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D e n a r i u s ,
an!
D r i n k i n g - s h e l l .
So difficult is it to root out follies that have the fan<Sion of
tiquity.
The laft favor that I was indebted to Mr. Mac-donald for, is a‘
Denarius, of the Emperor ‘Trajan, found on a moor near the ihore oj
Loch-Grifernis; a probable, but not a certain evidence that the
mans had landed in this illand. We have no lights from hiftory tcj
enable us to fay what was done during the reign o f that emperor I
in the fucceeding, Adrian reduced the bounds o f the empire to thj
.place ilill called his wall, and loft all communication with tliJ
i(lands; but in the following reign they were extended to theil
antient bounds, and the ifles might be vifited from the Glota eJluM
■rium, the ftation of the fleet, and the money in queilion loft at tha J
time in Skie. But its being found there may be accounted for byl
another fuppofition : that of its having been the booty o f an iflandi
foldier, taken from the Romans in fome of the numberlefs ikirmilhesl
in one o f the following reigns, and brought here as a mark oil
viftory.
I obferve that the great fcallop-lhell is made ufe o f in the dairies on
this country for the fkimming o f milk. In old times, it had a mor*
honorable place, being admitted into the halls of heroes, and was the|
cup of their feftivity. As Do£tos Mac-pherfon expreffes it, ‘ The whole!
tribe filled the hall of the chieftain ; trunks o f trees covered witHI
mofs were laid in form o f tables from one end to the other; whole!
beeves or deer were roafted and laid before them on rough boards,!
or hurdles o f rods woven together : the pipers played while they I
fat at table, and filence was obieryed by all. After the feaft wasl
over, they had ludicrous entertainments ; a p raft ice ftill con-1
‘ tinned]
tinued in part of the highlands : the females retired, and the old
a n d young warriors fat in order, down from the chieftain, according
to their proximity in blood to him 5 the harp was then touched,
.the long was raifed, and -the Sliga-crechin, or the drinking-ihell,
went round.’
Am lodged this night in the fame bed that formerly received the
unfortunate Charles Stuart. Here he lay one night, after having been
for fome time in a female habit under the proteftion of Flora Macdo-
mll Near this place he refumed thedrefs of his own fex by the afllft-
ance of the mafter of the houfe, Mr. Alexander\Macdonald, who fuffered
along imprifonment on that account; but neither the fear of puniih-
ment, nor the promifes of reward, could induce him to infringe the
[rights of hofpitality, by betraying an unhappy man who had flung
himfelf under his proteftion.
Leave King/burgh, travel on a good horfe road, pafs by a cairn,
with a great ftone at the top, called the high-ftone of Ugg. I muft
remark, that the Danes left behind them in many places the names
of their deities, their heroes, and their bards : thus in the rock Hum-
1k is perpetuated the name o i llwrnblus *, one o f their antient kings j
I the iile of Gunna\ afiumed the title of one of the Vylkyria, the fatal
fitters •, Ulva takes its name from the bear-begotten hero, Ulvo J ;
and the ftone of Ugg feems to have been erefted in memory of the
poet Uggerus ||.
Beneath is the fertile bottom of Ugg, laughing with corn: afcend
Sax. Gram. 5, forfaits, 36.
|| Sax, Gram, !
Y y
t Sax. Gram. 1 9 3 .
i hill,
M i l
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J u l y 23,
D a n i s h n a m e s .
> ss