Download Volume 12 here

392 Gaelic Society of Inuerness.
have often seen the roof being removed in the morning and rephvced
by the evening.
Tn the Islands, from the greater scarcity of timber, the roof
and woodwork are still further economised, and stone takes the
place of timber to a greater extent. In Harris the walls are often
6 to 8 feet thick, being formed of stone on the outer and inner
face, the centre being tilled up with moss and sods, while the roof
is placed on the inner side of the walls, and the great breadth
forms a rampart on which cattle and children may disport themselves.
Travelling in Lochabcr on one occasion, I asked what a
cottage would cost them. The reply was, " Well, it depends on
the number of couples, but a house could be put up for 50s., but it
would take £5 to make a right one."
At the same time as the house was constructed by home
labour, it was natural that all the furnishings should partake of
the same primitive character, and accordingly wefinc^ the materials
at hand were made to serve the ends required by simple home
manufacture. After the house building, one of the first essentials
would be cooking utensils, and we find that s simple gricUron and
pot were indispensable. These were formed of hammered metal,
and these cauldrons occasionally turn up, mostly of bronze, and
this may be accounted for by the greater durability and value of
copper and bronze, and these are always found in ancient examples
to be of sheets of metal made u|) in pieces and riveted. Many
specimens of this still exist, but the cast iron pot has entirely superseded
them in every-day life. The native pottery seems to have
held its own to a much later date, and the Lewis pottery is well
known, and in Kilmuir, Skye, the Rev. Mr Macgregor told me he
had often watched the natives making the craggan for family use.
Sixty years ago there were in the parish of Kilmuir only three
teapots, and a single pot represented the entire cooking apparatus
of a family, in which case the potatoes were boiled in the pot and
the herrings were placed in the pot over the cooked potatoes, and
so prepared.
Dishes of all kinds wei-e scarcely known, and instead thereof
a square Ijoard above 17 inches across with a rim 3 inches high all
roiind, called " Clar," served for the dish to hold potatoes and fish,
and the family seated round a nide table eat their meal from it. Mr
Macgregor also mentions, tiiat "In many of ihe poorer dwellings
there was but one horn spoon, which was handed from member to
member to help themselves in turn." There were but few bowls,
cups, or dishes of earthenware in these humble dwellings, but many
of them had wooden cups of various siz(>s which they got froni crews