and his poor support is eked out by the contributions
of a missionary society. It was gratifying to learn that this was
not from stinginess on the part of the people, but was due to their
religious principle. It seemed to us that everybody ought to be good in
a country where it costs next to nothing.

When the service was over, about half of the people departed; the
rest remained in their seats and prepared to enter upon their Sabbath
exercises. These latter were all Gaelic people, who had understood
little or nothing of the English service. The minister turned himself
at once into a Gaelic preacher and repeated in that language the long
exercises of the morning. The sermon and perhaps the prayers were
quite as enjoyable in Gaelic as in English, and the singing was a great
improvement. It was of the same Psalms, but the congregation chanted
them in a wild and weird tone and manner, as wailing and barbarous to
modern ears as any Highland devotional outburst of two centuries ago.
This service also lasted about two hours; and as soon as it was over
the faithful minister, without any rest or refreshment, organized the
Sunday-school, and it must have been half past three o'clock before that
was over. And this is considered a day of rest.

These Gaelic Christians, we were informed, are of a very old pattern;
and some of them cling more closely to religious observances than to
morality. Sunday is nowhere observed with more strictness. The community
seems to be a very orderly and thrifty one, except upon solemn and
stated occasions. One of these occasions is the celebration of
the Lord's Supper; and in this the ancient Highland traditions are
preserved. The rite is celebrated not oftener than once a year by
any church. It then invites the neighboring churches to partake with
it,--the celebration being usually in the summer and early fall months.
It has some of the characteristics of a "camp-meeting." People come from
long distances, and as many as two thousand and three thousand assemble
together. They quarter themselves without special invitation upon the
members of the inviting church. Sometimes fifty people will pounce upon
one farmer, overflowing his house and his barn and swarming all about
his premises, consuming all the provisions he has laid up for his
family, and all he can raise money to buy, and literally eating him out
of house and home. Not seldom a man is almost ruined by one of these
religious raids,--at least h