196 
BARRA, IN THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 
[Nature and Art, December 1, 1866. 
vessels, abandoned during tlieir voyage to or from 
our North American provinces, as well as others 
with crews and passengers on board, beaten in by 
stress of weather. In the six months ending J une, 
1866, very nearly .£300,000 worth of property has 
been washed ashore, or has appeared in distress off 
these islands. This shows the necessity for an 
efficient police, and a vigorous administration ; but 
the islanders look upon these wrecks as a special 
dispensation of a wise Providence. 
Most of the men were away on the East coast, 
fishing ; but we heard, on the authority of the 
doctor of one of the islands, that they were not 
half a match for the women. The women wear 
their hair loose about their heads, and, except the 
crones, very few were observed to have any decided 
head gear. Their legs are bare, excepting on oc- 
casions. We saw one or two women with footless 
stockings, and no shoes. Shoes are almost unknown 
amongst the women and children, and are not 
believed in — they keep the feet so wet — and footless 
stockings seemed to be great luxuries. The feet 
would be no use in the stockings, because they 
would be worn out in one day. For clothing the 
women wore all sorts of odd adaptations. It was 
a matter of wonder to us at first where they got 
their clothes from. They (the women) did not 
appear to us to wear, as a rule, clothes of home 
manufacture and of native wool ; but to have a 
selection from a most marvellous and miscellaneous 
collection of old clothes. In fact, amongst the 
women of the hamlets in Barra, there may be seen 
curtailed specimens — very faded, ragged, and Avorn 
out, it is true, but still specimens — of costume from 
Queen Anne’s time, downwards. The only con- 
clusion to be arrived at is that they get their clothes 
from wrecks, and thus obtain the fashions of 
almost all nations. The one drawback is that 
through sleeping on the ground Avith the animals at 
night, and getting Avet all day, the garments lose 
their distinctive colour and pattern, and all alike 
seem to be dirty, draggled, and deplorable. A robust 
woman, broad in the shoulders, thick-necked, large- 
handed, bare-legged, her hair half-way down her 
back, and a short, ragged garment, with little or no 
covering for her head, is of the ordinary type in 
Barra. The young ones ride very gracefully on 
bare-backed ponies ; and sometimes, though very 
rarely, the elder ones indulge in a short pipe. But, 
Avith all their coarseness, there is a bearing, a diffi- 
dence, and a shyness about them in the presence of 
strangers, that commands respect, and appeals to 
the heart for sympathy. It is charming to dAvell 
on the rights and social influence of woman ; to 
look on woman as she really is, the regenerator and 
civilizer of the human race. It is satisfactory to 
think that most of our great men oAve their great- 
ness to the influence and teaching of their mothers ; 
to speculate what each of us would have been and 
must inevitably have been if at some time or other 
in our cliequei’ed life, we had been deprived of the 
genuine and heartfelt solicitude of a mother, a 
sister, a Avife, or a daughter. It is cruel to think 
that in some parts of our civilized country, and in 
that part of it in which our Queen delights to dwell, 
woman is as degraded and her position is as 
hopeless as amongst savages. There the women and 
the girls dig manure and peat, Avhich they carry 
in heavy loads in baskets like caller herrin’ baskets, 
and (on the authority of the Highland Committee), 
“they do the work elseAvliere done by the lower 
animals.” 
It is sometimes pleasing to live in agreeable 
delusions. The delusion as to the social position 
of woman was one of these ; Jack the Giant- 
killer was another. The delusion that the amiable 
E. L. Blanchard, the delight of our childhood, 
wrote pantomimes whilst surrounded by fairies and 
flowers, was another. The delusion that Grace 
Darling was loA T ely and fairy-like, was another. 
These delusions pass away one after another, and 
are replaced by stern facts. The angelic Grace 
Darling gives place to the Barra woman. Grace 
Darling must haA r e been a heroine of the Barra 
type ; none other of the sex could have gone off in 
such a boat to such a Avreck, in such a storm as 
she did. We saAV several Grace Darlings in the 
flesh, here and elsewhere, some pulling boatloads of 
“Avinkles” to sea to meet the steamer going south. 
In the islands, other than Barra, they put oft' from 
dreamy Avooded little nooks and bays ; and if they 
had not always been accompanied by a very old 
man with a bright butcher’s-blue gingham, they 
would, in the distance, have been suggestive of 
Nereids. As a companion in a boat amongst the 
fearful and treacherous rocks of the Avest coast, on 
a stormy night, the actual black-haired, black-eyed 
Darling is a mighty fact. Strong, uncompromising, 
vigorous, and assuring, she pulls a heavy oar, with 
a straight fore and aft movement of the body. 
The determination of her mouth leads us to dread 
her; but her clear eye and retiring manner 
reassure us, and her limbs lead us to wonder by 
what process they Avere developed. 
The men whom Ave saw dressed better than the 
women, and like ordinary fishermen and hovellers. 
But some of the elders, the heads of families, 
seemed to exist only on dirt and pigtail. In a 
covering of dirt they stood at the doorways of their 
filthy huts looming at the puddles of stagnant 
water, Avith their heads in the smoke from the peat- 
fire — the door often serves for door, chimney, and 
window — a fit representation of the benighted and 
beAvildered state of the whole. 
The food of the people in Barra consists of oat- 
cake, potatoes, salt fish, milk, boldie, and brachsie ; 
and the drink is, as elseAvliere in Scotland, Avhisky. 
The streams give good healthy Avater for ducks 
and geese, and there are plenty of small insects for 
foAvls ; and the lakes and streams, as well as the 
bays and rocks, abound Avith fish. Not with fish 
to be lightly rejected, but with fish that an epicure 
Avould delight in : and yet these people nearly 
starve in the winter. Their food is potatoes and 
salt fish one day, varied by salt fish, meal, and 
potatoes the next day, Avith now and then some 
brachsie. Without meal, the proper allowance per 
head per diem is 8 lbs. of potatoes. They drink 
