I A Gossip on a Sutherland Hill-side 213 



sticking dirks into each other's wames, as you 

 Sutherlanders used to be in the old time, friend 

 Donald.' 



' Hoot toot ! 'Deed, sir, no ! It was not the 

 Sutherland folks, it was thae fallows from Assynt, 

 and Eddrachillis and Strathnaver, who were aye 

 coming over the marches, and lifting cows and 

 raising blood-feuds that were hard to quell. The 

 Sutherland lads were aye decent people, — except 

 some of the clans, maybe.' 



' Well, I believe that you really were, as you are, 

 better than your neighbours, but there is many a 

 broad blood-spot in your country, even in the fair 

 gardens of Dunrobin. But we won't quarrel about 

 that now. What is that heap of stones by the loch- 

 side ? It looks like a Pictish tower.' 



' Ay, 'deed is it ; and there is another on the 

 Island, and another and another on the other side. 

 Do you know what they were made for, sir ? The 

 old wives say, some that they were built by the 

 Pechts, and some by the Feen ; they must have 

 been gey small folk that lived inside them.' 



' Not I, Donald ! I used to think that the Pechts 

 got into the chambers, and put a big stone at the 

 entrance to keep the enemy out, and built them 

 hour-glass fashion to prevent the said enemy 

 scrambling into them ; but when I considered that 

 an able-bodied man, with a bit of burnt stick, could 

 pick the whole affair down in no very long time, the 

 Pechts inside being as utterly unable to prevent it 



