Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 7, 1899

64
THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
generally speaking, a nice people, but their
sufl'eiance of nastiness is past endurance. Con-
taoious fever is seldom, if ever, absent ; but for
many years it has seldom been rife in its pesti-
ferous influence. The people owe this more to
the kindness of Almighty God than to any
means taken for its prevention." . . . He
adds, " When cholera prevailed in Inverness, it
was more fatal than in almost any other town
of similar population in Britain."
The mode of living among the poorer classes
is of'the commonest description, indeed often
bordering on starvation. Their chief fare is
oatmeal porridge, or salt herrings and potatoes,
while in many of the outer isles a meal has
often to be made on a few cockles gathered on
the sands or some limpets picked off the rocks.
During the most prosperous year, the poor
crofter lives but a "hand to mouth" existence;
and, when a bad season turns up or the fishing
proves a failure — starvation stares him in the
face — hence the famine which occurred during
the years 1846-47 when the potato blight visited
the country, and plunged the poorer people into
the severest distress. Their chronic state of
almost entire poverty, together with the potato
failure, landed them in a state of extreme
wretchedness. Ireland was suffering in a
similar manner ; yet notwithstanding the heavy
drain made on public generosity, in the case of
Ireland, a " Destitution Fund " was raised by
voluntary subscription in Scotland, England,
and the Colonies, to relieve if not to check the
prevailing distress in the Highlands. Sir John
MacNeill, who, at the time of the potato failure,
■was chairman of the Poor Law Board of Scot-
land, in speaking of the demoralising effects of
eleemosynary aid, said: — "The inhabitants of
Lewis appear to have no feeling of thankfulness
for the aid extended to them, but on the
contrary regard the exaction of labour in return
for wages as oppression. Yet many of these
very men, on a coast singularly destitute of safe
creeks, prosecute the winter cod-and-ling-fishing
in open row boats, at a distance from the land
that renders it invisible, unless in clear weather,
and in a sea open to the Atlantic and Northern
Oceans, with no land beyond it nearer than
Iceland or America. They cheerfully encounter
the perils and hardships of such a life, and tug
for hours at an oar, or sit drenched in their boat
without complaint ; but to labour with a pick
or a spade to them is most distasteful."
Highlanders are a very sociable race, and
perhaps nothing is more enjoyed, by old and
young, than a "Ceilidh" when sitting around the
glowing turf fire, they repeat story upon story,
each more wonderful than the other, about
giants and witches and fairies and midnight
adventures, that make the very hairs of the
head stand on end. These tales are sometimes
varied by songs ; and often does Donald blow
his chanter and make his bagpipes skirl ; and
all join in a hearty country dance or in the good
old-fashioned " Reel of Tulloch," and thus the
long winter nights are passed by those humble
people in innocent simplicity. Can we wonder
at them thus trying to wile away the long
dreary weary time in that desolate country and
damp moorland atmosphere, where they are
compelled to pass an existence in poverty, hard-
ship, and isolated imprisonment ]
(To be continued).
A MORNING SONG.
^^I^^H. bright is the glory
jf^ Tliat. mountains! streams o'er thee,
Behind and before me
lour summits uprise ;
The white mists are trailing,
The plover is wailing,
And I>uua is paling
Adown the soft skies.
The dark loch lies dreaming
'Neath golden light streaming ;
The snow-drift is gleaming
On yon mountain-crest ;
The dew-drops are glowing
By briglit waters flowing.
And zephers come blowing
From out the cool west.
Tlie streamlets are leaping
By dark willows weeping ;
The wild stag is sleeping
In coverts of green,
While musingly wending
"With heart-songs unending,
Where spring-flow'rs are blending
With summer's rich sheen.
The winds of the dingle
With sea-breezes mingle
O'er tangle and shingle,
That floor the cold cave ;
My happy voice singing,
Ke-echoed, is ringing
On breezes high flinging
The foam o'er the wave.
John W. Macleod.
Strathy, Sutherland.
Messrs. Thomas Hodge & Co., The Warehouse,
Amderston Cross, Glasgow, are at present holding
their annual New Year display, and are attracting
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Everything for household or personal use can be
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