Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

FLANNAN ISLANDS. 207
the ruins of a chapel dedicated to this last personage
but Martin's authority is not absolute ; particularly as he
had never heard of the prior saint. To whomever the
right of patronage belongs, Martin says that when the
fowlers visited these islands, they prayed three times
round these ruins before proceeding to their business,
leaving- their upper garments on a stone. The same pro-
cess was repeated for vespers ;
after which it was not per-
mitted to kill a fowl. All these islands were considered
as places of inherent sanctity, particularly disposing men
to devotion. They seem further to have wrought as a
perpetual ordeal ; as, if any of the partners in this chase
stole and ate a bird unknown to his friends, the sanctity of
the ground caused it to operate as an emetic. The pro-
ceedings required for disgorging ill-gotten wealth in our
own day, are somewhat moreoperose and a little more ex-
pensive. Saint Ipecacuanha would deserve a double-
sized red letter in the Calendar, could he be revived and
rendered operative again. One of these islands, called
Lusbirdan, or the island of little men, was inhabited by
pigmies. Whether these pigmies were only fairies, or of
the same breed which attacked Hercules and gave rise
to Gulliver, or of Homer's race, Mr. Martin does not
condescend to say. At any rate, it is not very surprising
that they have disappeared ;
as they must have stood as
bad a chance with cormorants as with cranes, and have
probably all been devoured some time since.
As there is no agriculture carried on in the Flannan
islands, that is a very good reason for treating you with
an essay on that subject; and lest you should consider
this a non sequitur, I beg you to remember that people
never think so much of eating as when there is nothing
to eat. There is another reason ; and it is, that you have
not yet had time to forget the former dissertation on
;