198 
BARBA, IN THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 
[Nature and Art, December 1, 1866. 
superstition that snakes spring from the spinal 
marrow of a man. Garth’s translation has it 
thus : — 
“ There are who think the marrow of a man, 
"Which in the spine, while he was living, ran ; 
When dead, the pith corrupted will become 
A snake, and hiss within the hollow tomb.” 
But we are digressing, and, now that we haVe 
secured the reader’s attention, we must return to 
Barra in the Outer Hebrides. 
The people at Barra (Celts) are always spoken of 
as “ a 'peculiar people .” They are Papists of the 
most faithful order. They take vessels of holy 
water Avith them to sea in their boats and obtain 
the priest’s benediction before starting on a long 
voyage. They have a perfect and simple faith in 
the power of their priest. They believe in his 
power, because “ he can turn them into a pillar of 
salt.” Their belief in his goodness, however, we 
did not discover. They are the Ishmaelites of 
Scotland. Every man’s hand is, so to speak, against 
his neighbour. As a practical fact we found that 
almost every one had something to tell confidentially 
about somebody else that would have insured hang- 
ing or transportation for life if true and proved. 
The moment an absent man’s name was mentioned 
every one condemned him. They quarrel amongst 
themselves and live in a state of perpetual quiet 
hostility, each Avatching for the faults of the other ; 
but if a stranger come to the island to buy, or if a 
ship come in in distress, then they band together 
against the intruder. They act on the direction 
literally— “ If a stranger come within your gates, 
take him in ; ” and they do take him in with a 
vengeance. 
We Avere charged as much for the use of a dung- 
cart Avitliout springs, and the horse without harness, 
to take us over parts of these islands, as we should 
have paid for the use of a tAvo-horse brougham and 
a man in London for the same distance. At the 
inns the charges are higher than at the “ Waverleys,” 
and at the cleanest and best Ave had to sleep on a 
table, in a place Avith a brick floor and ducks for 
visitors. We must do this inn justice and say that 
it Avas clean, and that Ave were put about in this 
Avay because the Procurator-fiscal had engaged the 
only bedroom. Let its name be recorded as 
“ Sinclair’s Inn, Bhirva, Barra.” At the inn at 
Pulchar, in South Hist, there are four rooms on 
a floor : one was the tap-room, another was the 
stable and coAv-house, a third a pigstye, and the 
fourth a sort of dung-heap. The state room, is on 
the first floor, and is furnished Avith one bedstead 
and bed and two chairs. The ceiling was not water- 
tight, but the bedstead Avas intended to be. It has 
a good strong wooden roof, and can be moved about 
to the dry part of the room when it rains, and with 
a tarpaulin over it would be comfortable — that is 
to say, comparatively comfortable — all things going 
by comparison. It was more so than the dung or 
peat cart we travelled and rested in, but it was not 
so clean. In truth, the inns have not been run 
down enough : they are execrable holes. The pro- 
prietor of the island settles how many inns there 
shall be, and who shall be the innkeepers, and 
there is an end of it. Comfort or convenience is 
not required. People might go again if they were 
made comfortable, and to encourage strangers 
amongst them would seem to be, in their eyes, a 
mortal sin against independence of spirit. 
We must not omit mention of the sea “ware” 
or sea “rack.” It is the Fucus vesiculosus It 
fixes itself to the rock by a sort of fibrous sucker, 
grows from seven to twelve or fourteen feet long, 
and is about as thick as the wrist of a middle- 
sized man. It is used for three purposes, viz., 
fodder for cows, manure, and soda ashes. Its ap- 
pearance when cut across with a knife is something- 
like the section of a soft turnip. Great Arnlue is 
attached to this sea ware, as may be understood 
from the fact that at the time a well-knoAvn Avreck 
lay on one of the islands, the farmers’ people had to 
walk round her, instead of going straight, to get to 
the place Avhence they carted the sea weed before 
she came ashore. In fact, they Avent out of their 
way some yards, and for this, under the head of 
“ circuitous route which had to be taken for sea 
Aveed,” they claimed upwards of .£120 from the 
ship-owner. It seemed a favourable opportunity 
for making somebody pay for something, and was 
too good to be lost. 
Surface damage is another favourite claim. When 
a Avreck comes ashore it may do a little damage, and 
people passing and repassing may do a little more. 
We advisedly say may do. If a Avreck Avere to 
happen on some parts of our coasts, for instance on 
the margin of wheat fields, under crop, damage 
would be done ; but when a Avreck happens on 
granite rocks, and is confined to those rocks betAveen 
high and low water mark, no damage can be done 
to the coast, and when the surface further inland 
consists of a grass-groAvn peat thickly sprinkled Avith 
boulders of granite, it is not easy to see how any 
damage could be done to that. The damage in any 
case can only be that the “ bent ” may be worked off 
the surface Avhen it is sandy, or that where wreck 
is stacked the grass or bent will die under it ; but 
it will come up again next year. In one case this 
happened on one of the Hebrides. For about the 
space of three acres, patches of grass had been 
covered with Avreck and had faded, and patches of 
bent, in a space included in a hundred yards, had 
been Avorn off the sand. The damage done to the 
bent could be repaired by half a dozen labourers in 
two days, and we have shoAvn that a cottar can get 
a plot of ground for a pound a year : but about £30 
was charged for surface damage. In the case of 
another and sadder Avreck in a sandy bay in the 
Hebrides, an enormous sum Avas charged for surface 
damages. At the latter wreck also, a bill was serif 
in to the owners that could only be equalled in 
fiction. Amongst other things equally monstrous, 
Avas a charge of nearly £400 for “cattle scared, so 
# Commonly collected for the manufacture of kelp. Kelp 
is not now manufactured to any great extent, but a few 
years since it was a source of great wealth in the western 
islands and the western shores of Scotland. — Engl. Cyclop. 
(Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 113). 
