2 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



group of seven islands, to which he gave the name of 

 Haemodae, a corruption, possibly, of Haebudes, the modern 

 Hebrides, although Pliny the Elder differentiates between 

 the two. Pliny, who lived about the same period, was the 

 first to enumerate the Haebudes, consisting, according to 

 him, of thirty islands. Ptolemy, who wrote a century later, 

 gave the names of five Ebudae, two bearing the name of 

 Ebuda, and the others the names of Ricina, Maleus, and 

 Epidium. Ptolemy also mentions Scetis, which is almost 

 certainly Skye. The identification of Ptolemy's Ebudae 

 has led to a difference of opinion. In Dr. William Smith's 

 Ancient Atlas, Rum is Ricina, Mull is Maleus, I slay is 

 Epidium, Lewis is Ebuda, and Skye Ebuda Altera, while 

 Arran appears as Regaina ; but it is only necessary here to 

 examine the identification of Lewis with Ebuda. Starting 

 with the assumption that Maleus must stand for Mull, 

 Dr. Skene proceeds to show, from the relative position of 

 the islands on Ptolemy's map, that West and East Ebuda 

 must have been Islay and Jura. The position of the 

 Hebrides in Ptolemy's map is ludicrously distorted by his 

 configuration of the North of Scotland, which is placed 

 much further to the east the result, it has been suggested, 

 of an accident than its true situation. Making allowance 

 for this error, it will be found that one of the Ebudae of 

 Ptolemy occupies a position in relation to the other islands, 

 which would warrant the supposition that Lewis may have 

 been meant. But it is idle to speculate on the geographical 

 knowledge of a writer who probably derived his informa- 

 tion from the Romans who had circumnavigated Britain. 

 Richard of Cirencester, a monk of the fourteenth century, 

 mentions five Ebudae, which have been identified with 

 Lewis, Skye, the two Uists, and Coll, with Tiree. Inciden- 

 tally, it may be mentioned that Ptolemy described Thule 

 as an island of not less than 55 geographical miles from 

 north to south, which approximately agrees with the length 

 of Lewis-with-H arris. But Bunbury thought that his 

 description showed that the Shetland group of islands 

 must have been meant. 



