iratical expeditions, which in rougher times
were very frequent, used, as tradition tells, to hide their oars. This
hollow was near the sea, that nothing so necessary might be far to be
fetched; and it was secret, that enemies, if they landed, could find
nothing. Yet it is not very evident of what use it was to hide their
oars from those, who, if they were masters of the coast, could take away
their boats.

A proof much stronger of the distance at which the first possessors of
this island lived from the present time, is afforded by the stone heads
of arrows which are very frequently picked up. The people call them Elf-
bolts, and believe that the fairies shoot them at the cattle. They
nearly resemble those which Mr. Banks has lately brought from the savage
countries in the Pacifick Ocean, and must have been made by a nation to
which the use of metals was unknown.

The number of this little community has never been counted by its ruler,
nor have I obtained any positive account, consistent with the result of
political computation. Not many years ago, the late Laird led out one
hundred men upon a military expedition. The sixth part of a people is
supposed capable of bearing arms: Raasay had therefore six hundred
inhabitants. But because it is not likely, that every man able to serve
in the field would follow the summons, or that the chief would leave his
lands totally defenceless, or take away all the hands qualified for
labour, let it be supposed, that half as many might be permitted to stay
at home. The whole number will then be nine hundred, or nine to a square
mile; a degree of populousness greater than those tracts of desolation
can often show. They are content with their country, and faithful to
their chiefs, and yet uninfected with the fever of migration.

Near the house, at Raasay, is a chapel unroofed and ruinous, which has
long been used only as a place of burial. About the churches, in the
Islands, are small squares inclosed with stone, which belong to
particular families, as repositories for the dead. At Raasay there is
one, I think, for the proprietor, and one for some collateral house.

It is told by Martin, that at the death of the Lady of the Island, it has
been here the custom to erect a cross. This we found not to be true. The
stones that stand about the chapel at a small distance, some of which
perhaps have crosses cut upon them, are believed to have been not funeral
monuments, but the an