There was no one, however, actually
within the _bo'h_, the three girls, when we came in sight, being
seated on a knoll by the burn-side, but it was really in the inside
of these two green hillocks that they slept, and cooked their food,
and carried on their work, and--dwelt, in short."[58]
These two "green hillocks," and other structures of the same nature, are
shown in the accompanying diagrams[59] (Plates I.-XVI.), which explain
their formation better than any written description. It is enough here
to state that they are built of rough stone, without any mortar. "Though
the stone walls are very thick," says my authority (p. 62), "they are
covered on the outside with turf, which soon becomes grassy like the
land round about, and thus secures perfect wind and water tightness."
Sometimes they occur in groups, as those shown in Plate III.; of which
scene Captain Thomas justly remarks that "at first sight it may be taken
for a picture of a Hottentot village rather than a hamlet in the British
Isles."[60] Here there is little or no grassy covering outside, however;
and consequently none of the hillock-like effect.
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