett the Bruce, and devices of the chase or
armorial hearings carved all round them. Others have no fignis, only one long sword ; some have only daggers. There is no mark to tell who sleeps beneath, or whence came the stones, though the people have a tradition that they were brought &om Iona,^which, indeed, is likely enough ; not as the spoils of mthleae pillage, hut as the handiwork of some of the holy brethren, well skilled in cunning stone-work, who doubtless supplied these monuments to such of theii neighbouia as were willing to pay for them. Be that
CAMELLIAS IN THE OPEN AIR. 27
MB it maj, the carveis and the knights have been alike foigotten for many long ages, and here they still lie, all facing the east — waiting. The restless agitation of the mighty waters has not tronbled their sleep ; though, to the idle dreamer who lies among the golden iris watching the broad lights and shadows passing quickly over old Ocean's face, it seems such a constant emblem of the tossing and unrest of life, that he cannot well put away the thousand thoughts thus awakened, and as the murmurous echoes rise and fall with the breeze, they seem to whisper the words of an old song : —
" Like the wild ceaseless motioii, *
Of the deep heaving wave, Is our heart's restless beating, From our birth to our grave. Tos8*d by strong stormy passions
Ou the swift wind we flee, Till life's bark reach the haven Where is no more sea..'
No spot on earth could well be more peaceful than the shores of beautiful Macnahanish Bay, and the green woods and braes of Loeset, where we have spent so many pleasant days. The fields close to the house are white with narcissus, the uncultured growth of many generations ; while genuine wild flowers — blue and green and gold — ^riot in the shelter of the glen, and all day long the mAvis and merle pour forth their jubilant songs in the quiet wood.
It is curious to note how the absence of frost favours the growth of plants too delicate for our eastern coast. Camellias bloom in the open air, and great hedges of crimson fuschia live securely all the winter, on the lee side of sturdy fir trees, whose upper branches, however, are all scorched by the blighting sea-winds.
I wonder what peculiarity of atmosphere causes the wonderful splendour of the sunsets on this coast You know how much we have always heard of the amazing glory of sunrise and sunset in the East, more especially during the rains. I may safely say that during a residence of several years in various parts of the tropics, I have scarcely once neglected to do homage to these outgoings of morning and evening, but, with perhaps two exceptions, I have seen
28 IX THE HEBRIDES.
iiothiug that could bear away the palm of beauty from our own skies; and I am more and more tempted to believe that these ** odious comparisons" are due only to the different hours of rising and dining, which compel travellers to use their eyes in a way they ([uite forget to do when at home.
Have you not sometimes wondered at the dull hearts, and blind eyes, that could scarcely glance westward for one moment, though the golden gates seemed to have opened behind the heavy purple clouds, just flushed with rosy ciimsou; and all so quickly changing ; softening and mellowing in the hazy sunset light, till earth, and sea, and sky alike lay steeped in loveliness 1 Blind eyes they must be, that have not yet been opened to read the Divine Book of Nature, written day by day by the finger of God Himself; the God of Infinite variety, Whoso worship men are so apt to reduce to a mere system of forms, of infinite sameness. Surely the mind that most dearly loves to drink in the beauty of the visible world, must be the most in sympathy with that of the Great Artist Who delights in creating such refinements of beauty, ** rejoicing in His work."
One advantage over the sunsets of the East we ccrtidnly possess, in the long, beautiful, hours of twilight, when the curlew and the plover alone are on the wing ; and that still later hour " 'twixt the gloaming and the mirk " when all voices of nature are hushed, except the grand music of the sea, murmuring its endless harmonies to the wild bent bills.
I doubt if there is any spot in all the British Isles, where you may study Old Ocean in all its varied tempers more perfectly than you can here, in beautiful Macnahanish Bay, which lies outspread before our windows, so that morning, noon, and night we watch its changing moods. From earliest times this spot has been noted for the tremendous size and roaring of the waves, which on the slightest provocation seem to lash themselves to raging fury, and many a brave sliip has perished here, deceived by the lowness of the land, and so lured on to destruction.
The whole force of the broad Atlantic seems to sweep into the Bay, as the great wild waves rush onward, chafing in their tumult- uous wiath, albeit with such *' method in their madness;" rising
THE KELP-BURNER. 29
and swelling so deliberately, as each Diightj green billow curls and breaks, in a crest of gleaming foam ; and the seething water dashes noisily over the shingle, babbling and surging among the masses of rock which lie heaped in such grand confusion along the coast — or else tossing its spray in wild sport, right over the cliffs and caves, where the delicate ferns are nestling, to the green bank above, where the young lambs are learning to crop the sweet short grass from those dangerous ledges, and spring back, startled, by such chilling practical jokes.
The waves are not idle in their sport. They are washing up great masses of brown sea-ware, not carefully gathered with a loving hand, but torn up by the roots, from the great gardens in the ocean depths. And the poor kelp-burners are watching anxiously to see what harvest they may hope to reap. Some have only their creels, rough wicker baskets, which they carry on their own shoulders, but here and there is a little cart, drawn by a strong pony ; a willing little beast, which strains every nerve to drag its burden of wet, heavy weed, over the rough shingle, to some spot above high-water mark, where it may be spread over the grass or sand, and left for several days to dry ; this is the most anxious time in the harvest, as anxious as haymaking, in this uncertain climate ; for one heavy shower of rain will wash away all the precious salts and iodine, and leave the beach strewn only with useless lumber.
As soon as it is safely dried, the weed is heaped into little stacks, till the last moment, when the furnace is ready to bum it. It is not "all fish that comes to the net" of the kelp-burner. Those broad fronds of brown wrack which strew the shore are useless to him. He most values the masses of brown tangle covered with little bladders, and when the tide goes out, ho will cut all that he can find growing on the rocks, and add it to his store ; this being by far richer in salts than that which is cast up by the sea.^
1 The sea- weeds most valued for this purpose, are ChorcUtJUum, Laminarui di^Uata, Laminaria hvlhosa, Fucus nodogus, Fucus terrattUj F. vesunUomu, Himanthalia lorta. These yield salts in various proportions. One ton of
30 IN THE HEBRIDES.
Let OB sit down awliile, and watch him bum those brown heaps which he collected last week. We cannot stand on the open shore, or the bent hills, for the wind is blowing inland with such violence, that we should be sent right across the Isthmus — but there is a green bank at the foot of the cliff, facing the sea, where hardly a breath of air stirs the blue-bells and foxgloves ; for the wind strikes the shore in front of it, and then seems to be thrown upward at a sharp angle to the top of the crag, and though we seem to be right in the wind's eye, we shall really be in perfect shelter. This is a wrinkle, which holds good for all rocky coasts.^
Now the kelp-burners have made their kiln — it is a long deep grave Uned with large stones. First they sprinkle a light covering of dry weed over these stones, and coax it till it bums, then slowly they add a handful at a time, till the grave is filled, and heaped up, with a semi-fluid mass, which they stir incessantly with a long iron bar ; and a very picturesque group they are, half veiled by volumes of white opal smoke which has a pungent marine smelL
This work will go on for hours, and when all the tangle has been burnt, the kiln will be allowed to half-cool, and its contents cut into solid blocks of a dark blmsh-grey material. These very soon
kelp should yield an avehige of about eight pounds of iodine, and certain quantities of chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, carbonate of soda, etc. When subject to special treatment, and distillation, it can also be made to yield two or three cwt. of sulphate of ammonia, and several gallons of naphtha, of parafin oil, and of volatile oil. It is said that the sea-weed of the Channel Isles is richer in iodine than that of any other place, and it is calculated that the Channel Islanders might easily manufacture 10,000 tons annually. In Brittany and Normandy (where it is called Varek) about 25,000 tons per annum are produced.
^ Mr. Darwin evidently alludes to this circumstance in his Kotes on St Helena. He says : '* I was standing on the edge of a plain, terminated by a great cliff of about a thousand feet in depth, when, at the distance of a few yards to windward, I saw some tern strugsling against a very strong breeze, whilst where I stood the air was quite calm. Approaching close to the brink, where the current seemed to be deflected upwards from the face of the cliff, I stretched out my arm, and immediately felt the full force of the wind ; an invisible barrier, two yards in width, separated perfectly calm air from a strong blast. ;
FLUCTUATIONS IK THE KELP-MARKET. 31
become as hatd and heavy as iron, and are then ready for the market. From this material much carbonate of soda and various salts are obtained. But its most valued product ia iodine, precious alike to the physician and the photographer. Till very recently this was only to be obtained from the ash of dried sea^weed, con- sequently the discovery of its various good qualities gave a renewed impetus to the kelp trade. Kow, however, iodine is more cheaply and readily obtained from crude Chili saltpetre, so the demand for kelp has again decreased. Moreover, it has been discovered that much of the iodine which was altogether wasted in the process of burning, can be saved and utilized by a process of distillation.
Kelp was formerly of very great value in the manufacture of soap, alam, and glass, but it is now found that crude carbonate of soda of better quality, and cheaper, can be obtained from sea-salt. More- over, the great extent to which potass is now imported has proved a very heavy loss to the kelp-burners, whose hard work conse- qaently brings a comparatively small return. And years ago, the removal of the duty on Spanish barilla was a matter of ruin to many of the Islanders, chiefly those of Skye, where the weed con- tained a much smaller proportion of the precious salts, than on other shores, such as those of Orkney, and whero, consequently, this mannfacturo has been entirely given up. •
Kelp-making does not appear to have been one of the industries of the Isles till about the middle of last century, when it became a distinctive feature, and so lucrative that some small farms paid their whole rent from the produce of the rocks. Thus it came to pass that the shores and rocks were sometimes let separately from the farms ; and then the farmers were badly off indeed, — as indeed they are still, having to go miles to collect the necessary sea-weed wherewith to manure their fields, sometimes carrying it in creels on their backs for several miles, or fetching it in boats from long distances across the stormy seas. When the value of kelp was at its height) several farms in the Orkneys actually rose in rental from 40/. to 300/. per annum.
The Orkney kelp is used in the manufacture of plate-glass, and fetches double the price of that made in the Hebrides, which
32 IN THE HEBRIDES.
is only fit for soap. Nevertheless in the year 1818 no less than 6000 tons were produced in the Hebrides alone, and sold at £20 per ton. In that year the kelp harvest of the entire coast of Scotland was upwards of 20,000 tons, and was valued at half a million sterling. Within the last few years, the price of kelp in the Hebrides fell to about 4/. per ton. In former times 62. was the average, though it varied from 21. to 20/. This high price was of short duration, and only continued during a sudden failure in the supply of Spanish barilla. When you consider with what infinite labour and risk this crop is gathered, and that every ton of kelp represents twenty-four tons of sea- weed, you must allow that there is pretty stiff work for the money, and that these kelp- burners do not eat the bread of idleness. The price obtained for kelp has continued gradually to decline, and latterly its manufac- ture has, in many places, been altogether abandoned, though the loss of this source of revenue is a serious matter to the people. It seems probable, however, that science may come to their rescue by utilizing the sea-weeds — once accounted so worthless, but now known to be so exceedingly precious. In the first place their value is now so fully recognized, as forming the submarine covert, wherein the baby fishes find not only food but a refuge from their foes, — that on some f)arts of the British coast (Devonshire) the Board of Trade has prohibited the cutting of sea-ware.
But to all our shores, old Ocean brings a liberal supply of drift- weed, precious to the farmer, to whose land they supply tlie phos- phates and salts which nourish all plants. Cattle too, and horses, and sometimes sheep, find their winter fodder on the shore, and in times of scarcity many of our poor fellow-subjects eke out their scanty living by the use of certain sea-weeds, chiefly those known as dulse and tangle, which are offered for sale in many of our Scottish towns,* not in the prepared forms, which to the Chinese and Japanese appear so appetizing, but in their crude, uninviting state. Now, when all food-products are being scientifically dis-
^ In this hard spring of 1883 sea- weed (Fuctis vesiculasus) is being largely used by the poor Irish — chiefly in Donegal, where it is prepared with Indian com.
VALUE OF SEA-WEEDS. 33
cussed, tlie merits of this great family are being realized — a family, moreover, of which not one poisonous species is know a. ^ So now wise men are turning their attention to methods for utilizing these edible properties as food for man and beast ; and in addition to these, many other good qualities are now being discovered. It is found that sea-weed yields a jelly ten times as strong as isinglass, and, by a new process, this glutinous matter can be separated from the weed, and an altogether new substance is obtained, to which the discoverer (Mr. Stanford) has given the name of Algin, It closely resembles horn, and has all the properties of strong glue, and of a transparent starch; and has already been applied to many practical uses, — ^iu stiffening fabrics, in applying carbon to the lining of boilers, &c. &c. 'The weed from which it has been extracted is known as cellulose. It is bleached, to a fairly pure white, and being dried and pressed, forms a rough material, which seems likely to prove an excellent substitute for rags in the hands of the paper manufacturers. The other processes, to which weed is now subjected to obtain its salts, leave a large residuum of charcoal, which has a value of its own as an effectual and economical deodo- riser. Altogether the prospects of sea-weed are looking up, and there seems good reason to hope that the Hebridean Isles may yet find a source of wealth in reaping the self-sown crops, of these their great natural harvest-fields.
Of all beautiful sandy shores, I know none to compare with the golden beach of Macnahanish Bay, where the broad firm strand stretches for miles along the coast, making the pleasantest drive that can well be imagined, close to the water's-edge, where the sand is hard and firm, and the rippling wavelets run up past the horses' feet, and retreat again, till you become giddy with watching them, and are fain to look away across the mellow sea, to where the sun is sinking behind the hills of Islay, and the five blue peaks of Juia. This drive along the sands being the shortest road to Tarbert, it is not only on fine days that it proves tempting, and sometimes
1 Dr. Letheb/s chemical analysis shows that sea-weed contains an average of 60 per cent of mucilaginous matter, and from 9 to 16 per cent, of ** flesh- prodndng '* materisL
D
34 IN THE HEBRIDES.
the well-trained horseSy who have never felt a whip, but work glacllj in obedience to their master's kind voice, have a difficult task to make their way, with blinding surf almost bewildering them.
Once, only once, the beautiful shore proved treacherous. A long line of shingle had been thrown up, by an unusually violent tempest, and great beds of wrack lay between that and the sea, till day by day, fresh layers of sand were blown up, and washed up, and it all looked smooth and firm as usual. But underneath, the hidden weed lay rotting, and as we drove confidently along, suddenly we found ourselves sinking lower and lower into dangerous quicksands. The good steeds knew the danger, and with violent efEort dragged us out into the deeper water ; and so, got round the perilous bank, which stretched far along the shore. Happily the sea was a dead calm, or we should have had a popr chance of escape, especially as we had tied the children into the carriage with a series of intricate knots, to prevent their jumping out to catch jelly-fish and such-like treasures.
