rooms, or horseboys, who
are a degree above the daltins. The third degree is the
_kaerne_, which is an ordinary soldier, using for weapon his
sword and target, and sometimes his piece, being commonly so good
marksmen, as they will come within a score of a great cartele. The
fourth degree is a _gallowglass_, using a kind of poll-axe for
his weapon, strong, robust men, chiefly feeding on beef, pork, and
butter. The fifth degree is to be a horseman, which is the {40}
chiefest, next to the lord and captain. These horsemen, when they
have no stay of their own, gad and range from house to house, and
never dismount till they ride into the hall, and as far as the
tables."

* * * * *

MARRIAGE.

The minister of Logierait, in Perthshire, in his statistical account
of that parish, supplies us with the following curious information
on this and other marriage ceremonies:--"Immediately before the
celebration of the marriage ceremony, every knot about the bride and
bridegroom (garters, shoe-strings, strings of petticoats, &c.) is
carefully loosed. After leaving the church, the whole company walk
round it, keeping the church walls always upon the right hand; the
bridegroom, however, first retires one way, with some young men, to
tie the knots that were loosened about him, while the young married
woman, in the same manner, retires somewhere else to adjust the
disorder of her dress."

* * * * *

NEEDFIRE.

The following extract contains a distinct and interesting account of
this very ancient superstition, as used in Caithness:

"In 1788, when the stock of any considerable farmer was seized with
the murrain, he would send for one of the charm doctors to
superintend the raising of a _needfire_. It was done by
friction, thus: upon any small island, where the stream of a river
or burn ran on each side, a circular booth was erected, of stone and
turf, as it could be had, in which a semicircular or highland couple
of birch, or other hard wood, was set; and, in short, a roof closed
on it. A straight pole was set up in the centre of this building,
the upper end fixed by a wooden pin to the top of the couple, and
the lower end in an oblong _trink_ in the earth or floor; and
lastly, another pole was set across horizontally, having both ends
tapered, one end of which was supported in a hole in the side of the
perpendicular pole, and the other end in a s