Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/192

Rh The soil produces excellent crops in great abundance, and they have also good black cattle; indeed, the little lone island is something of an elysium to its small population. At one time it was the abode of a gentleman of no mean standing among the gentlemen of the outer islands—Mr. MacDonald, a grandson of Clanronald, who, for one humane act in particular, is spoken of with admiration wherever his name is mentioned. Having learned about the massacre of Glencoe, he was so shocked by the atrocity of the deed, and so moved with compassion for the suffering widows and orphans of the murdered clan, that he got his sixteen-oared galley at once equipped and laden with barley grain—the produce of the little fertile isle—which he despatched to their relief,—a deed, be it observed, more worthy of its length and breadth upon the page of history than that royal one which gave occasion to it.

The stone coffins which are at times exposed by sand-drift and by the action of the waves, show that this island, which at one period was much greater in extent than it is at present, was inhabited by the ancient Caledonians. Nay, if I may credit living witnesses, there are indications of its having been inhabited by an earlier race than even they. Be that as it may, however, certain it is in the minds of the inhabitants that, at a period dating many generations back, Heiskeir was not a very desirable place to live in, or to die in rather; for live they could not there, and death did not come in the course of nature. A reign of terror threw its gloom over the mind of man and beast, occasioned by the too close proximity of a very ugly neighbour—a neighbour who would seize upon, tear up, and devour any living creature that he could lay hold of. His depredations occasioned many a wail of woe for several years. So powerful was this scourge that no means of destruction devised against him was of any avail.

I have heard of many terrible fellows of the tribe; but never did I hear of a more relentless, more destructive, more voracious rascal than the Heiskeir Each-Uisge. Others that I heard of in story could at times be soft, VOL. III.