A WET DBIVK 35
CHAPTER n.
FROM CAJfPBBLTON TO OBAK.
'* The Isles, where dewy morning weaves Her chaplet, with the tints that twilight leaves ; Where late the sun, scarce vanished from the sight, And his bright pathway graced the short-lived night
>t
Isles of Gigah and Islay—Meaning of Tarbert— Legend of the Whirlpool— Isles of Elachnave, Oronsay, and Colonsay— Oban— Dimolly— Dunstaflfoage— Seals— Old Tombs— White Stones— A Lake Villagfr— Serpent-shaped Mound— American and other Reptile-shaped Mounds — Gaelic Serpent Lore.
Rkal Aigyleshire rain ! Drenching, pouring, soaking, pitiless rain 1 How it did rain !
After such a spell of sunshine, why should it have chosen this ▼ery morning to begin this cruel work, just as we started for a forty- sdx mile drive, first across the hills to Campbelton, and thence to Tarbert, along a coast whose beauty we had already proved, and with which we had vainly hoped to refresh our memories 1 Our coQTeyance was the lumbering old coach which still runs between Campbelton and Tarbert, and it was suggested that we should go inside ; but, thinking the remedy worse than the disease, we pre- ferred testing our good and trusty waterproofs ; a panoply without which they would be rash indeed who could venture to set foot in the dominions of His Hieland Glory, the great MacCailian Mdr, and brave his lawless rain.
D 2
36 IN THE HEBRIDES.
It was some consolation that the worthies at the various stages, for once, allowed that it was something more than a " fine saf t day/' and condescended to take refuge under their own roofs, and leave drowned understrappers to do all the work ; while good John, our gentle Jehu, whose aversion to the whip was as great as that of our host at Losset, soothed and coaxed obedience out of the most unpromising quadrupeds. " Steady, my wee pet," to a great raw- boned brute, with a wicked eye. " Noo, my bonnie lassie," to a long-legged, clumsy old cow. A very master in the art of kindly flattery, is this master of the ribbons.
As we drove along the coast, we had a farewell peep of the little isle of Gigah, the burial-place of the Macneils, a meet haven for these turbulent island lords, with the wildest searwaves for ever guarding their rest. On several of the old tombs we can still trace the rudely-carved two-handed sword, half hidden by a coating of warm dark moss.
Some relics, too, there are, of yet more ancient days. Great cairns, near which stand tall rough monoliths, once, doubtless, sug- gesting names that in their day were deemed immortal, but of which all tradition has long since been lost. At one place there is a group of three such old cairns, and one great monolith, which has been carved into the semblance of a cross, by some zealous Christian of old. Near this is a well, which the Macneils of yore had only to stir, if they were wind-bound, and straightway a favourable gale arose, to speed them on their course.
A little further lie the low shores of the large island of Islay, rich in traces of old ecclesiastical buildings, no less than fourteen chapels having been founded by the Lords of the Isles. In the churchyard of Ril-arrow there is a remarkable gravestone, with the figure of a warrior with a conical head-dress, and a tunic reaching to the knees. At hia side is a dirk, and in his hand a sword. Kear this stone is another bearing a large sword, and a garland of leaves — a Hebridean equivalent for a laurel crown.
The burial-ground of Kildalton is marked by two large rudely- sculptured stone crosses.
Of more ancient interest is the tomb of Yla, or Eila, a Danish
MEANING OF TABBERT. 37
princess, who has bequeathed her name to the island, and also to some of its daughters. A high conical green hill above the Bay of Knock, seemed a fitting tumulus of nature's own building, so here the Danish lady was buried, and the spot is marked by two great upright stones, called " The Stones of Islay."
Cairns and barrows have been excavated in various parts of the isle, and treasures of the usual sort, such as brass fibulse, stone celts, and flint arrow-heads have gone to enrich museums.
Here, too, on the brink of the river Laggan, " Brian of Ha " was buried, standing upright, and holding in his hand a spear, such as that which he used to dart at the salmon. The ruling passion, you see, was strong in death. In Islay, beside Loch Finlagan, one (or more) of the old Lords of the Isles held his court ; and standing on a big stone seven feet square, received the homage of all his vassals, a ceremony graced by the sanction of the Church ; " for," says the old chronicle, '' the Bishop of Argyle and seven priests did anoint and crown him king of the Isles, placing his father's sword in his hand, whereupon he swore to protect the Islesmen, and do justice to all his subjects."
It is curious to note the strange quibble by which this peninsula of Cantyre came to be included among the Hebrides. A very narrow neck of land, such as that which connects this with the mainland, is generally called Tarbat or Tarbert, from two old words : Tarruingy to draw, and Bata, a boat ; because in some cases it saved both time and trouble to drag the boats across the isthmus, rather than sail round the land. This was especially true of the Mull of Cantyre, whose difficult navigation and fearful storms were so dreaded, that vessels of nine or ten tons were frequently drawn by horses out of the west loch to that on the east (a distance of barely a mile), thus avoiding the long and dangerous sail all round the peninsula. This fact was taken advantage of by the Norwegian king, Magnus, " the barefoot king," when Donald-Bane of Scotland was forced to cede to him the Western Isles, including all placei thai could he surrounded in a hoot. Placing himself in the stem of a boat» he held the rudder, was drawn over this narrow track, and thns took possession of the Mull.
38 IN THE HEBRIDES.
In olden days the isles were quite independent of the mainland, and were ruled hy such piratical chiefs, that at letigth Harold Haar- fager determined to annex them all, as far south as the Isle of Man. They continued nominally subject to Norway till 1226, when they were transferred to Scotland (not, however, as a very peaceful possession, as it is somewhere about this time that we hear of the King of Man making over the Sudereys to Somerled). About eighty years later, the whole were seized by one chief, whose private property they continued for 200 years, when James V. finally reconquered theuL
Well, it poured without intermission till we reached Tarbert, where there still remain the ruins of a castle built by the Bruce. Thence we took the steamer to Lochgilphead, where a smaller steam- boat was waiting to take us through the Crinal Canal, and we sat on the deck to catch a glimpse of old Duntroon Castle, — but it looked grey and cold and wet, and not a bit like the same place where we used to sail, or row, or scramble in the sunny summer evenings.
At Crinan we again changed steamers, and still the rain poured on : " It was never weary." We knew that on our left lay the Islands of Scarba and Jura, between which rush the mighty tides, which swirl and roar round a hidden reef in mid-channel, whence shelving rocks on every side, project far under the water, and so create the whirlpool of Corrievreckan, " The cauldron of the foam- ing tide," which boils and ferments as the impetuous currents meet, till the waves are heaped up like pyramids, which break and spout in dashing spray. Sometimes this wild ferment makes the whole sea white with foam, and then the people say that the Caillach (the old hag) has put on her kerchief, and any ship rash enough to approach would meet its certain doom.
The legend of these tumultuous waters tell that the word Bhreacan (Corrie-Bhreacan), which some have translated as " foam- ing stream,** was really the name of a brave young Danish prince, who loved a daughter of the Lord of the Isles, and desired to woo and win her. Her father did not favour his suit, yet, not willing to offend the King of Lochlin, he answered craftily, that the prince should indeed have his daughter, providing he would prove his
LEGEND OF CORRIEVRECKJlN. 39
ooQTage and his skill as a seaman, by anchoring his galley for three days and three nights in the dread whirlpool.
The young prince, nothing daunted, returned to Lochlin to con- sult with his wise men as to the best means of safety. They bade him take three cables, — one of hemp, one of wool, and one of woman's hair. The hempen cable and the woollen one were easy to find, but as to the third, every hair of which must come from the head of a maiden of spotless fame, it demanded such sacrifice as few damsels would care to make. However the prince was beloved, and the fame of his beauty and of his brave deeds in love and war, had leached the bower of many a Danish maid. So the daughters of the land cut off their long fair locks, and a cable was woven thereof, which should resist the mightiest tempest that ever raged in that seething cauldron.
Then the prince returned to the father of his love and announced his readiness to do his will. He anchored in the whirlpool The first day the hempen cable broke. The second day the woollen one parted. The third day came, and the gift of the maidens of Lochlin still held its ground. The young prince was full of glad- ness, for Ids triumph seemed nigh at hand. But alas ! for that law which makes the strength of the mightiest cable equal only to its weakest link. There was one fair tress binding him to the anchor of his hope which had been shorn from the head of one whose Came was no longer without blemish. So the resistless might of unspotted purity was not there to bind the raging waters, and the last rope parted, and the ship was sucked down in the mad whirl- ing vortex, — down, down, down, to the unfathomable depths of
But the body of the prince was brought to land by his faithful dog, and dragged to a cave that bears his name, where a little cairn atiU marks the spot where Bhreacan was buried. The dog returned to the water, doubtless seeking some other friend, and he perished in a lesser whirlpool between the Isles of Scarba and Lunga, and that Sound is still known as the Grey Dog's Slap.
To the north-west of Scarba lies the little island of Elachnave, where there remain traces of some of the very earliest monastic
40 IN THE HEBRIDES.
buildings, situated near an ancient cemetery where the graves are only marked by roughest wave-worn rocks, one of which bears a rudely graven cross. There are also two beehive cells of slate, covered with grass, perhaps the humble homes of holy men of old.
Beyond Jura lie the sister isles, which, in memory of St. Golumba and his companion St. Oran, bears the names of Oronsay and Colonsay, their respective sizes bearing due proportion to the fame of the two men, Colonsay being much the larger island of the two. Both are hilly, though of no great height, and are noted for the richness of their pasture. Next to lona, these isles possess more extensive remains of religious houses than any others in the Hebridean group. They have also vestiges of prehistoric times, as Oronsay has several tumuli. The ruins are those of ecclesiastical buildings, founded by the Lords of the Isles about the fourteenth century. On Oronsay stood a monastery, of which there remain some cloisters of a very peculiar angular character. Within the priory are several sculptured tombs, and a little apart stands a tall round-headed cross.
The abbey connected with this monastery stood on the larger isle of Colonsay, but it has been entirely destroyed, though the ruins of some smaller chapels remain. St. Oran's cell has dis- appeared within the memory of persons still living. To him was dedicated the Church of Killouran. Unfortunately the four hundred inhabitants of the isle have not been endowed with a due reverence for these sacred ruins, which have been treated as a con- venient quarry. Oronsay, on which there is but one inhabited house, fares better, and its multitudinous rabbits are no foes to antiquarians, so the old ruins are here left to the slow progress of calm decay.
After the Reformation multitudes of these small churches were allowed to fall into ruin, and a very irregular system of Church services was substituted. Thus, in the more distant isles, the minister, on his occasional visits, would celebrate the marriages and baptisms of perhaps two or three years. On these occasions it was very important to have the lads baptized before the lassies, for should this order be accidentally inverted, the lassie who was
THE DIVIDED FONT AT BIRNIK 41
christeDed out of her tarn was certain to grow a beard I Till very reeent years this was firmly believed, so far south as Stirlingshire, where, within my own memory, it was alleged by the church officer, as a reason why the laird's infant daughter must on no account be baptized till after several collier laddies. So strongly was this separation of the sexes insisted on, that I know of one old font belonging to the church at Birnie near Elgin, which was actually divided in two by a plate of iron let into the stone, that the water for the baptism of males, might not be mixed with that for females. This old font having been discarded in favour of the modem bason, was for many years left lying neglected in the kirkyard, but I do not know whether it proved treasure-trove to any antiquarian.
The minister's greetings from these unbaptized little heathens were sometimes striking. One child on being sprinkled with cold water exclaimed passionately, " De'il be in your fingers ! " which, you will allow, was a stronger form of remonstrance, than the stick of barley-sugar, which we occasionally see employed in infantile resistance to the means of grace I It was, however, well in keeping with the character given to a West Highland village by its new pastor. '' Eh ! it's a pitiful thing to see children that can neither waalk nor iaallry running about the streets, cursing and swearing ! " It sounds as if he must have had a dash of the Emerald Isle, but he was described as being ''just as Highland as a peat."
In these remote comers of the earth. Church ceremonies are sometimes considerably affected by wind and weather. There are many cases when one minister has charge of several small flocks, and has to divide his care of them as best he can ; sometimes he has to row across a dangerous ferry or a sea-loch, against wind and tide, to reach the congregation awaiting him on the other side. Sometimes all the efforts of the strong arms that row him are unavailing, and after battling for hours without being able to effect a landing, they have to make the best of their way back to the island whence they started, leaving the little flock to disperse at their leisure. Even where no arm of the sea intervenes between the minister and his parochial work, a swollen river will prove quite as effectual a barrier, and I have heard stories that reminded
42 IK THE HEBRIDES.
me forcibly of the form of baptism practised by St. Francis Xavier, when, sailing up the Indian river, he sprinkled holy water with a long pole on the astonished people, who assembled on either bank to see him pass.
Dr. Chalmers told a story of a Highland minister having been summoned to baptize an infant, whose parents lived on the other side of a small stream. When he reached the bum, he found it was in spate, and there were no means of getting across. He there- fore shouted to the father to come down to the bum-side, and hold the infant (as the custom is, in Scotland). He, himself, procured a wooden scoop, which he dipped in the bum, and flung the water across, aiming at the bairn's face. But the stream was so wide that he repeatedly fell short of the mark ; and the shout of " Weel 1 has it gotten any yet 1 " was reiterated again and again, before a satis- factory answer enabled him to conclude the service ! This I believe to be a fact of the present century.
All this time we were passing through scenery which we believed to be bewilderingly lovely, if we could but have seen it, instead of the sheets of grey rain, which poured down incessantly from the heavy clouds. But towards evening, as we neared Oban — *^ the quiet little harbour," as its name implies, — the dark storm drifted away, and the sun shone forth in penitent beauty, changing the whole face of nature. Instead of earth, sea, and sky being all of one leaden hue, the scene was now flooded with tender rainbow-coloured light ; fairy islands in the far distance seemed to float ethereally on the opal-tinted sea, and the great hills of MuU appeared as if rising from the waves, like some pale spirit, faintly visible through the tremulous evening light.
Just beyond the town rises the stem old Castle of DunoUy, perched on a g^y projecting craig, which, rising abruptly from the shore, commands the harbour on either side; a strong tower ot defence in olden days, and one which no foeman's galley could approach unseen. Kow a picturesque garden nestles round the base of the craig, adding gem-like touches of colour to the flush of heather which lies in every cranny of the grey rock, while a back- ground of green and gold foliage serves as a rich setting to the whole.
