Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

324 SHI A NT ISLES.
beach, as if it was impossible they ever could be anory
again ;
the wind was hushed, the sky was blue, and the
long grass hung motionless from the rocks above. We
landed once more on the same spot, but all was solitude
and silence: the green transparent wave curled gently
on the shore, and the angry spirits of the deep had re-
tired to their green caves below. Thus, at least, I con-
jectured ; for there was a whispering and mysterious
air among the men, as if they feared again to waken the
dusky forms that rouse the boiling waves with their dark
wings.
But they and I had been alike mistaken in our ex-
pectations: they of fairies, and I of fairy land. The
term Shiant is of wide application ;
and though bestowed
on a lake which is the haunt of the gentler spirits of the
air and water, in Sky, it seems to have been conferred on
these islands merely from their having once possessed
a religious monastic establishment. There are three
islands, besides some detached rocks, disposed in the
form of a triangle ; two of them, Eilan na Kily and
Gariveilan, being connected by a neck of pebbles that is
seldom covered, unless in a high tide and a stormy sea.
Eilan Wirrey lies detached, at the distance of about half
a mile. The two former appear to be, each, about two
miles in circuit, the latter about one ;
and the whole form
a single sheep farm, tended by a solitary family that re-
sides on Eilan na Kily. They are verdant, being en-
tirely covered with long rich grass; offering a delicious
solitude, if suns would always shine and seas were always
calm. If the Highland sea-fairies had been desirous of a
maritime kingdom for themselves, I know not where they
could have chosen a better.
Gariveilan, which is the most conspicuous of the
group, is 530 feet high, by barometric measurement.
To the eastward it runs out into a long narrow ridge,