raised towards the middle, on
which is placed the peat fire. The smoke, by a kind of instinct peculiar
to peat smoke, finds its way to a hole in the roof called the _falas_,
and makes its escape. The fire in the centre of the room was almost a
necessity of the good old _Ceilidh_ days. When the people congregated in
the evening, the circle could be extended to the full capacity of the
room, and occasionally it became necessary to have a circle within a
circle. A few extra peats on the fire would, at any time, by the
additional heat produced, cause an extension of the circle, and at the
same time send its warming influences to the utmost recesses of the
apartment. The circle became extended by merely pushing back the seats,
and this arrangement became absolutely necessary in the houses which
were most celebrated as the great _Ceilidh_ centres of the district.

The _Ceilidh_ rendezvous is the house in which all the Folk-lore of the
country, all the old _sgeulachdan_ or stories, the ancient poetry known
to the bards or _Seanachaidhean_, and old riddles and proverbs are
recited from night to night by old and young. All who took an interest
in such questions congregated in the evening in these centres of song
and story. They were also great centres of local industry. Net-making
was the staple occupation, at which the younger members of the circle
had to take a spell in turn. Five or six nets were attached in different
corners of the apartment to a chair, a bedstead or post set up for the
purpose, and an equal number of young gossipers nimbly plied their
fingers at the rate of a pound of yarn a day. Thus, a large number of
nets were turned out during the winter months, the proceeds of which,
when the nets were not made for the members of the household, went to
pay for tobacco and other luxuries for the older and most necessitous
members of the circle.

With these preliminary remarks we shall now introduce the readers of the
_Celtic Magazine_ to the most famous _Ceilidh_ house in the district,
and ask them to follow us from month to month while we introduce the
principal members of the celebrated circle. We shall make each re-appear
in these pages to repeat their old stories, recite old poems, never
published elsewhere, propound riddles, and in this way we shall be able
to lay before our readers a vast amount of the legends, clan feuds, and
traditional family history, connected with the Highlands, a large amount
of unpublishe