Time, and if
she did not please him, he was then at liberty to send her away.
This however must always have offended, and Macleod resenting the
injury, whatever were its circumstances, declared, that the wedding
had been solemnized without a bonfire, but that the separation
should be better illuminated; and raising a little army, set fire
to the territories of Macdonald, who returned the visit, and
prevailed.
Another story may show the disorderly state of insular
neighbourhood. The inhabitants of the Isle of Egg, meeting a boat
manned by Macleods, tied the crew hand and foot, and set them a-
drift. Macleod landed upon Egg, and demanded the offenders; but
the inhabitants refusing to surrender them, retreated to a cavern,
into which they thought their enemies unlikely to follow them.
Macleod choked them with smoke, and left them lying dead by
families as they stood.
Here the violence of the weather confined us for some time, not at
all to our discontent or inconvenience. We would indeed very
willingly have visited the Islands, which might be seen from the
house scattered in the sea, and I was particularly desirous to have
viewed Isay; but the storms did not permit us to launch a boat, and
we were condemned to listen in idleness to the wind, except when we
were better engaged by listening to the ladies.
We had here more wind than waves, and suffered the severity of a
tempest, without enjoying its magnificence. The sea being broken
by the multitude of islands, does not roar with so much noise, nor
beat the shore with such foamy violence, as I have remarked on the
coast of Sussex. Though, while I was in the Hebrides, the wind was
extremely turbulent, I never saw very high billows.
The country about Dunvegan is rough and barren. There are no
trees, except in the orchard, which is a low sheltered spot
surrounded with a wall.
When this house was intended to sustain a siege, a well was made in
the court, by boring the rock downwards, till water was found,
which though so near to the sea, I have not heard mentioned as
brackish, though it has some hardness, or other qualities, which
make it less fit for use; and the family is now better supplied
from a stream, which runs by the rock, from two pleasing water-
falls.
Here we saw some traces of former manners, and heard some standing
traditions. In the house is kept an ox's horn, hollowed so as to
hold perhaps two quarts, which the heir of Macleod was expected to
swallow at one draught, as a test of his manhood, before he was
permitted to bear arms, or could claim a seat among the men. It is
held that the return of the Laird to Dunvegan, after any
considerable absence, produces a plentiful capture of herrings; and
that, if any woman crosses the water to the opposite Island, the
herrings will desert the coast. Boetius tells the same of some
other place. This tradition is not uniform. Some hold that no
woman may pass, and others that none may pass but a Macleod.
Among other guests, which the hospitality of Dunvegan brought to
the table, a visit was paid by the Laird and Lady of a small island
south of Sky, of which the proper name is Muack, which signifies
swine. It is commonly called Muck, which the proprietor not
liking, has endeavoured, without effect, to change to Monk. It is
usual to call gentlemen in Scotland by the name of their
possessions, as Raasay, Bernera, Loch Buy, a practice necessary in
countries inhabited by clans, where all that live in the same
territory have one name, and must be therefore discriminated by
some addition. This gentleman, whose name, I think, is Maclean,
should be regularly called Muck; but the appellation, which he
thinks too coarse for his Island, he would like still less for
himself, and he is therefore addressed by the title of, Isle of
Muck.
This little Island, however it be named, is of considerable value.
It is two English miles long, and three quarters of a mile broad,
and consequently contains only nine hundred and sixty English
acres. It is chiefly arable. Half of this little dominion the
Laird retains in his own hand, and on the other half, live one
hundred and sixty persons, who pay their rent by exported corn.
What rent they pay, we were not told, and could not decently
inquire. The proportion of the people to the land is such, as the
most fertile countries do not commonly maintain.
The Laird having all his people under his immediate view, seems to
be very attentive to their happiness. The devastation of the
small-pox, when it visits places where it comes seldom, is well
known. He has disarmed it of its terrour at Muack, by inoculating
eighty of his people. The expence was two shillings and sixpence a
head. Many trades they cannot have among them, but upon occasion,
he fetches a smith from the Isle of Egg, and has a tailor from the
main land, six times a year. This island well deserved to be seen,
but the Laird's absence left us no opportunity.
Every inhabited island has its appendant and subordinate islets.
Muck, however small, has yet others smaller about it, one of which
has only ground sufficient to afford pasture for three wethers.
At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus, and was in danger of forgetting
that I was ever to depart, till Mr. Boswell sagely reproached me
with my sluggishness and softness. I had no very forcible defence
to make; and we agreed to pursue our journey. Macleod accompanied
us to Ulinish, where we were entertained by the sheriff of the
Island.
