A new edition of Toland's History of the druids: - Free History Ebooks

,218 THE mSTORVformed a small track of g:r(>niKl, at Skerry-breck*in the said ile of Skie, had yielded a hiindred-foULNay, I have been told myself by a native of thatile, that the people there believe they might havetwo crops a year, if they took due pains.For thisI beg d their pardon, but aliow'd what was tantamount,since the words of Diodovas may no lessjustly be render'd a douhle crop, than ttvo crops -jwhich last, however, is in some respects literallytrue. For with regard to their pastures (of whichsomewhat before) nothing ismore common thanfor a sheep to have two lambs j: at a time. Thisnot onely confirms my construction, and puts mein mind of that verse in Virgil §,She suckles twins, and tvFice a day is milk'd:but also of what the so often mention d Dr. Martinrelates on this|] occasion; which is, that besidesthe ordinary rent a tenant paid, it was a customin the ilands, if any of his cows or sheepbrought two young ones at a time, one of themwas to go to the landlord: who, on his part, wasoblig'd, if any of his tenant's wives bore twins, totake one of them into his own family; and thathe himself knew a gentleman, who had sixteen ofthese twins in his house at a time. 'Tis no wonderthey are populous.the mountains, for such there are inEven the wild goats onHarries, are* Ibid, t AiT7oL-j K^prw;. X Page 108. § Bis Yenit ad mule.IriPj b.ioos alit ubere foetus. Echg. 3. ver. ZO. Page 109.[|