256 Proceedings of the Royal Iria/i Academy. 



Young boys wear the kilt-like frock of grey or white home- 

 spun to a later age than noted elsewhere, sometimes up to thirteen or 

 fourteen years of age. A belief prevails that to put boys into trousers 

 too early is likely to check their growth. Childi-en usually go bare- 

 headed and barefoot. At Trabane National School, on August 22nd, out 

 of fourteen boys present only fiye had caps. The children are usually 

 the worst clad members of the community, and their clothing is often 

 very ragged. Some of the dyes for the homespuns are obtained from 

 plants growing on the islands. Kag-weed gives a yelloAv dye ; 

 heather, water lily roots, and purple loose-strife give browns and 

 blacks. The red dyes for the women's clothing are bought at the 

 shops, and are usually madder and aniline colours. 



5. Dwellings. — The houses are of a verj' poor description, but vary 

 much in type. As a rule they are built of dry stone, without mortar, 

 .and thickly plastered inside. In some of the poorer houses, tempered 

 cow-dung is used for plastering. The best houses are those built along 

 the main roads which have only been erected within the past ten years. 

 The worst are those in some of the coast-villages. The floor consists 

 nisually of bare rock or large stones, the spaces between being filled up 

 with mortar or beaten clay. 



The poorest class of dwellings consist of only one apartment, and 

 lare often very small, the smallest seen measuring about 10 feet in 

 length by 8 in breadth internally, and the average size being about 

 18 feet by 10. A house of this class has, like the rest, two doors or 

 •doorways opposite one another, and about 5 feet in height, the one on 

 the windward side being kept closed. The door is composed of a few 

 rough boards. In some cases there is no door, but a straw mat or 

 bundles of furze in a wooden frame take its place. Windows are 

 represented by a couple of holes in the wall, a foot or 18 inches square, 

 .sometimes glazed, and iu these cases not made to open, sometimes filled 

 with rags or a few sods of turf. These are on the side of the house 

 sheltered from prevailing winds. A house of this sort may appear from 

 the outside to have a chimney, but this is merely a structure built 

 4iround the hole in the roof at the gable which serves the purpose of 

 letting out the smoke ; there is no flue inside, and the hearth is 

 merely a few stones against the end wall of the house. The floor 

 is bare rock. The rafters are made of drift wood or bog timber 

 .sawn, and are black from the smoke. The roof is thatch laid on 

 ■over scraws of turf, and held on by sougans (or straw ropes) fastened 

 .down either by pegs driven into the walls, or by large stones tied 

 •on to them. About one-third of the dwellings in Lettermullen are 



