The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

IN
The Seal. 467
THE SEAL IN HEBRIDEAN AND
NORTHERN LORE.
Bv WILLIAM MACKENZIE.
the folklore of the Hebrides the seal occupies a
prominent place. He is prized on account of the
uses to which his carcase is put, and, in addition, he is
more or less venerated because of a certain mystery
supposed to surround his life and history.
The Mainland Highlander is familiar with the seal as he
is seen basking in the sun on inaccessible rocks and out-
lying banks along the coast, or swimming by our eastern
and western shores. To him, however, he is only an animal
meet for destruction. Both on the Mainland and in the
Islands, its carcase when secured, was formerly put to various
uses. The skin, after being dried, was sometimes made into
Avaist-coats ; and persons suffering from sciatica wore
girdles of it, with the view of driving that malady away.
The smoker and chewer converted small squares of it
into splcJicJiaiii, or tobacco pouches ; while the husbandman
niade thongs of it, with which he fastened the.
primitive wooden plough to the harness of his horses.
Seal oil was considered as possessing medicinal virtues of
no mean order ; and for ages past, a course of ola-rbui was
a favourite, if not a ne\-er-failing, specific for chest diseases
in the Highlands.
From the pages of Adamnan, we learn that the Monks
>of lona, in the time of St Columba, had their seal preserve.
In Book I., chap. T)T), of the Vita Sancti Co/uinbcz, we are
told of a robber named Ere, from the Island of Colonsay,
who came across to Mull, and hid himself there during the
day time, in order that he might cross at night to the little
island ' where the young seals belonging to the Monks
^ The '• Little Island " here referred to is believed to be Earraid, lying to
the west (f tlie I\(jss of Mull, and south-east of lona.