A FAMILT OF SEALS. 43
Near the base of the cliff one huge rock-boulder stands upright, as if placed there by some giant hand. This is known as the Dog's Stone, for here it was that Fingal was wont to tie his faithful dog Bran, in ages long before Macdougals or Campbells had taken pos- session of the land. Ton know this grim old fortiess of Dunollj was the eerie where the Macdougals of Lorn, eagle-like, built their nest overhanging the waves. They were lineal descendants of the first Doagal, Lord of the Isles, son of the great Somerled, whose place of burial we noted at SaddelL The old castle is now in ruins, later generations having preferred to build themselves a modem home in a more sheltered nook, where, among other family treasures, they still retain the far-famed brooch of Lorn, snatched from the Bruce, bj their ancestor John of Lorn.
Resolved to make the most of so beautiful an evening, we wandeied along the shore in the direction of Gallanach, by far the most lovely, and yet the least frequented, road in the neighbourhood of Oban, winding beneath grey crags, close to the sea ; and disclos- ing at every turn, some fresh vision of beauty, — dreamy isles, or tiie nearer mainland.
The dewy freshness of a sweet spring morning tempted us forth betimes, to explore another fine old ruin, — ^the Castle of Dunstaff- nage, a far more imposing mass of building than Dunolly, though lacking the grandeur of its rocky ramparts. But the low grassy ahofre on which it stands, is washed all round by the blue sea-loch, so that at high tide it is in fact an island, and the waters, coming dose in shore, serve as a mirror to reflect the grey weather-beaten fortiess, only rendering its image in mellower tones than the stem walls ever wear in reality.
Nor is its beauty lessened, when the receding waters expose the dark rocks fringed with golden sea-weed, — ^rocks on which you may sometimes surprise a whole family of seals basking in the warm sun- shine,— a grey old grandmother surrounded by her children and grandchildren, the latter dark in colour as the dry wrack on which they lie. Occasionally the family-party includes a nursing mother and her baby ! These little additions to the family only occur once a year, and rarely exceed one at a time, though twins are not un-
44 IN THE HEBRIDES.
known. The mother-seal seeks the most secluded spot she can discover, and then comes ashore to give birth to her little one, which almost immediately takes to the water, swimming bravely. This happy family will slip shyly into the water at your approach, but perhaps you may wile them back with some plaintive song, for they have keen ears for music, and will brave even the dreaded human presence for the sake of some favourite melody. Often, while sailing on this very loch, we have tested this curious fact, and watched the black shining heads appearing from time to time, as these music-loving creatures swam in the wake of our galley, attracted by the sound of songs, or of old Scotch tunes played on an accordioa
Talking of '' grey old grandmothers," I remember one patriarchal seal, who, in her old ^e, had turned so silvery white, that as she lay on the rocks close in shore, we all with one accord agreed that it must be a sheep which had fallen from the cMSa overhead. As we sailed nearer, the likeness seemed to increase, even to the ex- perienced eyes of our older sportsmen ; so we determined to put off a boat and rescue the poor sufferer who lay so still and appar- ently helpless, only from time to time, turning her head uneasily at our approach. It was not till we were within easy shot (a shot which, of course, was never fired) that the old lady condescended to lift herself up, look down on us in calm surprise, and with a wriggle and a plunge, disappeared into the cool clear waves, leaving the invaders very much astonished at their own lack of discrimination.
In a cool shady glade, a stone's throw from the castle, stands a ruined chapel, ivy-clad, where many a carved stone tells of the sleepers who have here found so calm a resting-place after life's turmoil — a lonely spot, seldom trodden by human foot, but haunted by white-winged sea-birds that float spirit-like in mid air, sometimes alighting on the hallowed ground, and peering about inquisitively, as they walk solemnly over tombs of Vikings and Chiefs of old.
Apart from the exceeding natural beauty which lends such a charm to all this coast, there is the special interest of countless old legends, which connect not only these grey ruins, but all the country
HOMES AND QRAVfiS OF EABLT BRITONS. 45
TOimdy with the successive holders of the soil, — those divers races who by tarns have swept over the land, each leaving their little mark behind them.
The very name of this district — Beregonium — ^falls strangely on the ear, accustomed rather to the sound of Celtic or of Norse than to such classic old Latin, and reminds us of the days when Boman invaders, having driven out the earlier settlers, seem to have recognized the importance of this position as a key alike to the Hebrides and the western coast. Here, in the massive headland (which, jutting into the sea, commands both plain and ocean), they found a position so strongly fortified by Nature's ramparts of rugged lock, as to require but small aid from human skill to convert it into an impregnable encampment.
Of the original inhabitants, little is of course known, but this spot is believed to have been one of the principal settlements of the Dalriads, if not the capital of their kingdom. Certain it is, that many of the oldest l^ends of Ossian cluster round this immediate neighbourhood, where Fingal is said to have held his court and shared with his warriors in wild feasts and frays.
From Dunstaffnage we overlook a desolate tract of wide flat moor- land, known as Loch Nell Moss, lying between the blue waters of Loch Etive and the broad Atlantic.
Here various traces have recently been discovered of the homes and graves of our Pagan ancestors, suggesting dim and shadowy Tisions of their life in far remote ages. Half way across the Moss rises a large cairn, built of rounded water-worn stones, and sur- rounded by stunted trees. This has recently been excavated ; and in the heart of the tumulus were found two megalithic chambers, containing human remains and urns. Also divers white quartz stones, such as various Pagan nations were wont to bury with their dead — possibly as emblems of immortality and of sin forgiven or cancelled, as when the Greeks of old symbolized a release from some obligation by the giving or receiving of a white stone, — a custom probably alluded to in the book of Eevelation in the promise, *^ To him that overcometh .... I will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written."
46 IN THE HEBRIDES.
In the present instance, the white stones were arranged in pairs, on a ledge of rock projecting above the urns, a single stone being placed at each end of this double row ; another single white pebble was found inside one of the urns.
A considerable number of similar pebbles of white quartz have recently been discovered in various old British tombs on the Isle of Cambrae, as also within the Sacred Circle on the Isle of Man ; a circle, by the way, which from time immemorial has been held in such reverence, that to this day the Parliameut of the island is there convened. These pebbles were also found in most of the old tombs recently excavated in the neighbourhood of Dundee, in fact, so frequent was their presence, that it was common for the workmen employed in excavating to exclaim, " Here are the two stones ! now we will get the bones." Rock crystal is sometimes found in lieu of the white quartz.
Akin to these pebbles, in their symbolic connection with the religious and funereal rites of our ancestors, are the conical masses of white quartz found entombed with human remains in tumuli at Inverary, Dundee, Letcombe Castle in Berks and Maiden Castle near Weymouth — precisely similar to those found in excavations at Nineveh (now to be seen in the British Museum), with this exception, that on the latter are carved representations of serpents, and of the sun and moon.
Turning from these dwellings of the dead, to the sunny shores of Loch Etive, we next come on traces of a lake village, of considerable size, and in fair preservation. Here, on removing accumulations of peat-moss, which would seem to have been the growth of twenty, or perhaps thirty centuries, a series of oval palings were found, still surrounded by wooden stakes^ which doubtless once supported conical thatched roofs, like those dwellings of the old Gauls de- scribed by Strabo as circular, with lofty tapering roofs of straw.
However suggestive to the initiated, are these slight remains of the homes of their ancestors, they offer small attraction to the general public, compared with the hints of the ancestral worship, recently discovered in Glen Feochan in the rival district of Loch Nell, which (though bearing the same name as the Moss aforesaid), lies
THE SERPENT-MOUND OF LOCH NELL. 47
about three miles on the other side of Oban — a lonely lake, on whose brink lies a huge Serpent-shaped Mound.
The carriage-road winds along the shore, and through broken hnmmocky ground, in some places clothed with grass, in others with heather and bracken. But for the presence of one of the few initiated, who had fortunately accompanied us, we should assuredly liave passed close below the heathery mound which forms the Serpent's tail (in fact the road has been cut right across the tip of it), without ever suspecting that it differed from the surrounding moorland.
Nevertheless it is a very remarkable object, and one, moreover, which rises conspicuously from the flat grassy plain, that stretches for some distance on either side, with scarcely an undulation, save two artificial circular mounds, in one of which lie several large stones, forming a cromlecL These circles are situated a short distance to the south, to the right of the Eeptile, "but too far to be shown in the sketch.
Finding ourselves thus unconsciously in the very presence of the Great Dragon, we hastened to improve our acquaintance, and in a couple of minutes had scrambled on to the ridge which forms his back-bone, and thence perceived that we were standing on an artificial mound three hundred feet in length, forming a double curve like a huge letter S, and wonderfully perfect in anatomical outline. This we perceived the more perfectly on reaching the head, which lies at the western end, whence diverge small ridges, which may have represented the paws of the reptile. On the head rests a circle of stones, supposed to be emblematic of the solar disc, and exactly corresponding with the solar circle as represented on the head of the mystic serpents of Egypt and Phoenicia, and in the gveat American Serpent Mound.
Previous to 1871 there still remained in the centre of this circle, some traces of an altar, which, thanks to the depredations of cattle and herd-boys, have since wholly disappeared. The people of the neighbourhood have an old tradition that in remote ages this was a place of public execution, and from various analogies in the customs of other nations, it seems likely enough that this was the case, and
48 IN THE HEBRIDES.
that this wild glen, may have been to many, the valley of the shadow of death, whether their lives were taken judicially or offered in sacrifice.
The circle was excavated on the 12 th October, 1871, and within it were found three large stones, forming a chamber, which contained human bones, charcoal, and charred hazd-nuU. Surely the spirits of our Pagan ancestors must rejoice to see how faithfully we, their descendants, continue to burn our hazel-nuts on Hallowe'en, their old autumnal Fire Festival, though our modern divination is practised only with reference to such a trivial matter as the faith of sweethearts! A flint instrument was also found, minutely serrated at the edge ; nevertheless, it was at once evident, on opening the cairn, that the place had already been ransacked, probably in secret, by treasure- seekers, as there is no tradition of any previous excavation for scientific purposes having been made here.
On the removal of the peat-moss and heather from the ridge of the serpent's back, it was found that the whole length of the spine was carefully constructed with regularly and symmetrically-placed stones at such an angle as to throw off rain; an adjustment to which we doubtless owe the preservation, or at least the perfection, of this most remarkable relic. To those who know how slow is the growth of peat-moss, even in damp and undrained places, the depth to which it has here attained (though in a dry and thoroughly exposed situation and raised from seventeen to twenty feet above the level of the surrounding moss), tells of many a long century of silent undisturbed growth, since the days when the Serpent's spine was the well-worn path daily trodden by reverent feet.
The spine is, in fact, a long narrow causeway, made of large stones, set like the vertebrae of some huge animal. They form a ridge sloping off in an angle at each side, which is continued down- wards with an arrangement of smaller stones, suggestive of ribs. The mound has been formed in such a position that the worshipper standing at the altar would naturally look eastward, directly along the whole length of the Great Beptile, and across the dark lake, to the triple peaks of Ben Cruachan. This position must have been carefully selected, as from no other point are the three peaks visible.
REPTILE MOUNDS. 49
This reverence for some Triune object, whether a triple-pointed hill, the junction of three rivers, or the neighbourhood of three lakes, seems to have been a marked characteristic of almost every ancient faith, and we may well believe that the Druids were not likely to pass by a great mountain, with its threefold summit towering heavenward, as if to draw thither the eyes and hearts of a race who were careful to consecrate all such natural types in their worship of Nature's God.
Attention was first called to this mound by Mr. Phen^, and it was a knowledge of this tendency that first led him to examine minutely all the least-trodden glens in the neighbourhood of any snch natural features, as for instance round the Eildon and Arran hills — seeking for traces which should mark the spot as sacred; and in each case, among other so-called Druidic remains, he has fonnd just such mounds of reptile form as he was in search of — none, however, so remarkable as this strange old Serpent, which for so many centuries has lain here undisturbed, as if guarding the valley.
All of these are more or less akin to the Beptile Mounds dis- covered in Ohio and Wisconsin by Messrs. Squier and Lapham, always in connection with sacrificial or sepulchral remains. One of these in particular is of an unmistakably serpentine form; and the position of the altar in the circle or oval at the head of the Serpent is identical with that of this Argyleshire mound, the head in each case lying towards the west.* The American mound is, however, on a larger scale than its Scotch cousin, being altogether a thousand feet long. It points towards three rivers, thus indicating the reverence for the triple symbol, — ^another instance of which occurs on the hill known as Lapham's Peak, on whose lofty anmniit three artificial mounds were found, carefully constructed ot stone and earth, — materials which must have been transported thither with very great labour.
Whatever may have been the origin of these huge serpent- shaped mounds, their existence seems to suggest a clue to the meaning of various ancient legends concerning enormous serpents which covered acres of land; the very fact of their dimensions
B
50 IN THE HEBRIDES.
being given in terms of land-measurement seeming to imply that the writers merely alluded in poetic terms to Ophite or Draconite temples where these symbols were worshipped.
Thus we hear of Dragons in Mauritania so great that they were covered with grass. Alexander the Great was taken to see a Sacred Dragon five acres in extent, lying in a low valley, surrounded by a high wall : to it the Indians offered sacrifices of flocks and herds. Strabo mentions two such Dragons in India, one measuring eighty cubits in length, the other a hundred and forty. And on the plains of Syria, near the land of Snake-adoring Hivites, lay a Serpent about an acre in length, of such bulk that two horsemen riding on cither side could not see each other, while its mouth was so great that a man might ride in thereat — an experiment not likely to be tried ii^ere the reptile a living creature !
But all these are dwarfed by the legendary Dragon of Damascus, which is described as a serpent covering fifty acres of land ! a description which Bryant interprets as including a grove and garden round the Ophite temple. He also quotes Ovid's account of the serpent Python, as covering several acres, alluding surely, not to the serpent itself, but to that temple of Delphi which Apollo built with great stones on the spot where he had slain the Python — ^a temple which Stukeley infers to have been similar to our own great temple of Avebury or Aubury in Wiltshire, t. e, two small double circles within one large circle whence started two wavy serpentine avenues, forming the Ophite symbol ; and although hi^ theories on this subject are now commonly held in ridicule, it should at least be remembered that the form was far more perfect in his day (1 723) than it now is, many great stones having been broken up by farmers in his time, and this ruthless work of destruc- tion, still continuing mercilessly when Deane wrote in 1830, so that where Stukeley counted a hundred upright stones, Deane saw only eight, and similar devastation was everywhere evident.
