g to 2-1/2 feet wide at the head, where it is 16 inches high."_

The above is given by Captain Thomas as an example of such dwellings
"having oven-like bed-places around the internal area. 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. She
took wonder, and she stopped striking the tether-peg. A woman put
out her head and all above her middle, and she said, 'What business
hast thou to be troubling this tulman [mound] in which I make my
dwelling?' 'I am taking care of this couple of calves, and I am but
weak. Where shall I go with them?' 'Thou shalt go with them to that
breast down yonder. Thou wilt see a tuft of grass. If thy couple of
calves eat that tuft of grass, thou wilt not be a day without a
milk cow as long as thou art alive, because thou hast taken my
counsel.'

"As she said, she never was without a milk cow after that, and she
was alive fourscore and fifteen years after the night that was
there."

[Illustration: PLATE VII.

GROUND PLAN OF _BOTHAN GEARRAIDH NA H'AIRDE MOIRE_, UIG LEWIS, HEBRIDES.

_a. Dwelling apartments._

_b. Fosgarlan or Porch._

_c. Cuiltean or Milk cupboards._

_d. Stonebench or Bedplace._

_AB. Line of Section._

_CD. View as represented as restored._]

[I