14 A HUNDRED YEARS 



from six till nine, when justice having been dispensed to 

 all concerned, Donald and company drove the cows away 

 to their pastures, and the junior helpers removed the 

 very discontented calves to their quarters till near 6 p.m., 

 when the same operation was repeated. 



" And then the procession of milkmaids stepped away 

 to the dairy, which was a projecting wing of the Tigh 

 Dige and is now part of the garden, carrying the milk 

 in small casks open at the top with a pole through the 

 rope-handle of the cask, the two milkers having the 

 pole ends on their shoulders. And now as to the dairy. 

 No finery of china or glass or even coarse earthenware 

 was ever seen in those days; instead of these, there were 

 very many flat, shallow, wooden dishes and a multitude 

 of churns and casks and kegs, needing great cleansing, 

 otherwise the milk would have gone bad. And big 

 boilers being also unknown, how was the disinfecting 

 done, and how was hot water produced ? Few modern 

 folk would ever guess. Well, the empty wooden dishes 

 of every shape and size were placed on the stone 

 floor, and after being first rinsed out with cold water 

 and scrubbed with little heather brushes, they were 

 filled up again, and red hot dornagan (stones as large as a 

 man's fist), chosen from the seashore and thoroughly 

 polished by the waves of centuries, which had been placed 

 by the hundred in a huge glowing furnace of peat, were 

 gripped by long and strong pairs of tongs and dropped 

 into the vessels. Three or four red-hot stones would 

 make the cold water boil instantly right over, and the 

 work was then accomplished. But oh, the time it took, 

 and the amount of good Gaelic that had to be expended. 