In our own British Isles comparatively few traces of Serpeut- worship are to be found ; yet, considering how commonly the ador- ation of Sun and Serpent are linked together — that both are said to have been reverenced by the Druids — and that in all countries where
ENGLISH DRAGON LEGENDS. 51
the worship of the Serpent haa prevailed (as in Greece, Italy and Uindo^tan) he was, or is, always recognized as a Gom-god,^ to whom special offerings must be made at seed-time and in harvest — it iA worthy of note that, till within the last century all manner of customs for the good of the crops, were kept up, on the days which in olden times were observed as Sun-festivals.
Moreover, in the shadowy mythology of early Britain, we hear of a god Hu, who was worshipped as the Dragon-ruler of the world, and whose car was drawn by serpents : there was also a goddess Ccridwen answering to Ceres, who had a car similarly yoked with a serpentine team.^
An inference of the same sort may be drawn from a veiy curious old Bardic poem, concerning Uther Pendrigon, the Wonderful Dragon,^ descriptive of the religious rites of the early English, wherein the worshipper, while calling on Bel, the Dragon Ring, describes himself as making the orthodox turn sunwise^ first round the consecrated lake, then round the sanctuary, whereon is depicted the gliding king ; while within the sacred circle of huge stones, the Great Dragon (evidently a living serpent) moves round over the vessels containing the drink-offering — whence it may be inferred that
' Even in the far away isolated Fijian Isles the Serpent-Gk)d Raitomaibulu was worshipped as Lord of Life, and God of the Crops.
* Ceridwen, This was the goddess in whose honour our ancestors used to dress up an image made of com, and crowned with flowers, which was carried borne triumphantly with the last load of com ; while the reapers sang the song of harvest home, to the music of pipes and drums.
A trace of this old custom still lingers in some of the northern counties of England, where the " Cam," or com baby, still figures at the harvest-home, which is commonly called the Cam-Supper— a name apparently not derived from Cora, but from Cameus, under which 'name the Sun-God was sometimes worshipped by the Celts (as in the far East, Krishna the Sun-God, is always worshipped as Cama, ^ the Radiant One "). This name is preserved in the Annoric temple of Camac, while m the Gaetic we have Camadi,— and sacred bonfires were Cam-fires. Hence too, the Roman Spring-festival of the Carnival, with its mad mirth. The alteration of the word to Came-vale, ** adieu to flesh/' was simply the usual expedient of adapting Pagan feasts to Christian uses.
> Quoted in * The Worship of the Serpent,* by the Rev. J. B. Deana
E 2
52 IN THE HEBRIDES.
the British Druids, like the Syrian Ophites, and Egyptian wor- shippers of Isis and Bacchus, encouraged the serpent to glide over the gifts on the altar.
Mr. Deane notices, as a curious coincidence, that the word draig, here translated dragon, signifies also the Supreme God. Also that, in one of these poems the priest enumerates his own titles as a Druid, a Prophet, a Serpent, Hence it seems probable, that the numerous legends which tell of the early Christian saints having conquered serpents (as when St. Hilda changed all the Yorkshire snakes into Ammonites, when St. Patrick banished them from Ireland, and St Columba from lona, while St. Keyna changed those of Somersetshire into upright stones), had reference to the con- version or expulsion of their worshippers.
It may be, that the great mound lying before us, beside the dark mountain tarn, may have been just such a temple as this old bard describes, and that within the circle of stones, a living serpent may in truth have glided over the offerings of a people, taught by these priests of an Oriental faith to unite this worship with that of the great Day Star ; a people who day by day gathered round this strange altar, while watching for the first streak of dawn in the eastern sky — the first glowing ray which, gilding Ben Cruachan's triple peak, told them that the great Life-giving Sun-god had once more arisen to gladden the earth.
Perhaps we ought rather to say Sun-goddess, inasmuch as Sun and Mountain are alike feminine in the Gaelic tongue.
It is a strange vision that rises before us, as our fancy pictures this gloomy valley beside the dark waters, not silent and solitary as now, but thronged with worshippers, congregating from every re- mote comer of hill and valley to witness the awful sacrifices which white-robed priests with shaven crowns, ofiTered upon the mystic altar, in presence of the Mountain and the Dragon.
Whatever may have been the true origin of this snake rever- ence in Britain, certain it is that in countless old Gaelic legends of the West Coast and of the Hebrides, the serpent holds a place of such importance, as we can hardly imagine to have been acquired by such puny representatives of the race as are to be found on ou
INDIAN DRAGON-LEGENDS. 53
British moors, though we are bound to confess that Ben Cruachan does give shelter to an unwonted multitude of small adders. And although Hugh Miller tells of the existence of fossil Saurians in the Isle of Eigg, we can hardly give our ancestors credit for pushing their geiilogical researches so far, or for tracing their traditions from such pre-Adamite sources. — It certainly is remarkable that almost all these legends are also to be found in the folk-lore of India and Persia.
Thus the story of how Fraoch, for the sake of his golden-haired love, fought with, and killed, and was killed by, a terrible water- snake which infested Loch Awe, has its counterpart in the history of Krishna, the Indian Sun-god, who for love of the pretty milk- maids, fought a terrible battle d, Foutrance with the black water- serpent, which poisoned the blue waters of the sacred Jumna, coming up thence to devour the herds which pastured between Muttra and Bindrabund. More fortunate than Fraoch, Krishna slew his foe without receiving dire injury himself, though his heel was bitten in the conflict.
When the dragon was dead, his carcase dried up, and became a mountain, whereon children played in peace, a happy termination to the story, and one which possibly alluded to some serpent or dragon-shaped mound, which may have existed on the shores of the Jumna, just as this does here, on the brink of Loch NeU. The Indian story goes on to tell that men and animals afterwards sought refuge with Krishna within the serpent's head — a story which seems to refer to some custom of sacrifice, or possibly of self-immolation, and which tallies curiously with the Gaelic tradition before alluded to, which points out the Argyleshire Serpent Mound as an ancient place of execution or sacrifice.
Very remarkable is the place of the Serpent in the Medicinal lore of almost all lands. In Cashmere, for instance (where in bygone times the worship of the Naga — the Divine-Snake — was formerly so prevalent, that in the time of Akbar, a.d. 1560, there were in that kingdom forty-five temples devoted exclusively to his service, while in seven hundred others there were carved images of him, which received due share of adoration), the descendants of
54 IN THE HEBRIDES.
the Kaga tribes are to this day remarkable for their medical skill, and possession of healing arts and nostrums, which their ancestors (in common with Esculapius), received from the health-giving Serpent.
The same skill in healing, is attributed to him, by many nations. The Celts acquired their medical lore by ^drinking serpent-broth ; the Mexicans hung snake-bones round the neck of the sick; in Pegu, at the birth of a child, a snake's tongue is tied within a tiny bell and hung round the baby's neck as a preventive of sickness and harm. And in many parts of India it is customary, in cases of illness, to make a serpent of clay or metal, literally a brazen serpent, and offer sacrifice to it on behalf of the sufferer.
In various Gaelic legends a white snake figures in this connection. Thus, when a nest of seven serpents is discovered, containing six brown adders and one jnire white ane, the latter caught and boiled, confers the gift of omniscience, on the first man who tastes of this serpent "bree" (broth), and who thereafter, becomes the wisest of doctors. This identiciU story occurs also in the German folk-lore. I have also heard it asserted that to this day both Arabs and Hindoos eat the heart and liver of serpents, hoping thereby to acquire a knowledge of the language of animals.
In all old Gaelic legends great reverence was always due to the White Snake, which was described as the king of snakes. It is believed by some of the old Highlanders still to exist in the land — a faith which is occasionally confirmed by the appearance of a silvery gray specimen. In Ceylon a silvery white snake is some- times found, which the natives likewise recognize as the King of the Cobras, and venerate exceedingly. I have myself seen one of these, the sanctity of which was duly impressed on me. The Arabs of Mount Ararat have also a story of a great white snake, and of a royal race of serpents, to which all others do homage.
One after another these quaint legends rose to our minds as we looked down on the grim old Guardian of Glen Feochan, revealing himself alternately as a thing of darkness and of light, in every changing aspect of the hour. Xow and then a sharp sudden shower swept over the liills, casting deep cloud-shadows on land and loch ;
THE DRAGON OF LOCH NELL. 55
then the sun once more buisi forth^ Bheddiog a golden glorj oyer the purples, browns, and golds, of the many-tinted moorland.
Bat the dragon cared neither for sun nor showers. He lay still in his place, couching by the waters, and keeping ceaseless vigil, as he had already done for centuries untold, and as doubtless he will continue to do, till some mighty convulsion shall shake the strong foundations of the earth, and bury him beneath the tumbled fragments of the hills.
CHAPTER III. lONA.
Sacred Isles— The Druid's Holy Isle— Brighit, the Fire Goddess— Traces of Pagan Customs- The 360 Grosses— Rude Stone Monuments— 360 Sacred Stones at Mecca — Black Stones— Magic Crystals — ^Solar Turns— St. Columba— His Work— His Death— Tonsure— Book of Battles— Jacob's Pillow — ^The Reilig Orain — The Nunnery— Massacre of the Monks— The Ruins— The Inn— Jackdaws — Hill of Dunii — Druidic Circle— The Bay of the Boat — Pagan Baptism.
AnONO the very varied phases of ecclesiastical life, which we find in various comers of the earth, there is one which seems to me to be especially attractive, wherever found — from a romantic and picturesque point of view. I allude to those Holy Isles which representatives of divers creeds, in widely>distant countries, have selected as their homes — the centres from which to spread their particular form of religious teaching.
Such are the sacred isles of the Buddhists, both of China and Japan — the Isle of Putoo, with its thousand quaint temples and monasteries, and innumerable throng of yellow or lilac-robed monks and priests, arrayed in vestments as elaborate as is the ritual they celebrate. Such too is the fascinating Holy Isle of Enoahima, to which all good Japanese make devout pilgrimage as often as they can allow themselves so pleasant a holiday. It is a most lovely spot, where all is pretty, and bright, and externally fascinating.
THE BLESSED ISLE. 57
Very different is the charm which attaches to the Holy Isles of our own grey shores, — deeper seated, we would fain believe, — but by no means so apparent on the surface. Northumbria claims as her own, the Holy Isle of Lindisfame, for ever hallowed by the presence of St. Cuthbert, — ^the beads of whose rosary, multiplying miraculously, still strew the storm-swept shores.'
Celebrated as was the Holy Isle of the East Coast, that of the West was still more famous, and I need hardly say that one of our chief objects in visiting the Hebrides was to make our pilgrimage from Oban to lona, that little lonely isle round which such count- less memories have clustered from all ages ; once the Holy Isle of the Druids, and held most sacred by our Pagan forefathers, and in later ages, that is to say, some thirteen hundred years ago, so hal- lowed by the burning and shining light of that most energetic of saints, — Columba, — that all races of northern Europe made pil- grimage thither, in constant succession.
Though best known to us as lona, the Island is spoken of in all the oldest Irish annals simply as I or Hii, la, lo, Hy, Y or Yi — with that remarkably varied speUing, so characteristic of old manu- scripts,—a title denoting The Isle par excellence. Sometimes it was called Ithona, the Isle of the Waves, and sometimes Ishona, the Blessed Isle.
What attraction it can have offered, to induce the priests of the San to select it as their abode, it is hard to imagine, but, from time immemorial, it was known as the Sacred Isle of the Druids — the Inia Druineach or !Nan Druihean, ^ the Druid's Isle," by which name It is known to the Highlanders of the present day. The Sons of Erin also retained the old name, and long after St. Columba's time, they still spoke of the Holy Isle as the Eilean Drunish.
It certainly is a strangely perplexing mystery, to find an in- significant little island, in this remote comer of the earth, exalted to a position of such extraordinary honour, — an island situated in a
^ St Cuthbert's beads. Single joints of the encrinite or stone-Iily, Tvashed from the fossiliferous rocks by the action of the waves. These sections are star-shaped, cruciform, or circular, and being naturally perforated, were highly prized, and strung as pilgrims' rosaries.
58 IN THE HEBRIDES.
region where the skies are proverbially grey — where rain and mist by turns enfold the land, and where, for weeks in succession, the great Sun does not vouchsafe one unclouded ray to gladden his most devout worshippers.
One can understand that zealous priests of the Sun-God should make their way to the mainland of Britain, afi missionaries of every manner of creed, are content to devote their lives to the spread of the faith they hold true, no matter how uninviting their surround- ings (and we cannot suppose that the white-robed Druid priests found our ancestors in their very cool full-dress of blue-wode, with the possible addition of a wolf-skin, altogether congenial companions !).
Whatever we know Df these Druid teachers, seems to suggest their having been of Eastern origin, notwithstanding Csesar's state- ment that they were supposed to be an indigenous product of Britain, and that persons wishing to study their tenets generally went from Gaul to Britain for that purpose. We are told that they derived their name from the oak-groves in which they taught the people to worship.^ Yet the golden knives with which they cut the sacred mistletoe were assuredly not indigenous, nor was the familiar use of the Greek alphabet, in which they recorded all public and private affairs, save such as related to their religion (ibr these they deemed it unhallowed to commit to writing) — a religion which emphatically taught the doctrines of immortality and of the transmigration of souls.
Surely the mere existence on these cold grey shores of a white- robed priesthood, crowned with garlands of oak-leaves, who min- istered barefooted in unroofed temples open to every storm of heaven — astrologers, familiar with all the mysteries of the starry heavens — ^magicians who worked miracles by the use of magic crystals, and whose most potent talismans were ring-shaped '' adder's stones " supposed to be formed of the crystallized saliva of serpents ; — surely all these things bespeak the traditions of men who had originally wandered to Britain from some warmer, sunnier clime.
#
^ The name uf Derwydd^ a Druid, is said to be derived from derw, which in Celtic (Welsh) signifies an oak-tree.
THE ISLES OF BRIDGIT. 59
We may gather a hint to the same effect, from the symbols which we find sculptured on some ancient memorial stones of Pagan Britain. Not only do we find elaborately-carved crescents, discs, double wheels, linked together by a royal sceptre, such as might naturally suggest themselves as emblems of the sun, but we also find Fish, Geese, Serpents, and highly idealized Elephants and Camels,^ the three last-named being creatures which would scarcely have presented themselves to the minds of our ancestors had not aome tradition of these creatures reached them from the eastern world. It is, therefore, very remarkable to find that the Elephant, the Crescent, the Serpent, and the Goose, are sacred symbols, of very frequent recurrence on the sculptured stones of Ceylon, where a planetary worship (strangely similar to that which seems to have been the ancient religion of Britain) has prevailed from time uumemoriaL
So very little is positively known concerning the Druids that it is rather by inference, and by noting such traces of their teaching as long survived in those Isles, that we gather even a vague, shadowy image of the wise men and their tenets. Only from some slight allnjsions in the classics, and from the somewhat apocryphal old Celtic chronicles, do we gather something of their mythology, and of the names and attributes of their deities.
