224 NETHER LOCHABER. 



They resolved to do without a woman in their house at all ; and 

 they succeeded for a time, but not for long, for 



' Man, the hermit, sighed, till woman smiled. ' 



One of them ultimately brought home a wife, who soon became a 

 cause of discord and ill-will among the previously happy and 

 affectionate brothers. But this is digressing. In England it is 

 the men who milk the cows. Most men in rural parishes can milk, 

 and but few women. Consequently in the agricultural districts of 

 England you hardly ever see an elderly man disfigured by the small- 

 pox, but you can see many women so disfigured. These suggestions 

 are simply the results of my own observations in England and in 

 the Highlands. They may be to the purpose or not, I don't know." 

 We think they are to the purpose, and we are very much obliged 

 to our correspondent for his many interesting contributions from 

 the Outer Hebrides to our stock of "auld-world" folk-lore. 



