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MacRitchie, David, 1861-1925

"Fians, Fairies and Picts"

This interesting
summer house illustrates the most antique form of dormitory; but in the
winter houses the floor of the bedroom was raised three or four feet
above the ground." (Compare the side cells in Maes-How, Orkney.)]
PLATE VI.--_Chambered Mound (Both Stacseal), near Stornoway,
Lewis._
(From Plate XXXII. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)
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 night and lateness caught her, and there
came rain and tempest, and she was seeking shelter. She went to a
knoll with the couple of calves, and she was striking the
tether-peg into it. The knoll opened. She heard a gleegashing
(_gliogadaich_) as if a pot-hook were clashing beside a pot.


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