One of these was the goddess Brighit, to whose special care were committed all the Hebrides or Ey-Brides, that is The Isles of Brighit or Bridgit. To her, in her Christianized form, are also dedicated six parishes on the mainland of Scotland, while the name of Kilbride, the Cell of Bridget, occurs eighteen times, and the name also appears as Fan-Bride and Llan-Bride (in Morayshire). The latter name tells its own story of the dubious saint, Llan being simply the sacred grove of the Druids, hence Llan-Bride is the grove of Brighit, the Celtic goddess. Her temples were attended by virgins of noble birth, called the daughters of' fire, or sometimes merely Breochuidh, the fire-keepers. Like the ancient Persians, they fed this fire only with one kind of peeled wood, and might never breathe upon the sacred flame. The ancient Irish are said to
^ The camel is carved on the old cross on the Isle of Canna.
60 IN THE HEBRIDES.
have 80 greatly reverenced all fire that they would not even put out a candle without uttering a prayer that the Lord would renew to them light from heaven.
When Cliristianity began to make its difficult way in these isles, it was so impossible to wean these vestal virgins from their post, that it was found simpler to institute a Christian Order of Nuns of St. Bridgit. To one of St. Patrick's converts was assigned this delicate work of -adapting things old to new meanings. St. Bridgit accordingly took up her abode in the grove of sacred oaks, where the people were accustomed to worship the goddess, and here she instructed them in the new faith. The vestal virgins were thus transformed into the first Christian community of religious women, and the temple of Bridgit at Kildare, became a great convent.
To these Christian nuns was entrusted the care of the sacred fire, which from time immemorial had been kept burning in honour of the Celtic goddess. When, on the Eve of Good Friday, all other churches and convents extinguished their fire, not relighting it till Easter Eve, the nuns of St. Bridgit always kept theirs steadily burning, a practice which Giraldus Cambrensis says he knows not whether to attribute to a desire to have warmth and food always ready to bestow on all pilgrims and poor people, or whether it was done in obedience to the Levitical command that the fire should be ever burning on the altar, and never go out
Thus the fire of Bridgit was kept perpetually burning, till the year 1220, when it was extinguished by order of the Archbishop of Dublin to avoid superstition and scandal So great, however, was the veneration in which it was held by the people, that it was speedily rekindled, and was kept burning steadily until the mon- astery was suppressed in the time of Henry VIII. The ruins of the Fire House are still, or were till recently, to be seen.
This is all that I can gather concerning the protecting goddess of the Hebrides, whose worship, as also that of Baal the Sun-god, and Neitlie the goddess of Wells, was so deeply rooted throughout the British Isles, that even now, traces of the old superstitions survive, and occasionally crop up, to the disgust of the schoolmaster, and the delight of the antiquarian.
OFFERINGS TO THE EARTH-SPIRITS. 61
Even on lona itself, which became so emphatically the centre of Qinstian teaching, many long years elapsed ere all traces of the ancient faith were swept away. Even in the last century, Pennant ^ was told by Bishop Pocock, that on the Eve of St. Michael, the islanders brought all their horses to a small green hillock, whereon stood a circle of stones, surrounding a cairn. Bound this hill, they cU made the turn simunse, thus unwittingly dedicating their horses to the son. The Bishop also spoke of a remarkable cromlech, consisting of two stones seven feet in height, with a third laid across them.
Another old legend of the Isle, quoted by several writers of the last century,^ tells of a circular Druidic temple which has now disappeared (at least, we failed to find it). It consists of twelve great stones, beneath each of which a human victim was buried. That this may have been the case is probable, as Sir Walter Scott has told us that the Picts thus bathed the foundation of their strong buildings in blood, as a propitiation to the spirits of the earth, and that sometimes a human body was thus buried beneath the foundation stone; sometimes only that of an animal. The Welsh too, in building their strong forts, found it necessary thus to appease the earth-spirits, otherwise they would demolish by night, whatever was built during the day.
St. Columba himself has, very unfairly, been credited with another legend, which assuredly belongs to pre-Christian times. It is said that when he and his followers commenced building their chapel (the first Christian Church on the Druid Isle) the power of the evil spirit so prevailed, that the walls were overthrown as fast as they were raised. Then it was revealed to the perplexed saint, that a compromise must be made, and one last sacrifice offered to the powers of eviL Oran having generously devoted his own life to the good cause was interred alive, and remained three days in the grave. On the third day, St. Columba, wishing for one last look
1 Pennant, Id common with our older archaeologists, here used the word cromlech, which, however, is now rather applied to circles of standing stones (Celtic, erom, a circle ; lech, a stone)— these trilithons being more ^>propri- alely called dolmens (Celtic, daul^ a table ; mam, a stone).
* Ledwich, Fosbrook, and Higgios.
62 IK THE HEBRIDES.
at his friend, caused the earth and stones to be removed, when, to the amazement of all, Oran sat up, and spake, revealing strange stories of the border land, more especially that the doctrine of Hell, as commonly understood, was a mere fiction of priestcraft, having no real existence. St. Columba having a firm faith in the Eternity of Evil, could by no means suflTer such revelations to proceed, so he ordered the earth to bo thrown in again, and the voice from th6 tomb was silenced. You see he lived in the Dark Ages, before the Spirit of Enquiry was fully awakened.
Certain it is that the little church which was rebuilt on the ver) site of this original chapel, and is the oldest Christian building on the Isle, is dedicated to the Saint, who is said to have here endured this voluntary martyrdom.^
At first sight it appears somewhat strange that the long occupa- tion of the Isle by the Druids, should have left so little mark, whereas on the far less noted Isle of Lewis, there still remain such very remarkable Druidic remains as those at Callemish or Loch Bemera, where various monolithic circles, avenues, and a semi-circle, I'emain to puzzle autiquarian& There are tumuli, and menhirs, one of tne latter being twenty feet high, and broad in proportion. Most of the stones, however, only average four feet in height.
The most remarkable feature in the Callernish stones is a circle, sixty -three feet in diameter, formed by twelve stones, with a large central obelisk. It is supposed that this circle represented the sun, and that the twelve stones were the twelve signs of the Zodiac. From this circle four lines of upright stones extend towards the four points of the compass. One of these lines is double, and, moreover, twice the length of the other three ; thus producing the form of the Christian cross. Within the circle are two small chambers built of stone.
We have seen that a similar Sun-temple, «. e. a circle formed by twelve great stones, remained in lona till the eighteenth century, and we may well believe that when the island passed into the
* In Borneo, and in various groups of South Pacific Isles, it waf», till very recently, customary thus to bury victims beside each post of the chief's house, or of a new temple.
THE 360 GBEAT STONES. 63
hands of teachers of another creed, many of the ancient monuments were qaicklj tamed to account in building and in other ways.
But the most remarkable adaptation of old objects of reverence by the new-comers, was that which appears to me to account beyond doubt, for the existence on this tiny isle of no loss than 360 senlpiwed stone crosses, which remained till a.d. 1560, when, by the bigotry of the Protestant Synod of Argylo, they were pronounced to be '* monuments of idolatrie," and the fiat went forth, that all should be cast into the sea. Some, however, were happily rescued and taken to old churchyards and market-places in the neighbouring isles, or on the mainland. They were all very similar, being tall monoliths, generally of whinstone (a hard grey stone, which is little affected by the rains and frosts of centuries), and covered with intricate designs. Some were very elaborate round-headed crosses ; on others, the round-headed cross was simply carved on the slab.
Now it is exceedingly improbable that the missionary brethren of lona would have expended their energies on quarrying 360 great blocks of whinstone, in order to carve such a multiplicity of crosses, without any apparent object. But supposing they found the 360 monoliths already erected, and receiving idolatrous worship from the people, nothing could have been more in accordance with the ordinary practice of those days, than to transform these menhirs into crosses, thereby turning these memorials of a heathen worship to Christian uses.
We know that in all parts of the kingdom, these sacred stones were (by order of Pope Gregory, a.d. 601), sprinkled with holy water ; and thus sanctified, while the people were still permitted to offer sacrifices of blood, according to their old customs. The edict declares that, as it is impossible to efface old customs from the obdurate minds of the Britons, they may on great festivals continue to build themselves booths and huts with boughs of trees, round about such old Pagan temples as have been sanctified by the sprinkling of holy water, and may there continue to sacrifice and feast on the flesh of cattle.
Thus in speaking of the first dawn of Christianity in Armorica,
64 IN THE HEBRIDES.
Souvestre says, " On lui haptlsa sea idoles, pour qu^dle put eon- tinuer a les adorer. Ce fut ainsi que, ne pouvanf deraciner lea Menhirftf on lea fit Chretiens, en lea aurmontant d'une Croix, ainsi que Von subafitua leafeux de Saint Jean d ceux qui a*alJumaient en Vhonneur du aoleiV* Thus the people might continue to oflfer sacrifice to the gods of their fathers, while bearing the name of Christians !
In Ireland too, Borlase has told us how Crosses were carved on old Druidic monuments, that the people who could not give up their superstitious reverence for these stones, might henceforth pay them a sort of justifiable adoration, as Christian memorials ! Doubtless the same history belongs to those tall monoliths, sur- mounted by a roughly hewn Cross and Circle, which stand by themselves, on the barren heaths of Cornwall, with no trace of human work near, except the ancient Celtic barrows, and grey weather-beaten Druidic stones.
So also, in Scotland, we still find great menhirs, such as those at Meigle and Aberlemnie, where the Cross appears in combination with many Pagan emblems ; serpents, large fish, centaur, mirror and comb,^ and sun-circles; — or that at Deir in Aberdeenshire,
> The appearance of The Comb among the sacred emblems is puzzling. But far more so is it, to he ohliged to infer that it was one of the ohjects of Pagan veneration, which the early Christian teachers deemed it expedient to adopt, giving it a new meaning. What that symbolism may have been, we fail to learn. We only know that the comb, formerly used in divination and referred to in many old legends, did in Christian days, acquire some such strange sanctity, that we find it mentioned among the appliances once needed at solemn High Mass, more especially when sung by a Bishop, in which case a comb was always essential. Sometimes it was made of ivory ; sometimes quite plain ; some were adorned with elaborate carving, and even gemmed with previous stones! Both in English and foreign cathedrals they were reckoned as ecclesiastical furniture, and numbered among the costly posses- sions of the Church
A list of many such ritual combs is given by Dr. Rock,^ as having belonged to St. Cuthbert, St Neot, St. Dunstan, Malachias, and other saints. Various other combs were long preserved at Durham, Canterbury, Glastonbury, and other holy minsters. At Thetford, in the church of St Sepulchre, you may
^ * The Church of our Fathers.' By Mr. Daniel Rock.
TOMB'TEMPLES OF MANY LANDS. &5
engraven on one side with a rude Cross, but on the other with the circle, crescent, or double-wheel, crossed by a royal sceptre, emblem- atic of the worship of sun, moon, and planets. Even on the more advanced round-headed Cross we find the same strange mixture of Christian and Pagan emblems, commemorating both faiths, and blending them in the minds of the worshippers in a manner as intricate as is the intertwining of the Eunic knots, which so mysteriously interlace the whole.
To judge of the full significance of the number of the 360 stone crosses of lona, it is necessary to compare them with the traces of ancient worship of the same character in other lands, so, without pausing at Stonehenge or Camac, or other noted spots in Britain or Brittany, we may glance at Northern Africa, where, near Carthage, the circle and crescent are found carved as emblems of sun and moon, just as on the British monuments.
Algeria has been discovered to abound in every known form of rude stone monument. At Eoknia three thousand monoliths are grouped together, as if in a vast city of the dead, while near Constantiue, and in the district around S^tif, their number has been calculated at ten thousand, including some stones so gigantic, that one is described as fifty-two feet high and twenty- six in diameter at the base ; while we hear of a dolmen near Tiaret, the cap>8tone of which is sixty-five feet long, by twenty-six feet broad, and upwards of nine feet thick — a rock-mass, which is poised on boulders of thirty to forty feet high.^
Tripoli likewise possesses many of these mysterious remains; more especially certain groups of three great stones, so placed as
stfll see the comb of St. Thomas, the martyr of Canterbury, and at Durham that of St Cuthbert, which was fomid inside his cofiin. Certainly if history qteaks truly oonceraing these holy men, their combs were in no danger of wearing out from overmuch use I
We find, however, that combing the hair of the priest or bishop was one of the offices performed by the inferior clergy not only once, in the vestry— but several times during Divine Service ! Surely the custom of hair-dressing at the Christian altar could never have been of indigenous growth, but must rather have sprung from some old pagan rite of unknown import.
^ ' Biu)e Stone Monuments.' Feigusson.
66 IN THE HEBRIDES.
to form high, narrow doorways ; so narrow, however, is the space between the upright stones, that a man of average size can hardly squeeze his way through between them ; — truly " strait and narrow gateways."
The discovery of these African monuments is the more curious, as suggesting that some forgotten tradition may have inspired old Geoffrey of Monmouth's assertion, that ^* giants in old days brought from Africa the stones which the magic art of Merlin afterwards removed from Kildare, and set up at Stonehenge." The latter, you will remember, is the only place in Britain where these trilithons exist, though the ordinary dolmen is so common in Cornwall and elsewhere. They have, however, been discovered in various countries, and I have myself seen in one of the Friendly Isles, a very remarkable cyclopean trilithon, concerning which the present race have no tradition. It differs from all others, in that the great stones are hewn, and the cap-stone is let into the two uprights, and this in a country to whose people no metal is known, and whose only buildings are of reeds and timber.^ In fact the huge stones must have been quarried, and carried from afar.
To pass onward to Hindostan. In Malabar wo find dolmens con- sisting of one huge stone poised on two upright ones, differing only in size from one which Bishop Pocock saw in lona. There is not one form of cyclopean monument known in the British Isles, or in France, which does not also exist both in Northern and Southern India, either for worship or for sepulture ; oblongs, circles, parallel lines, and many little circles within one large circle.
In - Northern India, the place accounted most holy by the sun- worshipping Santhals (the noblest of the primitive races), is at Byjnatb in Bengal, near three huge monoliths of gneiss rock. Two of these are vertical The third lies horizontally across the uprights.
