326 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



their pocket-handkerchiefs for the same purpose. The 

 song commences, one sings the verse, and all beat time 

 with their plaids or handkerchiefs, rowing, as it were, to 

 and fro ; in the chorus all join, still beating time, and 

 thus the song proceeds. This mode of singing, they 

 call Or an Luathaidh. Shaw, in his f Gaelic Analysis/ ac- 

 counts for it as having originated in the fulling of cloth 

 by the feet, before the improved method was introduced." 

 And now the circle broke up, and the different groups 

 began to dance. " I won't have it \" cried Pepi, " leave 

 off, I tell ye ! it's Friday, for shame !" " Ho, ho ! no 

 matter, we will dance \" And round they went in spite 

 of him and his wife. Why, they might as well have tried 

 to stop the streams that came leaping along down the 

 mountains in spring, as to arrest the whirl of those lads' 

 dancing ! The best dancer had now slipped off his shoes, 

 seized a girl round the waist, and all the others had 

 set off and followed their leader in the dance. Pepi, 

 seeing how utterly vain his words were, put a good face 

 on the matter, and looked on not displeased. He seemed 

 to feel he had done what he could to prevent the revelry, 

 and having thus satisfied his conscience, was at ease and 

 quite content. He relished his pipe amazingly j and as 

 he sate immovable, puffing in sturdy silence, the smoke 

 curling around him, and the mad youths leaping and 

 bending before his presence, it was somewhat like a 

 heathen rite being performed before a god half hidden 

 in clouds of incense. But how describe all those wonder- 

 ful evolutions ! Now in the middle of the dance they 

 would clap their hands, striking one against the other 

 tambourine fashion, while the head was turned knowingly 

 on one side ; and then the palm would descend with a 

 smart slap upon the brawny thigh, which at that mo- 

 ment was lifted high in the performance of some won- 



