464 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



be married in such a dirty state ? " " Me dirty ! What if ye 

 saw hir ! " 



Hearing that there was a real live hermit in the neighbour- 

 ing grounds of Sir James Matheson, we had the curiosity to 

 visit his cell. He was a more favourable specimen than his 

 better-known brother anchorite of the Holy Loch. At the 

 cave among the rocks, a short distance from his house, with 

 his sheep-dog " Lassie " at his foot, the gentle old man was 

 seated. His white beard and contented expression harmonised 

 exactly with the stillness around. His only trouble appeared 

 to be the moustache, which annoyed him when " supping his 

 kale." Looking earnestly at mine, he inquired if his would 

 grow out the same way when they were " lang." Upon my 

 saying there was a kind of pomatum would set them right, he 

 was eager to find out whether the doctors sold it. We had a 

 sight of his little library of Gaelic books, and a draught out of 

 his spring-well. On returning to the town, Sir James's ferry- 

 man civilly offered to row us across the river, and when we 

 told him the hermit's trouble "He gets three shillings a- 

 week for that beard o' his ; he may weel buy the sauve for his 

 mistachies." 



Eeturning by the Clansman, we shipped the "Abbot of 

 lona " in the Sound of Mull. He informed us that his pre- 

 decessor, St Columba, had first settled at Salen, in Mull, but 

 being dissatisfied with the water, removed to lona. "The 

 Abbot," so called by his co-presbyters, mentioned a little 

 island on his territory of Icolmkill, which only keeps three 

 sheep. Take off one, and the grass grows rank enough to 

 entice the wild geese, who soon starve the pair of sheep. Put 

 on four, and the islet can't support so many. The three sheep 

 crop the grass just bare enough to keep off the geese, and not 

 too bare to starve themselves. The island minister also 

 described a large whale seen about ten days before. It made 

 its way from Craignure to the lighthouse. Some time before 

 a fleet of three appeared at the head of the Sound ; the largest, 