In the Xassia hills near Assam, monuments of this class, sometimes accompanied by gigantic monoliths, are erected in the present day, by one at least of the wild aboriginal tribes, as places
^ I have given a photo^ph of this veiy mysterious object in ' A Lady's Clause in a French man-of-war.' Blackwood and Sons.
MODERN MONOLITHIO TEMPLES. 67
of sepulture. In this case the monoliths are erected in honour of the dead, whose spirits are invoked in cases of sickness or trouble.
The close analogy between these modem dolmens and monoliths of the East, with ancient remains elsewhere, has led to the some- what rash conclusion, that all our so-called Druidic temples were, like the tumuli, simply places of sepulture, or commemorative of the dead, or of some great event. Considering the well-known tendency to ancestor- worship which from all ages has pervaded all nations, no inference can be more natural than that the places of sepulture should become places of worship. Moreover, why a similar analogy in favour of the temple theory ^ may not he drawn from the circles of Bombay, which are undoubtedly places of worship, it is hard to say.
The circles to which I allude are to be found at various villages in the Presidency of Bombay, notably near Poonah, where the people continue to erect great stone circles near the Brahmin temples, and there offer sacrifice, every man for himself in defiance of the Hindoo priests, who vainly strive to put down a form of superstition which requires no priestly intervention.
The worshippers at these shrines are descendants of the primitive inhabitants of India, who held the land long before the Aryan conquerors had found their way, either to Britain or to Hindostan. Just as in Scotland the people continued obstinately for many centuries to sacrifice red cocks, and occasionally goats, to demons, in defiance of all the threats and persuasions of Christian teachers, so do these Indian tribes persist in the sacrifice of red cocks and goats to Betal, whose worship has for centuries been condemned by the Brahmins as being devil-worship, but which has still been kept up sub rosoy and now that religious toleration has been secured, the people are returning to their first love, and demon-worship is regaining the ascendancy.
The worship of Betal is wide-spread, extending to Guzerat and Cutch. (Fanciful as must be such a connection of ideas, his name is certainly suggestive of that temple of Botallick in Cornwall, where a stone circle still exists, precisely like these at Poonah, having three
principal stones placed facing the east, and one piaced quite outside
r 2
68 IN THE HEBRIDES.
ths circle.) Those at Poonah are painted white, having a great daub of red paint, with a darker spot in the middle, dashed on the upper end of each stone, to represent the blood of the sacrifices. This red spot invariably faces the rising sun.
Passing from Hindostan to Persia, the chosjBn home of the symbolic worship of Sun and Fire, we there find many circles of great stones, some of which must have been carried from long distances. There are also tall monoliths which the people reverence as having been the sacred stones of ancient Fire Temples.
Crossing the Persian Gulf, we enter Arabia. There Palgrave discovered tall trilithons in connection with circles of great monoliths, and placed, as at Stonehenge, facing the north-east.
I have thus glanced at the rude stone monuments of so many countries in which planetary worship has held sway, in order to show that there is nothing very improbable in tracing a startling resemblance between objects of veneration in the Holy Isle of the Hebrides and those which were held in deepest reverence in Arabia for countless generations before Mahomet arose to overthrow idolatry and divert the worship of the people into a new channel.
The Kaaba at Mecca (which to all good Mahomedans is as sacred as was the Holy of Holies to the Israelite) had, from time imme- morial, been accounted by all the people of Arabia, to be the very portal of Heaven. Until the time of Mahomet, it was surrounded by 360 rude unsculptured monolithSf which, to the degenerate Arabs, had become objects of actual worship, and in presence of which, they were wont to sacrifice red cocks to the sun (just as the people in these Western Isles have continued to do, almost to the present day, though of course in ignorance of the original meaning of this ancestral custom).
More unflinching than the Christian reformers of lona, Mahomet would admit of no compromise. Like the Synod of Argyle, he resolved on the destruction of these '' monuments of idolatrie," and so bis iconoclastic followers did his bidding, and destroyed them utterly.
Nevertheless, he still allowed his converts to retain their custom of walking seven times in procession, Deisul, ue. Sunwise, round the
THE 360 MONOLITHS AT MECCA* 69
Kaaba itself^ in reyerence for Abraham and Ishmael, who had re* built it after the deluge.
Like all the most sacred shrines of primitive worship, it is a tiny sanctum, measuring only eighteen paces in length, by fourteen in width ; and though the /aithfol have overlaid its doors with silver, and year by year cover it with new silken hangings, its very essence lies in its simplicity.
For the original Kaaba was a tabernacle of radiant clouds, which came down from heaven in answer to the prayer of Adam, who besought the restoration of that shrine where he had been wont to worship in Paradise, and around which he had so often seen the angels move in adoring procession. When, therefore, the cloud temple was restored to him, he daily walked round it seven times suntoisey in imitation of the angels.
On the death of Adam, this tabernacle returned to heaven, but one resembling its tent-like form, was built by Seth : being destroyed by the Deluge, it was subsequently rebuilt by Abraham, to whom the Angel Gabriel brought a precious black stone from Paradise, to be inserted in a comer of the outer wall, and adored and reverently kissed by the faithful This stone is a meteoric stone of oval form, and is described as a fragment of reddish black volcanic basalt sprinkled with coloured crystals. Its dimensions are six by eight inches. It is encircled by a silver band, and is built into the wall at about four feet from the ground, and has attained a high polish from the lips and impressive kisses of ten thousand times ten thousand worshippers.
Strange to say, long before Mahomet's public career had com- menced, ho was chosen by the people as the most fit person to lift this sacred stone into its place as Chief Comer Stone of the outer wall, when the Kaaba had undergone some necessary repairs. Being thus a standing proof of the honour in which he himself had been held, Mahomet could not find it in his heart to destroy this Heaven-given aerolite (probably even he, would not have dared to do so), and as he could not possibly induce the Arabs to abstain from worshipping it, he permitted them still to do it homage, and so, to the present day, the vast throngs of reverent pilgrims
70 IN THE HEBRIDES.
kiss it reverently each time they pass it, as they make their seven sunwise circuits round the shrine.
Strange to say, this black stone also had its counterpart in lona. It was preserved in the cathedral, till the year 1830, when it mysteriously disappeared, having probably been stolen by some sacrilegious relic-coUector. In such reverence was it held, that on it solemn oaths were sworn and agreements ratified. A similar black stone, lying close to the sea, also received worship in the Hebrides till a comparatively recent date. Sir Walter Scott says it was supposed to be oracular, and to answer whatever questions might be asked, by means of the secret influence it exercised on the mind of the^nquirer. It lay on the sea-shore, and the people never approached it without certain solemnities.
(Several such unhewn Black Stones are objects of reverence to millions of our Indian fellow-subjects. In the Eajmahal hills, such an one represents their chief deity, and receives sacrifices of goats and of fowls in all 'times of sickness or other affliction. Moreover, one of the most sacred forms under which Juggernaut is worshipped is that of a shapeless black stone, unhewn, with diamonds let in, as eyes. It must be remembered that Juggernaut, with his many- wheeled cars, rolling in solemn sunwise procession, is held to be symbolic of the sun. In one of the great courts of his principal temple in Southern India is another most sacred black stone, brought by his worshippera from the old temple at Kanarak. This is a monolith 150 feet high, sculptured to the form of a stately pillar. Such pillars, we are told, were common in Southern India even half a century ago, but most of them have been destroyed by the ruthless ravages of Mahomedans and other zealots.)
Apart from such exceptionally sacred stones, as that black stone
of lona, whose fame attracted worshippers from afar, each village
in the Highlands is said to have had its rough unhewn stone, called
the Gruagach stone,^ where, till very recent times, the villagers
^ Gruagach, ^ The fair-headed.' Many places onoe sacred to this goddess still retain her name ; e. g. Greenock, aluu Grian-chnoc, the knoll of the Sun ; Bal-green or Baile-greine, the town of the Sun ; Grenach or Grian-achaidh, the field of the Sun (a circle of Dniidic stones in Perthshire ; and Clach-na- greine, or the stone of the Sun, a great Druidic cairn on Isle Bemera ; also
THE BLACK STONES OF MECCA, IS6, AND lONA. 71
ponied out libations of milk on every day consecrated to Graine or Grian, the golden-haired Celtic Sun-goddess (just as we now see the Hindoos pour their daily offerings of milk, flowers, and water, on a similar rough unhewn stone, wherein their god is supposed to be present, and which invariably occupies a place of honour in every village). I do not know whether any of these stones still remain in The Isles, but we are told, that not many years ago, there was scarcely a village in the Hebrides where the Gruagach stone was not still held in some sort of reverence.^ Even in the last century, libations of milk were poured on these stones at dawn every Sunday as a preliminary to Christian worship !
Now look to Japan, where the National Eeligion (Shinto) is the simplest form of Nature-worship, and where a mirror of highly polished metal, and a ^lobe of polished crystal, both symbols of the Sun-goddess, are the sole objects of veneration to be seen in every Shinto temple — ^being reproductions of the Heaven-bestowed Mirror and Crystal Globe so devoutly adored by thousands of pilgrims, who, year by year, visit the sacred Shrines of 1b& — the Mecca of the Shinto faith. These venerated shrines are the plainest possible little tent^haped buildings of unpainted wood, even more unpre- tentious than the Kaaba. They, too, are enclosed by an outer wall, at one comer of which, three feet from the ground, a large dark Hone holds a conspicuous place. It is perfectly polished by the constant friction of reverent hands. For he who suffers from any manner of pain, needs only to rub this healing stone, and then rub his own body, and his cure is certain.
(I have not been told by any eye-witness whether the seven sunwise turns round these shrines^ form part of the accustomed ritual, but there is every probability they do so, as I have seen the DeisiU thus performed round many Japanese shrines of far less note.)
Ben Grianan in Perthshire ; Bein-na-Grianan in Skye and also in Jura ; and Griaxum in the Isle of Arran. All these are lofty mountain summits, which catch the first ray of the risiag sun.
^ The Rev. Kenneth Macaulay, describing this ceremony, says : *' There was a Gruagach stone in ahnost every village in the Western Isles." Vide ' History of St Kilda,' p. 88. Pub. 1764.
72 IN THE HEBRIDES.
It wonld be strange indeed if the coincidence in the number of these 360 monoliths at lona, and at Mecca, had been the result of mere accident, when we remember that these were both the shrines of races who worshipped the heavenly bodies, and who divided the zodiac into 360 degrees ; — that the Arabs, as well as the ancient Hindoos, and their Western Druidic brethren, reckoned a lunar year of 360 days, believing the sun*s revolution to be completed in the same period.
Among the stones of lona, destroyed by order of the ruthless Synod, were three noble globes of white marble, which lay in three hollows worn on a large stone slab. Every person visiting the island was expected to turn each of these thrice rounds following the course of the sun^ according to the custom of Deisul, of which we find so many traces in these Isles. The action of course represented the motion and foim of the earth or the apparent motion of the sun.
The stone on which they rested was called Clach-bratha, because it was supposed that when they had, by constant friction, worn a hole right through the stone, .then the broth or burning of the world would come. The stone still lies beside the door of St. Oran's Chapel, though, unfortunately, it has been broken across the middla In size and shape it resembles a flat tombstone, and might be passed by as such, were it not for a row of cup-like hollows worn at one end of it
These were pointed out to me by an old man, as having been, in his youth, occupied by stone balls, about the size of a child's head — ^balls which doubtless had replaced the original marbles destroyed by that iconoclastic Synod. He told me, that in his younger days, he, like all his neighbours, had never passed that place without stopping to turn each of these balls thrice sunwise for luck. How and when these also disappeared, he could not telL Probably, like their predecessors, they had fallen victims to some ruthless and senseless hater of ancient superstition, himself too ignorant to perceive the bearing of such trivial matters on divers vexed questions of the day — faint whispers from the speechless past^ they make one long the more to unravel its mysteries.
For instance, how curious is the coincidence between this custom
EMBLEMATIC CRYSTAL GLOBES. 73
of the old Draids of lona and that of the modern so-called Fire Woishippeis. Eabbi Benjamin in his account of the Ghebers at Onlam, says : " Early in the morning, they go in crowds, to pay their devotions to the san, to whom upon all the altiars are consecrated tphere»j resembling the circles of the sun, and when he rises, the orbs seem to be inflamed, and twn round with a great noise, while the worshippers, having every man a censer in his hand, offer incense to the Sun/' The crystal globe seems also to have been reverenced as a sacred symbol by the Babylonians; at least we hear of such a one being suspended on high in the camp of the great king, that it might catch and reflect the first rays of the rising sun.
The three mystic globes of lona were by no means the only sacred stones of the Druids, who indeed possessed many such, mostly crystals reputed to possess magic powers, and many wonders were said to have been wrought by these, some of which indeed retained their miraculous powers till recent days ; and water into which such an one has been dipped has ever been accounted a certain cure for all manner of diseases, of men, of cattle, and of horses.
One such magic crystal, the size of a hen's egg, is still preserved by the Stewarts of Ardvoirlich in Perthshire, and it is believed that water into which it has been dipped, cures cattle of distemper. Even now, graziers sometimes come from long distances — perhaps more than forty miles — to obtain this precious medicine, and are greatly disgusted at finding that the far-famed Clach Dearg has been deposited at the bank, with other family treasures, and can by no means be borrowed.
A stone of the same sort is the hereditary property of the Bobertsons of Struan. It is called the Clach-na-Bratach or Stone of the Standard, and since the days of Bannockbum the clan has never gone to battle without carrying this stone, whose varying colour boded good or eviL On the Eve of Sheriff-muir a lai'ge flaw was detected in it, and all present knew that evil would befall them on the morrow. No medical stores are needed by those within hail of this precious charm, inasmuch as the water in which it has been
74 IN THE HEBRIDES.
thrice dipped (having first been carried round it thrice sunwise), will assuredly cure all manner of diseases of men, of cattle, and of horses. The Campbells of Glen-Lyon have a similar magical
curing-stone.
A list of many sucb magical stonBs was compiled two hundred years ago, by a Welshman, curious in these matters, in which he mentions upwards of fifty varieties in common use among his countrymen and the Scottish Highlanders ; some round, some oval, some hollow rings, some of crystal, some of glass, but all alike were used medicinally, especially on May Day at the feast of Beltane (Beilteine, " the fire of Baal "), when they were dipped in water, with which the cattle were sprinkled to save them from the power of witches and elves. ^
One of these precious crystal balls remains to this day in the family of Willox, the hereditary cattle-curers at Nairn, and is reported to have worked wondrous cures in the present generation. The crystal is dipped in a bucket of water, which thereupon becomes a magic mirror, reflecting the face of the bad neighbour who has bewitched the cattle, and thus breaking his spelL
I have been told that somewhere in Northumberland, certain sacred Irish pebbles are still reverenced, and are carefully kept in a basket, and never allowed to touch English ground, lest they should lose the power which they have retained from time imme- morial, of healing any sore limb to which they are applied.
