"Sometimes ... it seems that the stones are really speaking—speaking of the old things, of the time when the strange fishes and animals lived that are turned into stone now, and the lakes were here; and then of the time when the little Bushmen lived here, so small and so ugly, and used to sleep in the wild dog holes, and in the 'sloots,' and eat snakes, and shoot the bucks with their poisoned arrows ... Now the Boers have shot them all, so that we never see a little yellow face peeping out among

The following treatise is to some extent a re-statement and partly an amplification of a theory I have elsewhere advanced. [1] But as that theory, although it has been advocated by several writers, especially during the past half-century, is not familiar to everybody, some remarks of an explanatory nature are necessary. And if this explanation assumes a narrative form, not without a tinge of autobiography, it is because this seems the most convenient way of stating the case. It is now a dozen ye

The general belief at the present day is that, of the three designations here classed together, only that of the Picts is really historical. The Fians are regarded as merely legendary—perhaps altogether mythical beings; and the Fairies as absolutely unreal. On the other hand, there are those who believe that the three terms all relate to historical people, closely akin to each other, if not actually one people under three names. To those unacquainted with the views of the realists, or euhemerist

Captain Thomas thus describes his descent into and exploration of this earth-house:—"An irregular hole was pointed out by the little lassie before alluded to, and some of my party quickly disappeared below ground. As they did not immediately return, I thought it was time to follow, and squeezing through the ruinated entrance ( a ), I entered the usual kind of gallery, which descended into the ground at a sharp angle. At the bottom, on the right-hand side, was the usual guard-cell ( b ); the side

Fig. 8. Captain Thomas selects this as "the most modern, and at the same time the last, in all probability, that will be constructed in this manner"—viz., "roofed by the horizontal or cyclopean arch, i.e. , by a system of overlapping stones." "The woman who was living in it [about 1869] told us it was built for his shieling by Dr. Macaulay's grandfather, who was tacksman [leaseholder] of Linshader ... and I conclude that it was made about ninety years back." [72] Fig. 9. Sir Arthur Mitchell says

See p. 47 , ante ....

At the date of Captain Thomas's visit (1861) a man was still living who had been born in one or other of these dwellings....

"A hole ( e ), called the Farlos, is left in the apex of the roof for the escape of the smoke, and is closed with a turf or flat stone as requisite." Height of Dome, 7 feet. a, b. Doorways. c. Fireplace. d. Row of stones for seats. e. Centre. (Distance from e to end of cells, 7 feet.) f, g, h. Cells or bed-places. f is "2 feet wide and 15 inches high at the inner end; is 5 feet long and 3 feet high at the mouth. The opposite cell (g) is of the same dimensions. The third cell (h) is 4 feet wide a

With reference to the farlos , or smoke-hole (otherwise "sky-light"), which, in this instance, is at a height of 7 feet from the floor of the dwelling, Captain Thomas remarks:—"A man, on standing upright, can often put his head out of the hole and look around" ( op. cit. , vol. iii., p. 130 n. ). This suggests the following story, told by Mr. J.F. Campbell ( West Highland Tales , vol. ii., pp. 39-40): "There was a woman in Baile Thangusdail, and she was out seeking a couple of calves; and the ni

"By far the most singular of all these structures, and probably unique in the Long Island, is at Gearraidh na h-Airde Moire, on the shore of Loch Resort. I cannot describe it better than by bidding you suppose twelve individual bee-hive huts all built touching each other, with doors and passages from one to the other. The diameter of this gigantic booth is 46 feet, and [it] is nearly circular in plan. The height of the doors and passages about 2½ feet; and under the smokehole ( farlos ), in two

"I have next to notice," says Captain Thomas ( op. cit. , p. 164), "that form of bo'h, Pict's house, or clochan, whichever name may be adopted by archæologists, to which a hypogeum or subterranean gallery is attached.... [The present example] is in South Uist, about half a mile inland from Moll a Deas (South Beach); and the Moll is about one mile and a half to the south of Husinish (Husness, i.e. , Houseness). The site of the bo'h is called Meall na [h-] Uamh, or Cave Lump [more correctly, the M

"An ancient dwelling, semi-subterranean, exists at Nisibost, Harris [and is described in vol. iii. of the Proceedings , p. 140].... A still finer example exists near to Meall na h-Uamh, in South Uist.... The bo'h, or Pict's house, as it would be called in the Orkneys—but the name is unknown in the Long Island—that I am about to describe lies less than half a mile above the shepherd's house; but so little curiosity had that individual that he was entirely unacquainted with it; and I believe it wo

Describing this earth-house, Captain Thomas says:—"The drawing is from a photograph of the entrance, which is 2 feet 10 inches high and 1½ foot broad. The sea flows up to it at high tides. On crawling in, there is seen the usual guard-cell ( b ), close beside the entrance, but so small that we may be sure the sentinel, if there was one, must have been a light weight; in fact, we are almost driven to the conclusion that there were no Bantings in those days. This guard-cell is but 2 feet 5 inches

These plates represent the "Pict's house" referred to by Captain Thomas (pp. 50-51 , ante ), with regard to which he says:—"Maes howe was for three families—grandees, no doubt; but the numbers it was intended to hold in the beds may be learned by comparing them with the Amazon's House, St. Kilda." The structure last named is described by Captain Thomas and Mr. T.S. Muir in vol. iii. of the Proceedings (pp. 225-228), where it is stated:—"The Amazon's House is of the same class with our earliest s

The diagrams here shown are from drawings by Mr. W.F. Wakeman, the veteran Irish archæologist. [76] With reference to the spiral carvings at the doorway of the Brugh, it may be mentioned that "the same kind of ornament appears on a stone found amidst a heap which had once been a 'Pict's-house' in the island of Eday, Orkney;" [77] and that in Orkney, also, there has been found, in an underground house, a large stone "saucer," or "tray," resembling the two shown in the ground plan of the Brugh. (T

In addition to my original collection, I am now able to show three views of the Denghoog, in Sylt, which is the mound referred to on p. 34 ( ante ). Mr. W.G. Black speaks of it thus:— "There is some confusion as to King Finn's dwelling. As doctors differ, we may be allowed to claim that it was the Denghoog, close to Wenningstedt, if only because we descended into that remarkable dwelling. Externally merely a swelling green mound, like so many others in Sylt, entrance is gained by a trap-door in