6 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



no less than three churches called after him, the walls 

 of one of which, at Eye (originally Ui, a peninsula), are 

 standing at the present day. In Bernera, close to North 

 Uist, and in North Uist itself ; in South Uist, and in St. 

 Kilda, were chapels similarly named ; and in Benbecula 

 there are strong evidences of a close connexion with the 

 central monastery in lona. 



In Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, which was written 

 in the seventh century, there are frequent references to 

 an island named " Ethica," which appears as an adjective, 

 coupled with the substantive insula or terra. It is de- 

 scribed as being at a considerable distance from lona, and 

 accessible by the open sea, or by a course along the lesser 

 islands. It had a monastery at a harbour called Campus 

 Lujtge, over which Baithene, St. Columba's chief eccle- 

 siastic, and subsequently his successor, presided, and 

 to which penitential cases were sent from the mother 

 church. Besides this monastery, the island contained 

 several other religious communities under various presi- 

 dents, and one in particular called Artchain, which was 

 founded by a follower of St. Columba, named Findchan. 

 It resembled the Columban model in having a Presbyter 

 as Superior, who, in that capacity, exercised jurisdiction 

 over a Bishop, although incapable of performing episcopal 

 functions. By Colman and Innes, this description was 

 held to apply to Shetland, but Pinkerton states that Ethica 

 was probably Lewis, and this view has been adopted 

 in Black's County Atlas of Scotland. Skene, however, 

 endeavoured to prove that the island meant by Adamnan 

 was Tiree, and Reeves in his translation of Adamnan, 

 agrees with this opinion. 



It may be safely assumed from the known character of 

 the pagan Northmen, that they made short work of the 

 religious communities which they found in the Outer 

 Hebrides. The men who plundered the mother church 

 in lona, and ruthlessly slaughtered her monks, were not 

 likely to spare the daughter churches wherever they found 

 them. It has been suggested with a good deal of reason, 