But in Eoss-shire, a whole lake has been endowed with healing properties, from the lucky .'accident that a woman who possessed certaiu curative pebbles, flung them into Lake Monar, rather than allow herself to be robbed of them by an envious man. So to this
^ A silver-mounted black flint, bearing date 1174, was long treasured in the family of the Bairds of Auchmeddan, but is now the property of the Frasers of Findrack. The Lockharts of Lee have proved more staunch guardians of the celebrated Lee penny, a small heart-shaped red pebble set in a coin of Edward lY., and for the purchase of which the townsfolk of Newcastle offered £6000 during the terrible pUgue in the time of Charles I. They were allowed to borrow ** the penny " for the healing of their diseases, but the Laird of Lee would by no means consent to part with it
ST. COLUMBA'S white P£BBLE. 75
day, in the months of May and August, many persons make pilgrim- age thither from all parts of Boss, Sutherland, Caithness, Inverness, and even from the Orkneys. They must stand by the loch at midnight, — plunge in thrice, — ^make three turns sunwise, — drink a little, — ^throw a coin into the loch, and take care to he out of sight of the loch before daybreak !
If all tales be true, the Celtic Fathers were by no means averse to enlisting such magic in the advancement of the Christian cause. It was in consequence of a miracle thus wrought, that St. Columba was enabled to obtain possession of The Isle. For although lus kinsman Conal, the Christian King of the Northern Scots, is said to have bestowed it upon him — a gift confirmed by Brude, King of the Hcts, when he too was converted — it is not to be supposed that so powerful a body as were the Druids, would have suffered them- selves to be driven out without a struggle, had not some supernatural influence been brought to bear npon them.
Accordingly we learn that the Arch-Druid Broichan, having refused to release a certain captive Irish-woman at the request of St. Columba, the latter, proceeding to the river Ness, took thence a white pebble, and, showing it to his companions, told them that the Angel of God had stricken the Arch-Druid with a sudden stroke, so that he lay nigh unto death, but that should he repent, he had only to drink a cup of water in which that pebble had been dipped, and he would assuredly recover. While he yet spake, two horsemen galloped up, bearing tidings from the king, that all had befallen even as Columba had predicted. The holy man straight- way sent messengers to the palace ; they received the captive from the hand of the repentant Broichan, while he himself, having drunk of that mystic cup (whereon the pebble floated as though it had been a nut), was immediately made whole. That little pebble was afterwards preserved among the treasures of King Brude, and retaining its miraculous power of floating on water (in common with other magical stones), it wrought divers wondrous curea
Thus it was, that when the king proposed to bestow on St. Columba the Innia-nan-Druidanach, the Holy Isle of the Druids,
76 IN THE HEBRIDES.
he was suffered to hold it in peace and without great opposition, and by degrees the name of the Isle was changed to LColm-killy " The Isle of the Cell of Calum or Malcolm."
Whether fairly or otherwise, St Columba is credited with having taken considerable advantage of the popular superstitions of his day. For instance, when first he sought admission to the presence of the heathen King Brude, the latter refused to give him audience, and bade his followers bar the door of his rude palace. Then St. Columba deliberately walked round the king's house widder shins, i. 6. in the direction contrary to the course of the sun (an action which was equivalent to a most solemn curse). Thereupon the door fell open of its own accord, and the saint entered the royal presence. St. Adamnan, however, afi&rms that the cross signed on the palace gate was the sole talisman used on that occasion, and that immediately the gates burst open. He says too, that as St. Columba approached the Pictiah fort, chanting the 45th Psalm, his voice was so miraculously strengthened, as to be heard like a thunder- peal above the clamour, whereby the Pictish magicians strove to silence his evening prayer.
When St Columba took up his abode on The Isle, his first care was to build a chapel and '* an hospice " beside the 370 grey mono- liths. He accordingly sent forth his monks to gather ** bundles of twigs " for this purpose ; the architecture of those days (a.d. 563), being exceedingly primitive, wattle and daub ^ formed the materials of these early thatched churches. Where the brethren found the twigs I am at a loss to imagine, as there certainly are none on lona now ; (at least I failed to find any vegetation of taller growth than beautiful hart's-tongue ferns in some ravines on the further shore). It may, however, have been otherwise thirteen hundred years ago, or else the brethren must certainly have gone across to Mull, in search of sticks. But I should think that the stones and
^ With the exception of fortified castles, all superior dwelling-hooses on the Isles seem to have been built in this style until a very recent period. Dr. Norman Madeod speaks of Qlendessary and several other houses, as eonstntetid of wiekerwork, the outside being protected with straw, the interior lined with wood.
THE HOLY ISLE. 77
rabble and turf which lay ready to their hand, were turned to very good account by these rough and ready builders.
Looking at this little lonely isle as we see it to-day, where there remain only the grey ruins of the comparatively recent cathedral, and all is silent and desolate, it is strange indeed to think of all the countless memories which cluster round that hallowed ground, even dating only from the Chnstian era, when the fame of St. Columba attracted thither men of all races of Northern Europe — some seeking the learning of the Fathers ; wise men coming from afar, to consult those deemed wiser still, on affairs of Church and State ; chieftains and Vikings coming to seek blessings ; penitents to confess their crimes (murder and sacrilege and cruel forays), that they might do penance meet, and open a fresh account with heayen. Here kings came, seeking consecration, and their fleets of strange quaint galleys, with curious sails and multitudinous oars, were anchored in these quiet harbours ; such vessels as that in which King Haco came from Norway — ^a great ship built wholly of oak, having twenty-seven banks of oars, and adorned with curiously-wrought gilded dragons.
Oftener than all came sad funeral processions, galleys freighted with the dead, coming to claim a last resting-place in this hallowed isle of graves. Chiefs and kings, ecclesiastics and warriors, were thus brought from afar across the stormy seas, that their dust might not be disturbed by the terrible flood, announced in an ancient prophecy, which foretold, that seven years before the 'end of the world, Ireland and The Isles should all be overwhelmed, and lona alone should rise above the waters.
Strange, is it noti to think of all the interests that gather round one little rocky isle, lying so far away in the midst of this Hebridean sea, and to think how from its wave-beaten shores the great pure light arose, which, radiating thence on every side, never waned till the whole land was Christianized, and churches and chapels were established in every comer. Then the noble Mother Church, having done her great work, seems to have died an unnatural death, and been suffered to fall into such a state of ruin and decay as is hard to account for, unless the solution lie in that old proverb which tells how, ** when the croriers became golden, the bishops
78 IN THE HEBRIDES.
became wooden," and so perhaps the old fire and vigour died out, and the Churchmen preferred more secure dwellings on the main- land, to the dangers and perils that surrounded them on Columba's Isle.
On every side Columba's resistless energies spread themselves forth, as he sailed from isle to isle, from shore to shore — the busiest Bishop that ever ruled and comforted a flock of his own gathering. Though we associate his name so wholly with Zona, we know that the greater part of his time was spent in constant visitation of the neighbouring isles and mainland, where he founded xipwards of fifty churches, while in latter life he so far retracted his vow of eternal separation from the Emerald Isle as to return thither several times to strengthen the hands of his brethren. He had founded Derry in a.d. 546, when he was only twenty-five years of age, and Durrow, the greatest of his Irish monasteries, a few years later. First and last it is said that at least thirty abbeys and churches in Ireland owe their origin and celebrity to him. It must be remembered that he was forty-two years of age ere he left his native land, so that Ireland received a full share of his seventy-six years of life. His own county of Donegal is especially rich in memorials of St. Columba.
Besides the work he did in person, he sent forth his brethren in all directions to teach and to preach, so that ere long there was scarcely an island or a quiet bay along the seaboard where one or other of the Celtic Fathers had not built his little lonely chapel, to shed its ray of light on the Pagan people.
A little green hillock overlooking the old monastery, still bears the name of Tor Ab, the Abbot's Hill ; because here, it was said, he was wont to sit and meditate while scanning the blue waters, to catch the first glimpse of galleys that might be approaching his Isle, bearing saints or sinners — perplexed brethren, or warriors red-handed from foray or murder— <;oming to seek his counsel in their difii- culties, or absolution from their crimes. Once the little hill was crowned with one of those tall Ionic crosses, the site of which, however, is now marked only by a fragment of the base.
Thence he could look across the narrow straits which separate
ECCLESIASTICAL AQKICULTUBE. 79
lona from the great hills of Mull, and with keen eye discern the approach of pilgrims who chose to shorten their long sea-voyage by traversing Mull's savage mountain glens, and who, on reaching the opposite shore, had only to cry aloud to attract the attention of the brethren of the monastery, who were ever ready to ferry all comers across the Straits, and give them hearty welcome to a shelter and a share of such rude fare as they themselves possessed.
Bemote, indeed, must have seemed that island home, when frail sailing-boats were the sole means of access to the great world ; and a difficult and dangerous journey this was too, for the pilgrims who crowded thither ; though now made so simple and comfortable for the bands of tourists who, availing themselves of swift steamboats, look upon a day's run to lona and back again, as an easy pleasure trip.
Very different too, from the cruciform Cathedral of massive red granite (the ruins of which we now see on the Isle) was the humble chapel, surrounded by a group of rude monastic cells, which were the only " visible Church " and monastery of those days ; but little did the pilgrims reck of outward things, while the very presence of Stw Columba diffused such life and energy to all around him.
One of his distinguishing features was that marvellously clear and musical voice, so powerful that, according to his biographers, he could be distinctly heard a mile off, so, from his lowly chapel, wherever he might be, on island or on mainland. Christian hymns were wont to rise in tones so sweet and clear, that the heathen could not choose but listen, and be attracted.
His disciples were not allowed to eat the bread of idleness. He taught them to be diligent in agricultural work, and the natural fertility of lona was of course, attributed to a miraculous blessing.^
Knowing the necessity for good roads across the sometimes swampy moorland, St. Columba had a substantial causeway laid right across the Isle, from the monastery to the western shore, where
^ Happily it retains this characteristic, and moreover its harvest is generally remarkably early, beiog sometimes garnered in August, a rare advantage in this region of much rain. About one-fourth of its two thousand acres are under tillage.
78 IN THE HEBRIDES.
became wooden," and so perhaps the old fire and vigour died out, and the Churchmen preferred more secure dwellings on the main* land, to the dangers and perils that surrounded them on Columba's Isle.
On every side Columba*s resistless energies spread themselves forth, as he sailed from isle to isle, from shore to shore — the busiest Bishop that ever ruled and comforted a flock of his own gathering. Though we associate his name so wholly with lona, we know that the greater part of his time was spent in constant visitation of the neighbouring isles and mainland, where he founded upwards of fifty churches, while in latter life he so far retracted his vow of eternal separation from the Emerald Isle as to return thither several times to strengthen the hands of his brethren. He had founded Deny in a.d. 546, when he was only twenty-five years of age, and Durrow, the greatest of his Irish monasteries, a few years later. First and last it is said that at least thirty abbeys and churches in Ireland owe their origin and celebrity to him. It must be remembered that he was forty-two years of age ere he left his native land, so that Ireland received a full share of his seventy-six years of life. HLs own county of Donegal is especially rich in memorials of St. Columba.
Besides the work he did in person, he sent forth his brethren in all directions to teach and to preach, so that ere long there was scarcely an island or a quiet bay along the seaboard where one or other of the Celtic Fathers had not built his little lonely chapel, to shed its ray of light on the Pagan people.
A little green hillock overlooking the old monastery, still bears the name of Tor Ab, the Abbot's Hill ; because here, it was said, he was wont to sit and meditate while scanning the blue waters, to catch the first glimpse of galleys that might be approaching his Isle, bearing saints or sinners — perplexed brethren, or warriors red-handed from foray or murder — coming to seek his counsel in their diffi- culties, or absolution from their crimes. Once the little hill was crowned with one of those tall Ionic crosses, the site of which, however, is now marked only by a fragment of the base.
Thence he could look across the narrow straits which separate
ECfCLESIASTICAL AGRICULTURE. 79
lona from the great hills of Mull, and with keen eye discern the approach of pilgrims who chose to shorten their long searvoyage by trayersing Mull's savage mountcdn glens, and who, on reaching the opposite shore, had only to cry aloud to attract the attention of the brethren of the monastery, who were ever ready to ferry all comers across the Straits, and give them hearty welcome to a shelter and a share of such rude fare as they themselves possessed.
Bemote, indeed, must have seemed that island home, when frail sailing-boats were the sole means of access to the great world ; and a difficult and dangerous journey this was too, for the pilgrims who crowded thither ; though now made so simple and comfortable for the bands of tourists who, availing themselves of swift steamboats, look upon a day's run to lona and back again, as an easy pleasure trip-
Very different too, from the cruciform Cathedral of massive red granite (the ruins of which we now see on the Isle) was the humble chapel, surrounded by a group of rude monastic cells, which were the only *^ visible Church " and monastery of those days ; but little did the pilgrims reck of outward things, while the very presence of St. Columba diffused such life and energy to all around him.
One of his distinguishing features was that marvellously clear and musical voice, so powerful that, according to his biographers, he could be distinctly heard a mile off, so, from his lowly chapel, wherever he might be, on island or on mainland. Christian hymns were wont to rise in tones so sweet and clear, that the heathen could not choose but listen, and be attracted.
His disciples were not allowed to eat the bread of idleness. He taught them to be diligent in agricultural work, and the natural fertility of lona was of course, attributed to a miraculous blessing.^
Knowing the necessity for good roads across the sometimes swampy moorland, St. Columba had a substantial causeway laid right across the Isle, from the monastery to the western shore, where
* Happily it retains this characteristic, and moreover its harvest la generally remarkably early, being sometimes garnered in August, a rare advantage in this region of much rain. About one-fourth of its two thousand acres are under tillage.
78 IN THE HEBRIDES.
became wooden," and 00 perhaps the old fire and vigour died out, and the Churchmen preferred more secure dwellings on the main- land, to the dangers and perils that surrounded them on Columba's Isle.
On every side Columba's resistless energies spread themselves forth, as he sailed from isle to isle, from shore to shore — the busiest Bishop that ever ruled and comforted a flock of his own gathering. Though we associate his name so wholly with lona, we know that the greater part of his time was spent in constant visitation of the neighbouring isles and mainland, where he founded upwards of fifty churches, while in latter life he so far retracted his vow of eternal separation from the Emerald Isle as to return thither several times to strengthen the hands of his brethren. He had founded Derry in a.d. 546, when he was only twenty-five years of age, and Durrow, the greatest of his Irish monasteries, a few years later. First and last it is said that at least thirty abbeys and churches in Ireland owe their origin and celebrity to him. It must be remembered that he was forty-two years of age ere he left his native land, so that Ireland received a full share of his seventy-six years of life. His own county of Donegal is especially rich in memorials of St. Columba.
