472 Htijhlnnds and Islands Cuinmission. 



XCIX. Barm Boatmcnh Version of last Verse — 



Alexander ' Thon Father! thou So;i ! thou Spirit Holy I 



Carmichael. Be the Three-One with us day and night, 



And on the crested wave, or on the mountain side, 

 Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head. 

 Our Mother is there, and Her arm is tmder our head.' 



In North Uist, Hanis, and Lews, the Protestant faith entirely prevails, and 

 the people contine their invocation to. 



The Shepherd tliat keeps Israel, 

 He shmibereth not nor sleepeth. 

 Feuch air Fear Coimhead Israeli, 

 Codal cha'n aom no suain. 



As the people sing their dedication, their voices resound from their shealings 

 here literally in the wilderness, and as the music floats on the air, and echoes 

 among the rocks, hills, and glens, and is wafted over fresh-water lakes and sea- 

 lochs, the effect is very striking. 



The walls of the shealings in which the people live are of turf, the roof of 

 sticks covered -with, divots. There are ustuilly two shealings together ; the 

 larger the dwelling, the smaller the dairy. This style of hut (Sgithiol) is called 

 ' Airidh ' or shealing, and ' Both cheap,' or ' Bothan cheap,' turf bothy ; to 

 distinguish it from the ' Both cloiche ' or ' Bothan cloiche,' stone bothy. 

 This is entirely constructed of stone, the roof tapering to a cone more or less 

 pointed. The apex of the cone roof is probably finished off with a flag, through 

 the centre of which there is a hole like that through an upper millstone, the 

 opening for the egress of smoke and the ingress of light. There is a low door- 

 way with a removable door, seldom used, made of wicker work, wattles, 

 heather, or bent. In the walls of the hut, two, three, or four feet from tlie 

 floor, are recesses — Gaelic, Buthailt, Scottish 'bole' — for the various utensils 

 in use by the people, while in the bosom of the thick wall low down near the 

 ground are the dormitories wherein the people sleep. The entrance to these 

 dormitories, slightly raised above the floor, is a small hole, barely capable of 

 admitting a person to creep through. This sleeping place is called ' Crupa, 

 from ' Crupadh,' to crouch. It was a special feature in the architecture of the 

 former houses of St Kilda, the houses themselves being called ' Crupa ' from 

 this characteristic. These beeliive stone houses are still the shealings of the 

 Lews people. Some are also to be seen in the forest of Harris, but none in 

 either of the Uists or in Barra. In these places the people have practically 

 ceased going to the summer shealings. Invaj'iably two or three strong 

 healthy girls share the same shealing. Here they remain making butter 

 and chee.se till the corn is ripe for shearing, when they and their cattle return 

 home. The people enjoy this life at the hill pasturage, and many of the best 

 lyric songs in their language are in praise of the loved summer shealing.* 



Considerable changes are now taking place among the people of the Outei 

 Hebrides as to the rearing and the disposing of stock. Markets are more open 

 to them, and they can sell their stock early, and of this they take advantage. 

 But under their old conditions, and considering all their circumstances, which 

 must be weighed before judging, probably none better than their old systems 

 were ever devised. 



* The writer has a small primitive stool, u]ioii which Prince Charlie sat in one of these 

 siiiiiiner shealings during his wanderings alter the disasters of Cnlloden. The people spoke 

 and sung of the Prince as, Am Buachaille Ban, Am Biiachaille Buidhe, 'the fair-hairei 

 ' Herdsman,' ' the yellow-haireil. Herdsman.' The allusion was understood without com- 

 mitting themselves. 



