A HUNDRED YEARS IN THE HIGHLANDS 193 



were much the same in my young days, and I regularly 

 attended with my mother in the famous Leabaidh na ba 

 baine (Bed of the White Cow), where Fingal's white 

 cow calved. 



" My father and mother always communicated in 

 Gairloch and Ferintosh, going through the whole five 

 days* ceremonies, for they were unwilling to appear in 

 opposition even to unreasonable customs so long as 

 these were harmless. Owing to want of roads, wheels, 

 or steam, the Gairloch Communion used to be held 

 only once in three years. Consequently it became a 

 very great holy fair. I never remember it but in mid- 

 summer in fine weather. For days before the Fast Days 

 every spare hole and corner was got ready for the mob 

 of people that came from the neighbouring parishes, 

 some fifty or sixty miles distant. This was considered 

 a pleasant walk, not by the communicants merely, but 

 by crowds who came, not to communicate, but to see 

 the people and to hear the many clergymen. 



" In Gairloch every hole or corner with a roof over it 

 was got ready by strewing it with straw for the visitors* 

 beds during the six nights of their stay. Undressing 

 during that time was never dreamt of by the crowd, 

 and washing was impossible ! Our barns and stables 

 were all scrubbed out and ready for visitors, and for 

 days before the feast there was much killing and cooking 

 of cattle, sheep, and salmon, for all the hungry visitors 

 who were expected. Such really hard labour for the 

 house servants all through the five days would, if I were 

 to detail it truly, hardly be believed as occurring in a 

 Christian land in connection with religion. It was 



13 



