4G0 Highlands and Inlands Commission. 



XCIX. who spoke of this place to me first straightened up; the dim blue eyes, which 



had seen the changes of ninety-nine years, sparkled with light, and the weak 



CarmicliaeL voice trembled with animation as he graphically described the place to me, and 

 the joyous life they lived at the shealing there, 



' In life's morning march, when his bosom was young.' 



The smoke of the whole people, nuns and all, now ascends through the 

 chimney of a single shepherd. 



Highlanders are essentially musical. Of old they had songs for all the avoca- 

 tions in which they engaged, particularly for love, war, and the chase. Many 

 of these are beautiful — all are chaste. They had labour songs, with which they 

 accompanied themselves in rowing, shearing, spinning, fulling, milking, and in 

 grinding at the quern. If they sing less now, their silence is due to repression 

 from without. 



The tendency of modem cultured life is to have prayers and hymns for special 

 occasions. These old people, whom it is the f;ishion for those who know them 

 least to condemn, had special prayers and special hymns for every occasion. 



Correctly speaking, the hymns and prayers were one, the prayers being rendered 

 into rhyme to help the memory. There was a special prayer on going to sea, a 

 special prayer on going to the shealing, a special prayer for resting the fire at 

 night, for kindling it in the morning, for lying down at night, for rising up in 

 the morning, for taking food, for going in search of sheep, cattle, and of horses, 

 for setting out to travel, and for other occasions. 



These hymns having been asked for by members of the Commission during 

 their Inquiry, a few are given at the end of this paper. 



Lying across the north end of South Uist Proper, and separated by a ford 

 nearly a mile wide, is the Island of Benbecula — Beinn-nam-faothla — ' hill of 

 the fords.' Stretching out from the south end of the Island, and across the east 

 end of the Sound of Barra, is the rocky island of Eirisgey, whereon Prince 

 Charles landed from France when he came to claim the crown of his fathers in 

 1745. These Islands are in the parish of South Uist. 



On a rock above water mark is a sandy knoll whereon he scattered, on landing, 

 the seed of a Convolvulus major. The seed grew, and the plant has spread over 

 the place. The flower is pink, with a mauve tinge, and is very pretty. A 

 patriotic gentleman from Harris, Dr Robert Stewart, built a wall round Coil- 

 leag a Phrionns, the ' Knoll of the Prince,' as the place is called. 



Seven miles north from the south end of South Uist, at Airi-mhuillinn — the 

 'Mill Shealing' — are the ruins of the house where Flora Macdonald was born. 

 In the neighbourhood is a boulder where she met the Prince by appointment 

 when she undertook to take him to Skye. Should not these places be marked 

 and held sacred for all time coming ? 



Six miles further north is Houbeag, where was born Neill LlacEachain, 

 father of Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentuin. This tribe of the Macdonalds 

 is locally called Mac Eachain. Neill Mac p]achain was the son of a small 

 farmer at Houbeag. He had been educated for the priesthood, but did not 

 take orders. He had been schoolmaster for the parish and was acting as tutor in 

 the family of Clanranald, when Lady Clanranald sent him to Skye with Flora 

 Macdonald and her Irish spinning maid ' Betty Burke,' the Prince. 



Neill Mac Eachain followed the Prince to France, where he changed his name 

 back to Macdonald. He married, and his son entering the army, rose to the 

 rank of Marshal of France and Duke of Tarentum. 



In 1825 Marshal Macdonald came to South Uist to see his relations. On 



