28 ST. KILDA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



the eastern face of the hill above the village, in the form 

 of hemispherical or semi-ellipsoidal domes ; the purposes 

 of which appear to a stranger as inexplicable, as their num- 

 bers excite his surprise. They are indeed the first marks 

 of human art visible in approaching from sea, and are at 

 first naturally supposed to be the habitations of the na- 

 tives. It is in these that the peat, the hay, the corn, and 

 even the winter stock of birds are lodged. They are very 

 ingeniously built, the sides admitting the free passage of 

 air, while the roofs are rendered water-tight by a covering 

 of turf. The stones are laid without lime, an article 

 which they do not possess, and the dome is very arti- 

 ficially turned by the regular diminution of the courses ; 

 the whole being closed and secured at the top by a few 

 large and heavy stones. Compared with the slovenly 

 expedients of the Highlanders in general, these buildings 

 speak much in praise of the industry and ingenuity of 

 the natives ; and present indeed a practice worthy of 

 imitation, to those inhabitants of the rainy parts of the 

 Highlands whose peats and crops are frequently rendered 

 useless by the continuance of a rainy season. The grass 

 and corn are thrown' loosely into the dome as soon as 

 they are cut, and are thus secured from all future risk. 



In the construction of their dwellings they resemble 

 the greater number of their continental neighbours, the 

 roof being carried from the outer side of the wall, and 

 not from the inner, in the barbarous manner practised 

 in Sky, in Barra, and in other places.* The interior is, 



* In the Highlands in general, the ancient habits of keeping the cattle 

 under the common roof are still preserved ; the simplicity recorded with 

 approbation by Juvenal, and related by Herodotus of the Egyptians of 

 his day. But 1 did not understand that the practice of making manure 

 in the house, as mentioned by Macaulay, was now in use here. In the old 

 town of Stornoway it is however still thus conducted, in a manner 

 perfectly incredible. Cleanliness is a virtue of compulsion. In a vil- 

 lage where the proprietor had obliged the inhabitants to remove the 

 dunghils from their doors, one of them boasted that he had cheated the 

 Laird by taking the " midden into the house." 



