CHAPTEE XXXIV. 



Early sowing recommended — Vitality of Superstitions — Capnomancy — Hazel Nuts : Frequent 

 References to in Gaelic Poetry — How best to get at the full flavour of a ripe Hazel Nut. 



A fortnight's incessant rain [September 1872] — rain descending^ 

 at times in solid sheets — not only wets the ground and puddles the 

 roads, but makes one's very brains feel soft and sloppy and mashed- 

 turnip-wise. You take up a book only to lay it down again. You 

 fill your pipe and set it alight, but with less than half a dozen 

 whiffs you are more than satiated. The weed has lost its flavour. 

 You sit down to write " doggedly," as Johnson says, but with all 

 your doggedness the pen totters over the sheet with pace uncertain 

 and listless, as if even he felt disinclined for the task, and the 

 sentences, like a squad of raw recruits, refuse to fall gracefully into 

 their places, and stumble against each other in ludicrous confusion, 

 to the consternation and grief of the most patient of drill-sergeants. 

 You will not, perhaps, believe it, but it is true, nevertheless, that 

 so persistent, penetrating, and inter-penetrating has been the last 

 fortnight's rain, that in nineteen cases out of twenty a lucifer 

 match, " vesuvian," or fusee will obstinately refuse to ignite by 

 any other process than putting it into actual contact ■with fire, and 

 in that case, why, a slip of paper is just as easily dealt with, as well 

 as more efficacious for your purpose. Hay and corn luckily stand 

 a good deal of rain without being completely spoiled, but we are 

 afraid to estimate the amount of damage that another week's wet 

 weather will cause over the West Highlands. All our own hay 

 and corn has been snugly housed more than throe weeks ago. "Why 