Besides the work he did in person, he sent forth his brethren in all directions to teach and to preach, so that ere long there was scarcely an island or a quiet bay along the seaboard where one or other of the Celtic Fathers had not built his little lonely chapel, to shed its ray of light on the Pagan people*
A little green hillock overlooking the old monastery, still bears the name of Tor Ab, the Abbot's Hill ; because here, it was said, he was wont to sit and meditate while scanning the blue waters, to catch the first glimpse of galleys that might be approaching his Isle, bearing saints or sinners — perplexed brethren, or warriors red-handed from foray or murder — coming to seek his counsel in their diffi- culties, or absolution from their crimes. Once the little hill was crowned with one of those tall Ionic crosses, the site of which, however, is now marked only by a fragment of the base.
Thence he could look across the narrow straits which separate
ECCLESIASTICAL AGRICULTURE. 79
lona from the great hills of Mull, and with keen eye discern the approach of pilgrims who chose to shorten their long sea-voyage by trayersing Mall's savage mountain glens, and who, on reaching the opposite shore, had only to cry aloud to attract the attention of the brethren of the monastery, who were ever ready to ferry all comers across the Straits, and give them hearty welcome to a shelter and a share of such rude fare as they themselves possessed.
Eemote, indeed, must have seemed that island home, when frail sailing-boats were the sole means of access to the great world ; and a difficult and dangerous journey this was too, for the pilgrims who crowded thither ; though now made so simple and comfortable for the bands of tourists who, availing themselves of swift steamboats, look upon a day's run to lona and back again, as an easy pleasure trip.
Very different too, from the cruciform Cathedral of massive red granite (the ruins of which we now see on the Isle) was the humble chapel, surrounded by a group of rude monastic cells, which were the only ** visible Church " and monastery of those days ; but little did the pilgrims reck of outward things, while the very presence of Stb Columba diffused such life and energy to all around him.
One of his distinguishing features was that marvellously clear and musical voice, so powerful that, according to his biographers, he could be distinctly heard a mile off, so, from his lowly chapel, wherever he might be, on island or on mainland, Christian hymns were wont to rise in tones so sweet and clear, that the heathen could not choose but listen, and be attracted.
EUs disciples were not allowed to eat the bread of idleness. He taught them to be diligent in agricultural work, and the natural fertility of lona was of course, attributed to a miraculous blessing.^
Knowing the necessity for good roads across the sometimes swampy moorland, St. Columba had a substantial causeway laid right across the Isle, from the monastery to the western shore, where
^ Happily it retains this characteristic, and moreover its harvest is generally remarkably early, being sometimes garnered in August, a rare advantage in this legion of much rain. About one-fourth of its two thousand acres are under tillage.
84 IN THE HEBRIDES.
wanderings, starting from the plains of Luz, where, on one memorable night some four thousand years ago, it served as the pillow whereon Jacob rested his weary head while beholding the vision of angels.
Thence it was carried into Egypt by the Israelites, as a precious memorial, and there it was left by them, on the night of their hurried departure from the land of their captivity, but continued to be held in reverence by the Egyptians. Now there was a certain Prince of Athens named Gayelglas, who arrived in Egypt jast at the time of the Exodus, to help Pharaoh against the Ethiopians. As the reward of victory, he claimed the hand of Scota, the beautiful daughter of Pharaoh.
The young couple seem to have had a wholesome terror of the plagues wherewith Egypt had been scourged, and determined to seek a new home ; so, taking with them a handful of the Egyptian army wh\ch had escaped from the destruction of the Bed Sea, and a company of Greek ''heroes of dark blue weapons," they made their way to Spain, carrying with them the Israelite stone of good omen.^ They founded a kingdom at Brigautium, where, according to one account, they lived and died, and their descendants for many generations were crowned on the mystic stone.
At length, about the year B.C. 580, Simon Breck, a younger son of one of these kings of Spain, determined to found a new kingdom for himself, and having carried off the precious regal stone, he made his way to the shores of Ireland, ''ane rude island opposite to Spaine, in the north, inhabited by ane rude people, having neither laws nor manners." He called this people Scoti, after the name of his Egyptian ancestress, and the land Hibernia, after his favourite general Hiber. Another version of the story tells how Scota her-
> In [the ' Chronicle of the Scots,' preserved in the British Museum, and bearing date a.i>. 1412, we read that—
'' Te nation of Scotts began in y^ time of Moses, as is contained in y* Bibill ; . . . Scota and Gayelglas were maryite together in y* time yat y* baimes of Israel paasyt in y* Red Sea, and y* death of Pharaoh yat governed y* land of Egypt. And for they saw y* cruel plagues that came on Egypt, they decreed to pass with their folk that they brought of Greece, and many of Egypt, for to seek void lands and to inhabit them ; they went with gret riches and many ships, and so they came to Spain.*' ^
THE CORONATION-STONE. 85
nelf came in person to the Emerald Isle, and so captivated the sons of Erin by her beauty and her grace, that in her honour they henceforth adopted the name of Scoti, and called their land Ibemia, after her son Iber.
Thus the Stone of Luz was brought to figure in the story of the Irish Kings. Time wore on, and we next hear of it, when a later descendant of Scota, Fergus L, son of Ferchard, sailed across the stormy seas, and established a new colony of Scots in Argyleshire, where he built the town called Beregonium. Of course, he did not fail to bring with him the mysterious stone, which his ancestors had held in such honour from generation to generation.
Here, however, it found but a temporary resting-place, for already the fame of lona, the Druids' Holy Isle, made Fergus decide on going thither for his coronation. Once more, therefore, this migra- tory stone was embarked, that its presence might sanction the ceremony. Thus it reached lona about a.d. 530.
We next hear of it in a.d. 597, when Columba — like Jacob of old — adopted it as his stony pillow, and thereon rested his sacred head when he slept the sleep of death. Then, for the second time, this wondrous stone became associated with angelic visions ; for as the dark shades of death were closing round him, St. Columba beheld bright angels coming down from heaven, and their presence filled the little church with unearthly light — a light whose splendour illuminated the whole sky, while the angelic guard wafted the saintly Bonl from the Holy Isle to the place prepared for it in Heaven.
Soon after St. Columba's death, the venerated treasure was removed to Evonium (now called Dunsta&age) by Evenus, one of the shadowy Dalriadic kings, who built his tower on the same site as the mighty ruined fortress of later days now stands. A hollow niche in one of the vaults is pointed out as the resting-place of this well-guarded treasure.
At Dunstaffnage the wandering stone seems to have remained undisturbed till the year a.d. 834, when its travels recommenced, and it was removed to Scone by Kenneth II. to commemorate his having there obtained his chief victory over the Picts. At Scone, 88 we all know, it was suffered to remain till 1296, when Edward L
86 IN THE HEBRIDES.
transported it to London, and deposited it in its present hononrable position in the grand old Abbey of Westminster, where to this day it still retains its old king-making prerogative, and lies in a hollow space beneath the seat of King Edward's wooden coronation chair, whence it continues to impart its mystic virtue to every British sovereign.
Even Cromwell, grim destroyer of all monuments of superstition, did not disdain to borrow a legalizing virtue from the old stone, for we are told that " when he was installed as Lord Protector in "Westminster Hall, he was placed in the chair of Scotland, brought out of Westminster Abbey for that singular and special occasion." To the outward eye it appears only to be a rough block of red sandstone rudely squared, and measuring 26 inches in length, 16f inches in breadth, and 10^ inches in depth. Its cracked and battered appearance tells of many a chance blow received in the. course of its wanderings, while the rusty iron rings attached on either side to facilitate its transport, are also suggestive of its many migrations from kingdom to kingdom.
A strangely-suggestive link, in truth, is this time-honoured symbol of royalty, connecting ages far apart by one curious bond, namely, the utterly unaccountable reverence for a poor battered old stone, the history ahd origin of which are alike matter of vaguest tradition, and which, nevertheless, retains its position, deeply-rooted in the very heart of our monarchic constitution, connecting the stateliest ceremony of modem England with the earliest trace of superstitious homage paid to the rude warrior chiefs of the Dalriad Scots, or our still more shadowy ancestral princes of Ireland ; a stone, in short, which has been the silent witness, as well as the authority for, the coronation of each successive generation in these isles for upwards of 2400 years.
The Dean of Westminster, speaking of its present position in his grand old abbey, compares it to ** Araunah's rocky threshing- floor in the midst of the Temple of Solomon, carrying back our thoughts to races and customs now almost extinct ; an element of poetic, patriarchal, heathen times ; a link which unites the throne of England with the traditions of Tara and lona, and connects the
THE BURIAL-PLACE OF KINGS. 87
charm of our complex civilization with the forces of Mother Earth, the stocks and stones of savage' Nature.^'
Of the actual buildings of St. Columba, all trace has, of coarse, long since passed away, as we may well believe, from their frail nature. Consequently, by far the oldest Christian building on the isle is that which bears the name of St. Oran's Chapel, which was built in the eleventh century (that is, five hundred years after St. Columba's death), by the saintly Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm Caenmore, on the very site of the original chapel, built by the great Abbot himself, and called by the name of his friend and co-worker.
Around it lies the sacred enclosure known as the Reilig Orain — the far-famed place of burial to which, from time immemorial, kings, saints, and warriors have been brought from so many lands, to rest on this favoured isle. The place is called in Gaelic, " the ridge of kings," and formerly three separate covered chapels, inscribed in Latin as " Tumulus Regum Scotiffi," " Tumulus Regum Hyberniae," and ** Tumulus Regum Norwegiae," were set apart to receive the royal dead of those nations. For so it was, that on this bleak isle,
^* Beneath the showery west, The mighty kings of three fair reahns were laid.'*
Here forty-eight crowned kings of Scotland sleep their last sleep ;
a long list of royal names, ending with those of the murdered
Duncan and Macbeth, both of whom were, as Shakespeare says of
Duncan : —
" Carried to Colm's-kill, The sacred store-house of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones."
Macbeth was the last Scottish king who was buried here. After his death, Dunfermline was appointed to^be the place of kingly sepulture, and there Malcolm Caenmore was buried.
Four kings of Ireland were also buried in the Reilig Orain, and even from " Noroway over the foam " were royal dead carried hither. Eight Danish and Norwegian searkings were brought in solemn state, that they might sleep the more peacefully near
88 IN THE HEBRIDES.
Columba's sainted dust. Of great lords, temporal and ecclesiastical, the multitude is without number, and includes at least one Bishop of Canterbury, Tumbull by name. In short the island has been described as " the Jerusalem of the various Celtic tribes, who sought safety in the eternal world by laying their bones in lona."
That this feeling of veneration for the Isle existed long before the arrival of St. Columba is evident, were it only from the fact of Xing Fergus having sailed to lona for his coronation, though the mainland would surely have been more convenient for that ceremony, and we afterwards hear of his body being carried thither for burial, many years before the fiery priest had been exiled from his loved home in the Emerald Isle.^
This unique burial-ground has been so'ruthlessly despoiled of its
«
monuments and crosses, that imagination is sorely taxed to picture it as it was in its palmy days, or even as described by Munro, Dean of the Isles, in a.d. 1594, that is to say, upwards of thirty years after the destniction of the 360 great grey Crosses, so that even then, the scene had lost its most striking characteristic. He says : " Within this isle of Kilm kill (I-Colm-kill) there is a kirkzaird, callit in Eriche, Rellig Onrain, quhilk is a very fair kirkzaird, and we ill bigg it about with staine and lyme. Into this sanctuary there are three tombes of staine, formit like little chapels, with ane braide grey marble, or quhin staine, in the gavil of ilk of the tombes.
'' In the staine of the ane tombe there ia written in Latin letters, Tumulvs Eegum ScoticB^ — that is, the tombe ore grave of the Scottis Kings. Within this tombe, according to our Scottes and Erische cronikles, ther laye forteij-eight crowned Scotts Kings, through the quihilk this ile hes been richly dotat be the Scotts Kinges, as we have said.
''The tombe on the South side aforesaid, has this inscription, Tumulus Regum Hibemice^ that is, the tombe of the Irland Kingis ; for we have in our auld Erische cronikells, that ther were four Irland Kingis erdit in the same tombe.
** Upon the north syde of our Scottes tombe, the inscription bears, Tumulus Regum Norwcgio^^ — that is, the tombe of the Kings of 1 Fergus, a.i>. 536. St. Columba lauded, 563. Died, 597.
ROYAL TOMBS. 89
Korroway. And als' we find in our Erische cronikells, that Caelus, King of Norroway, commandit his nobils to take his bodey and buiey it in Colm Kill, if it chancit him to die in the ilea ; hot he was so discomfitit, that- ther remained not so maney of his army as wald burey him ther, therefor he was eirdet in Kyles, after he stroke ane field against the Scotts, and was vanquisht be them.
** Within this sanctuary also lye the maist pairt of the Lords of the lies, with their lynage, twa dan Leans, with their lynage, Mac Kynnon and Mac Quarrie, with their lynage, with sundrie uthers inhabitants^of the haill isles, because this Sanctuary was wont to be the sepulture of the best men of all the iles, and als' of our Kinges, as we have said, because it was the maist honourable and ancient place that was in Scotland."
Kow all trace of the chapels has vanished, and the kingly dust has mixed itself with common clay, without even the distinction of such beautifully carved stones as mark the graves of abbots and warriors — stones inscribed with figures of the chase or emblems of life on land and sea — knights in full armour with long two-handed 8 words, or ecclesiastics in their robes and mitres. One stone is shown (of red unpolished granite, marked only with a rudely cut cross), beneath which sleeps a nameless King of France, of whom tradition avers that he was compelled to abdicate the crown, and then retreated to this isle to find a last resting-place among Macleods and Macleans, Mackinnons, Macquarries, and Macdonalds.
Of the 360 Crosses, only two now' remain quite intact, namely, one dedicated to St Martin, which stands near the entrance of the Cathedral enclosure. It is a round-headed cross of grey stone, covered with Eunic knotting, and some saintly figures. It stands fourteen feet high, and has been raised on a pedestal of red granite three feet in height.
The other is a beautifully carved old cross, known as '^ Mac- lean's." It stands beside the ruined causeway which bears the name of Martyr Street, and leads from the sea to the Cathedral — a paved way along which many