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218 THE HISTOKY
form'd a small track of groiuld, at Skorry-breck*
in the said ile of Skie, had yielded a hnndred-fold.
Nay, I have been told myself by a native of that
ile, that the people there believe they might have
two crops a year, if they took due pains. For this
I beg'd their pardon, but allow'd what was tanfamoiint,
since the words of Diodorus may no less
Justly be render'd a double crop, than ttpo crops f
which last, however, is in sOrae respects literally
true. For with regard to their pastures (of whicli
more comroo« than
somewhat before) nothing is
for a sheep to have two Iambs;}; at a time.
This
not ont'ly confirms my construction, and puts me
in mind of that verse in Virgil §,
She suckles twins, and tvsice a day is milk'd:
but also of what the so often mention'd Dr. Martin
relates on this|| occasion; which is, that be-
.lides the ordinary rent a tenant paid, it was a custom
in the ilands, if any of his cows or sheep
brought two yoimg ones at a time, one of them
was to go to the landlord: Avho, on his part, was
oblig'd, if any of his tenant's wives bore twins, to
take one of them into his own family; and that
he himself knew a gentleman, who had sixteen of
Jliese twins in his house at a time. Tis no wonder
they are populous. Even the wild goats on
the mountains, lor such there- are in
Harries, are
* Ibid, i i^nlws xxfirmt. X fage 108. § Bis venit ad mulctiam,
bir.os alit ubeie fictus. Echg. 3. I'cr. L'O.
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