Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

3*20 NORTH RONA.
As this resembled the bouses of the Esquimaux, it is
not unlikely also to be the subterranean house of Tacitus,
quoted in speaking of North Uist.
The interior resembled the prints which we have seen
of a Kamschatkan hut. Over the embers of a turf fire,
sat the ancient grandmother nursing the infant, which
was nearly naked. From the rafters hung festoons of
dried fish; but scarcely an article of furniture was to be
seen, and there was no light but that which came through
the smoke-hole. There was a sort of platform, or dais, on
which the fire was raised, where the old woman and her
charge sat; and one or two niches, excavated laterally
in the ground, and laid with ashes, seemed to be the only
bed places. Why these were not furnished with straw,
I know not ; and, of blankets, the provision was as scanty
afe that of the clothes. Possibly, ashes may make a better
and softer bed than straw ; but it is far more likely that
Kenneth Mac Cagie and his family could not be fashed
to make themselves more comfortable. Whatever the
fact be, this was precisely the bed which Jocelin tells us
that St. Kentegern used ; a stone tomb laid with ashes.
Whether Kenneth of Rona had copied St. Kentegern, or
had inherited the bed of a former saint, or of St. Ronan
himself, I leave to you to discover. The difficulty of
carrying on complicated investigations through the means
of interpreters, is sufficient at all times to excuse greater
omissions than you will find in the history of this State.
That cause operated especially in preventing us from
forming very clear notions about their moral situation ;
their own feelings, and wishes, and wants. This was a
variety in human life worth studying ; but our studies
evaporated in little more than empty speculation ; as
those of others have done before on more momentous
points. Every thing appeared wretched enough; a cli-
mate where winter never dies; a smoky subterranean