CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



POLIBI, a Roman or Romano-British maker, whose 

 saucepans have been found both in England and 

 on the continent. The crannog builders of Scot- 

 land used canoes dug out of oak-tree trunks. Five 

 of these, varying from 20 to 25 feet long, were 

 found in Dowalton Loch. The largest canoe 

 hitherto discovered in Scotland, was found in 

 August 1874, in the Loch of Lotus, Dumfries- 

 shire. It was 45 feet in length, and 5 feet wide at 

 the stern, from which it tapered gradually forward, 

 terminating in a raised and projecting prow, 

 roughly fashioned in the form of an animal's head. 

 In the Hebrides, as in Ireland, crannogs appear 

 to have been used till very recent times. In the 

 Register of the Privy-council, there is an instruc- 

 tion to Angus M'Coneill of Dunnyvaig, and 

 Hector M'Cloyne of Dowart, dated I4th April 

 1608, ' that the haill houssis of defence, strong- 

 holds, and cranokis in the Yllis pertaining to them 

 .and their foresaidis sal be delyverit to his Majes- 

 tic.' 



HUT-CIRCLES AND HILL-FORTS. 



Hut-circles, or traces of the foundations of cir- 

 cular dwellings, usually 20 to 30 feet in diameter, 

 .are not uncommon in many parts of Scotland. 

 An extensive group of these at Strathardle, in 

 Perthshire, is associated with a group of sepulchral 

 -cairns. The doorway usually fronts the south-east, 

 .and in the centre of the floor there is sometimes 

 a hole for a post to support the roof. Round 

 "houses with conical roofs are represented on the 

 Antonine column as the houses of the Gauls. In 

 one of the Strathardle huts there was found a 

 long-handled comb of deer-horn the implement 

 with which the threads of the weft were beaten 

 together to form the cloth in the primitive loom. 

 Groups of these hut-circles are also found within 

 the area of many of the hill-forts. When thus 

 surrounded by a rampart in a defensible position, 

 they represent an ancient town the permanent 

 headquarters of the tribe that occupied the 

 neighbouring district. Sometimes both huts and 

 rampart seem to have been merely of turf, but 

 more usually either wholly or principally of stone. 

 In the territories of the ancient Britons, such 

 fortified settlements were termed Caersj and in 

 the Celtic portions of the country, Duns or Raths. 



Underground Houses or Weems. Underground 

 structures of a peculiar form, which occur very 

 frequently on the eastern side of Scotland, 

 anciently possessed by the Picts, stretching from 

 the Forth northwards, are on that account some- 

 times termed Picts' Houses. They are long, narrow, 

 and low crypts, solidly built, and roofed with 

 great flat stones. The entrance is like the mouth 

 of a drain, widening and rising in height, till it 

 *nds in a pear-shaped expansion, four or five feet 

 high, and not much wider than its height. The 

 form is almost always curved, and sometimes 

 there is a small cell or chamber on one side. 

 These underground structures are not unfrequently 

 found in connection with hut-circles, and may 

 have been used as winter-dwellings, or as places 

 of temporary concealment. Such retreats were 

 known as 'earth-houses' among the Northmen. 

 The Saga of Gisli the Soursop records that after 

 he became an outlaw, 'he was always in his earth- 

 house when strangers came to the isle ; ' and 

 describes the earth-house of Vadil as having one 

 en.l opening on the river-bank, and the other 



732 



below the ordinary residence. A group of about 

 50 of these underground structures was dis- 

 covered at Kiklrummy, in Aberdeenshire, having 

 been traced by the remains of the low foundations 

 of the overground houses to which they seem to 

 have been attached. Another group of less extent 

 occurs at Airlie, in Forfarshire. Occasional 

 instances occur as far south as Berwickshire, and 

 as far north as Shetland, but they are specially 

 characteristic of the region lying between Forth 

 and Spey. Roman pottery, of the kind called 

 Samian ware, has been found in several of them. 

 In one at Newstead, Roxburghshire, stones with 

 Roman mouldings were found to form part of the 

 structure ; and in one at Crichton Mains, Mid- 

 Lothian, stones shewing the diagonal hewn work 

 characteristic of Roman buildings had been used 

 in the construction of its walls. These facts point 

 to a period subsequent to the Roman occupation 

 of Scotland. In Ireland, many of the ' raths ' have 

 underground structures within their area, and an 

 example of this occurs in the fort or rath which 

 crowns the top of Dunsinnane Hill, Perthshire, 



Vitrified Forts. Dunsinnane is also partially 

 vitrified, as so many of the Scottish stone forts 

 are, but it has not yet been decisively settled 

 whether the vitrification has been intentional and 

 structural, or whether it may be merely the result 

 of accidental circumstances. The most noted of 

 the vitrified sites in Scotland are Knockfarril, in 

 Strathpeffer, Rosshire; Craig Phadric, Inverness; 

 the Top o' Noath, Aberdeenshire ; Finhaven Hill, 

 Forfarshire ; and Dun Mac Uisneachan, near 

 Oban, Argyllshire. Detailed plans of these struc- 

 tures, and systematic excavation by investigators 

 capable of recording facts without reference to a 

 theory, are still required to clear up the mystery 

 of their construction. With regard to their date, 

 however, it may be safely affirmed that they belong 

 to the more recent, and not to the more remote 

 division of prehistoric times. Defensive struc- 

 tures of such magnitude as these vitrified forts, 

 or like those of the ordinary construction, as the 

 Caterthuns, Benachie, and the Barmekyne of Echt, 

 are not the work of isolated tribal communities, 

 but of consolidated nationalities, waging warfare 

 on a grand scale, and they belong, undoubtedly, 

 to the dawn of the historic period in Scotland. 



DUNS OR BROCKS. 



The region lying to the north and west of the 

 Caledonian Valley is characterised by a peculiar 

 variety of duns, now called, in the districts form- 

 erly occupied by the Northmen, ' brochs,' from 

 the Norse ' borg,' a stronghold. These ' borgs/ 

 duns, or ' Pictish towers,' are circular structures 

 usually 30 feet diameter internally, and composed 

 of a wall 1 5 feet thick, through which there is only 

 one opening to the outside, in the form of a door- 

 way, often flanked by one or two guard-chambers 

 in the thickness of the wall, opening on opposite 

 sides in the passage. This entrance-passage leads 

 quite through the wall into the central area, which, 

 like the bottom of a well, is walled all round, but 

 uncovered above. Sometimes there are one or 

 more chambers opening into the thickness of the 

 wall on the ground-level ; in other cases, the wall is 

 carried up solid for a height of about ten feet, but 

 having a narrow opening on the ground-level to 

 the foot of a staircase leading to the upper stories. 



