TRAVELLERS' ACCOUNTS. 499 



more valuable, had his knowledge of Gaelic been more 

 extensive than it was. He makes an interesting statement 

 about Raasay, viz., that it pertained to MacGillecolum by 

 the sword, and to the Bishop of the Isles by heritage a 

 remark pregnant with meaning. The laird of Raasay owed 

 allegiance to Macleod of Lewis. 



He gives a list of the numerous islets of the Outer 

 Hebrides, and mentions the main products of nearly all of 

 them, consisting chiefly of corn, cattle, and fish. He is the 

 first traveller to refer to the Pigmies Isle (Blaeu's Eilean 

 na Dunibeg} at the Butt of Lewis, and his account is con- 

 firmed by all subsequent narrators. In the church on the 

 islet, a number of small bones had been dug up, which 

 were believed by the natives to have belonged to a race of 

 pigmies, who lived at Ness in pre-historic times.* The 

 Dean asserts that he himself had dug up some of these 

 bones, and that " many men of different countries " had 

 done the same. An English visitor (Captain Dymes) to 

 Lewis in 1630 satisfied his curiosity in the same way, and 

 tells us that the place was a favourite resort of Irishmen, 

 who came to study archaeology at Ness. The Englishman 

 could hardly credit the statement that the bones were 

 human, but gave his version of the phenomenon without 

 ventilating any theory of his own. Of the two Berneras in 

 Loch Roag, the Dean says that both were inhabited, the 

 smaller island being well peopled, and capable of producing 

 200 bolls of barley with delving only. Bernera Mor was 

 4< fertile and fruitful," had many cattle, and was good for 

 fishing and fuel. Pabaidh Mor was also a fertile island, 

 full of corn and sheep, and contained a kirk where Macleod 

 of Lewis used to dwell when he wished to be " quyeit," or 

 was " fearit " a suggestive statement. St. Kilda, always 

 a favourite topic of travellers, was inhabited by poor, simple 

 people, "scarce learnit in aney religion." Macleod (of 



* Dr. McCulloch questions the Dean's veracity generally, owing to his 

 account of the Pigmies Isle, which McCulloch ridicules. Yet, the islet exists 

 notwithstanding. It is a small peninsula at Aird, Dell, now named Luchruban 

 (Martin's Lusbirdati), which, according to tradition, received its name from its 

 having been the burying-place of a race of pigmies. 



