Appenlix A. 455 



owners have to pay the loss. The people are exacting in recovering these valna- XCIX. 

 tions. ' Is e an cunntas goirid,a dh-fliagas an cairdeas fada,' they say. It is the Alexamler 

 short accounting that shall leave the friendship lasting, and they act accordingly. Carmichael, 



Those, however, who are thus exacting in pecuniary matters are, nevertheless, 

 kind and considerate to one another in other things. Should a crofter or his 

 family be laid up ill, his fellow-crofters help on his work. If a man's horse dies, 

 his neighbours bring on his work concurrently with their own, and, if necessary, 

 help hira to buy another horse. 



In connection with their watching, the people speak of a time when they had 

 to kindle fires to scare away wild beasts from their flocks, as they do now in 

 some localities to scare away deer and geese from their crops. These fires look 

 picturesque at night, and remind one of Campbell's beautiful poem of the 

 ' Soldiei-'s Dream ' — ' By the wolf-scaring faggot that guarded the slain.' 



There is a tradition in Lews of the last wolf slain there, and the place is 

 pointed out. Traditions of this nature are elsewhere. 



I asked the crofters who said that they were in the habit of sitting up at night 



to watch their corn from deer, if they mentioned this hardship to their Factor. 



' Yes,' said they, ' but he told us that if we complained to him again he would 



* clear us all out of the place, so as to be out of the way of the deer. Therefore, 



we keep quiet, but suffer.' 



The Constable buys fresh stock, for the infusion of new blood for his townland, 

 and sells the old. He will not allow a crofter to cart sea- weed from the shore till 

 his neighbours have reasonable time to be there, nor will he allow a crofter to 

 cut sea-weed when and where he likes. He must see that the Run-Rig land, 

 Imire, of one man is not allowed to lie under water to the injury of the man to 

 whose lot it may fall at next allotting. The man must cut a drain to allow the 

 surfiice water to escape. 



Should the crofters of the townland have occasion to complain of a fellow 

 crofter to the Factor, a deputation from the crofters go to the Factor to prefer the 

 complaint. The deputation is represented by the Constable alone or in company. 

 The Factor confers with the Constable, giving instructions, and possibly removes 

 the recalcitrant crofter from his holding, should he continue to offend against the 

 customs of the community. 



The Constable gives information to the people from the Factor as to days on 

 which the Factor is to collect rents and rates, as to new rules which the Factor 

 wishes enforced, or old ones which he wishes more strictly observed, and various 

 other things. 



These are some of the duties devolving on the Farm Constable for the orderly 

 management of the Townland. In the past he had to assist the Maor in evicting 

 crofters, sometinies in evicting and pulling down the houses of near and dear 

 relatives. 



There have been no large evictions in recent years in the Western Islands, 

 nor will there probably be. 



Proprietors now visit their properties, taking a kindly interest in their people, 

 and Factors are more considerate. One of these, indeed, is a man endowed with 

 more excellency of head and heart, without faults, than ordinarily falls to the 

 lot of man, a man possessing the implicit confidence of proprietors and tenants 

 alike, who daily injures himself to benefit them. Mr John Macdonald, 

 Tacksman, Newton, North Uist, and Factor for Sir John Orde, will not forgive 

 my mentioning his name, but others will throughout the Highlands and 

 Islands, where his name is honoured among all classes. 



But things were not always so in the Western Isles. Where a factor, in 



