24 PARENTAGE AND YOUTH CHAP, i 



each ruined clachan. The hazel and the fragrant 

 birch, the ash and the charmed rowan, fringe the 

 banks of the stream, or mark the remains of the little 

 garden -enclosures ; and mingled with these may be 

 seen the white blossoms of the gnarled elder, famed 

 of old for its irresistible power in scaring the midnight 

 witches from the neighbourhood of lonely dwellings, 

 and counteracting the malicious pranks of the fairies, 

 who, it is well known, still inhabit these desert 

 wastes ! ' 



The author avoids letting his own personality be 

 seen in the course of his narrative, but in the following 

 passage we seem to meet him coming back somewhat 

 jaded from a long tramp to his welcome resting-place 

 for the night in the snug homely inn of Loch Ranza. 

 ' Tired and hungry though the traveller be, and with 

 the very smoke of the little inn curling before his 

 eyes, let him pause for a moment at the entrance of 

 the loch, and seating himself on a granitic boulder, 

 quietly contemplate the placid scene before him. 

 Trees there are few to boast of, and what is pleasanter, 

 there are still fewer strangers, for to the traveller in 

 such a scene, all strangers seem out of place but 

 himself. The sinking sun shines bright on the 

 gleaming peaks of Caistael Abhael and Ceum na 

 Cailleach, where the shadows of the rugged scars 

 and deep hollows of the winter torrents, mingled with 

 the lights brightly reflected from the projecting rocks, 

 form a hazy radiance which more obscures than 

 illuminates the shady recesses of the rugged corries. 

 The tide is at its full, and the lazy sails of many 

 a lagging fishing-boat, the image of the ruined tower 

 and of the green hills around, lie calmly reflected in 

 the unruffled waters : 



