Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

INSULAR CIlURCHllS, 389
servants could have existed in days so turbulent; whereas,
with the exception of the plunder of Rasay from lona, it
does not appear that the property of the Church ever suf-
fered, after the last invasions of the piratical Northmen
in the ninth century. Were any thing- further necessary
to prove the prevalence of religion among- the Western
Clans, it would be found in those very usages which
Martin, living- after the Reformation, enumerates as among
their superstitions. The most important of those are
plainly the relics of Roman Catholic worship or cere-
mony. He also distinctly tells us, that the fishermen
prayed in the various chapels, which were even then in
ruins, when commencing, or while engaged on any of
their expeditions; while he also describes voluntary ser-
vice as being regularly performed, as I have lately no-
ticed, even in the chapel of North Rona, then inhabited
by only five families. The fishermen's form of prayer,
which has been preserved in Kerswell's Liturgy, is a com-
position which it would be well if they remembered still.
It is unfortunate that, with his usual carelessness, Martin
has not given us a list of the churches and chapels in all
the islands in his time, as he has done with respect to
many. Hence, as there is little other authority now on
this subject, than his and that of Dean Monro, we are
left a good deal to conjectures; yet to conjectures that
may be safely made from what is recorded. I have added
to the lists of those authors, such specimens as I have
found myself, and they had omitted; but as those build-
ings have utterly disappeared in so many places, the cata-
logue, even with these amendments, is still very imperfect.
Commencing with the Long Island, it appears from
Martin, that there were twenty-five churches and chapels
in Lewis; and from other authorities, we know that there
were twelve belonging to the establishment of Rowdill in
Harris. There also was a kirk in Pabba, according to