208 NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 



Besides this fond opinion of the natives here- 

 abouts, some others more remote (as ignorant as 

 themselves) transport the earth of lloss into most 

 parts of Scotland ; perswading themselves, that 

 if they do but sprinkle it in the fields, fens, moors, 

 mountains, morish or boggy grounds, (all is one 

 as to that) for it alters not the property, nor does 

 it diminish the quality, nor impair the virtue, 

 but that still it retains a certain antipathy against 

 that enormous vermin the rat, nay, the very 

 scent on't shall force him to become an exile. 

 This odd kind of creed they had when I was re- 

 sident amongst them ; yet to the best of my ob- 

 servation, I never saw a rat ; nor do I remember 

 of any one that was with me ever did ; but for 

 mice, I declare, so great is their plenty, that 

 were they a commodity, Scotland might boast 

 on't. And that they have owls with horns, some 

 favour the report ; yet are they not horns, but as 

 like horns as any thing that are not horns ; nor 

 is it any other than a sort of feathers, that's clung 

 and twisted so naturally together, that represents 

 the idiom or form of a horn, if when to observe 

 them at a reasonable distance, which seemingly 

 beautifies the ivy-bush, as horns adorn the head 

 of a buffulo. 



The next curiosity to entertain you with, is 

 the country of Southerland ; which we enter by 

 crossing a small arm of the ocean from Tain to 



