AN UNDERGROUND DWELLING. 13 



particularly scarce on the island. The locks and 

 keys are made entirely of wood, save for the 

 two or three nails holding together the parts 

 of the former. I bought one as a curiosity, 

 and the illustrations on the opposite page will to 

 some extent explain its construction. A small 

 piece of hard wood working up and down a 

 perpendicular kind of box inside the lock drops 

 into a mortise in the bolt, and effectually prevents 

 it from being withdrawn until the hidden perpen- 

 dicular bolt, for such it may be described, has 

 been raised by the key, which is fashioned so as 

 to fit into a part of it. 



There can be no manner of doubt, I think, 

 that St. Kilda was inhabited close upon, if not 

 quite, a thousand years ago ; for in digging out 

 and restoring an underground dwelling known 

 amongst the natives as the " fairy house," which 

 had been only partially explored and to a great 

 extent destroyed by a previous visitor, we came 

 across the objects represented on the following 

 page. The particulars about the choicest of our 

 finds have been kindly supplied to me by my 

 friend Dr. Anderson, Curator of the National 

 Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, whither they 

 were sent by the chief, MacLeod, who owns the 

 island, and who generously insisted upon defraying 

 the entire cost of excavating and restoring the 

 subterranean dwelling. 



The iron spear-head on the right hand side of 

 the picture is a weapon of war belonging to Viking 

 times, and is in all probability a thousand years old. 

 The conical- shaped stones belong to the same period, 

 and were used, it is thought, as net sinkers or loom 

 weights. They were cracked and split, a condition 

 due no doubt to some extent to the kind of stone 



