TRAVELLERS' ACCOUNTS. 501 



cattle, and fishing. It had many forests. Deer, otters, 

 and martins were among its fauna, but no wolves, toads, 

 nor adders. When the Dean was in Harris, there were 

 sheep wandering about without owners. He states that 

 the Church of St. Clement at Rodil, " ane monastery with 

 ane steipill," was founded and built by Macleod of Harris. 

 The system of agriculture in Harris was rude : twice as 

 much delving as tilling was the practice. 



North and South Uist, the former with two, and the 

 latter with five, parish kirks, receive scant notice. South 

 Uist is called a fertile country, with high hills and forests 

 on the east or south-east, and well-stocked land on the 

 north-west. The Dean states that Benbecula belonged to 

 " Clandonald," and that Boisdale was possessed by Macneill 

 of Barra. 



Barra, like the others, is described as a fertile island, 

 fruitful in "comes" and abounding in codling, ling, and 

 all other white fish. The parish church (Kilbar) and 

 Macneill's castle (Kisimul) are mentioned. There were 

 no better sands in the world for cockles than the Barra 

 sands, says the Dean, who may have been a connoisseur 

 of shellfish. 



He is careful to specify those islands that had falcons' 

 nests. In those days of falconry, the birds possessed a 

 value of their own, which sometimes found a place in 

 charters, and the nests were protected by law from robbery. 



The Dean gives some interesting particulars about the 

 state of society in the Hebrides generally. There were 

 two distinct classes : the fighters and the labourers, the 

 former being the " gentlemen " who did no work, the class 

 against whom John Major inveighed. The tillers of the 

 soil (iiativif were never permitted to leave home : their 

 sole business was to attend to the crops. The islands 

 were capable of raising 6,000 men, one third of whom, 

 according to the prevailing custom, were clad in "attounes" 



* It is an interesting question who the nativi were. Were they the dregs 

 of the Norse-Celtic population, or were they the descendants of the aboriginal 

 thralU of the Norsemen 



