5o8 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



he had heard of eighteen men who could play the violin 

 very well without being taught. They still retained their 

 character for hospitality, although recent years of famine 

 had brought some of them to the verge of destitution, 

 while many had actually died of starvation. They were 

 excellent swimmers and archers, and were expert at 

 vaulting and leaping ; their proficiency in these sports 

 was inherited from their Norse ancestors. They were 

 also stout and able seamen, and would tug at an oar all 

 day long on bread and water and a " snush " of tobacco. 



Martin specifies the famous wells mentioned by John 

 Morison from whom, indeed, he appears to have derived 

 a good deal of his information and states, also, that the 

 water of Loch Carloway was incapable of making linen 

 white, as proved by many experiments. He describes 

 various semi-heathen superstitions and rites still practised, 

 some of which will be referred to later on. The curious 

 customs which prevailed in the Flannan Isles and Rona 

 form interesting reading. And the tradition associated 

 with the inevitable Isle of Pigmies (Lusbirdan) is faithfully 

 recorded. 



In Rona, there were five families who formed a primitive 

 community, knowing no vices, and not deficient in positive 

 virtues. When the minister of Barvas, who owned the 

 island, visited them, he was hospitably entertained, each 

 family presenting him with a sheep, which, after being 

 flayed, was filled with barley meal. When any of these 

 simple people visited Lewis, they were astonished to see 

 so many people, and marvelled greatly at the greyhounds 

 and the horses. One of them hearing a horse neigh, 

 gravely asked whether it was laughing at him ! The 

 minister of Barvas was sometimes employed as their 

 matrimonial agent. On one occasion, he was handed a 

 shilling by a native of Rona, who had received it from 

 a sailor. " Buy me a wife in Lewis with this," was the 

 naive request of the Rona man, whose ideas regarding the 

 value of the coin, and the marriage market in Lewis, were 

 equally vague. It is gratifying to observe that in the 



