To pile stones is, I
believe, a northern custom, and to burn the body was the Roman
practice; nor do I know when it was that these two acts of
sepulture were united.
The weather was next day too violent for the continuation of our
journey; but we had no reason to complain of the interruption. We
saw in every place, what we chiefly desired to know, the manners of
the people. We had company, and, if we had chosen retirement, we
might have had books.
I never was in any house of the Islands, where I did not find books
in more languages than one, if I staid long enough to want them,
except one from which the family was removed. Literature is not
neglected by the higher rank of the Hebridians.
It need not, I suppose, be mentioned, that in countries so little
frequented as the Islands, there are no houses where travellers are
entertained for money. He that wanders about these wilds, either
procures recommendations to those whose habitations lie near his
way, or, when night and weariness come upon him, takes the chance
of general hospitality. If he finds only a cottage, he can expect
little more than shelter; for the cottagers have little more for
themselves: but if his good fortune brings him to the residence of
a gentleman, he will be glad of a storm to prolong his stay. There
is, however, one inn by the sea-side at Sconsor, in Sky, where the
post-office is kept.
At the tables where a stranger is received, neither plenty nor
delicacy is wanting. A tract of land so thinly inhabited, must
have much wild-fowl; and I scarcely remember to have seen a dinner
without them. The moorgame is every where to be had. That the sea
abounds with fish, needs not be told, for it supplies a great part
of Europe. The Isle of Sky has stags and roebucks, but no hares.
They sell very numerous droves of oxen yearly to England, and
therefore cannot be supposed to want beef at home. Sheep and goats
are in great numbers, and they have the common domestick fowls.
But as here is nothing to be bought, every family must kill its own
meat, and roast part of it somewhat sooner than Apicius would
prescribe. Every kind of flesh is undoubtedly excelled by the
variety and emulation of English markets; but that which is not
best may be yet very far from bad, and he that shall complain of
his fare in the Hebrides, has improved his delicacy more than his
manhood.
Their fowls are not like those plumped for sale by the poulterers
of London, but they are as good as other places commonly afford,
except that the geese, by feeding in the sea, have universally a
fishy rankness.
