"Story and Song from Loch Ness-Side"

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As Spring advanced and the days lengthened, work became general among the people, and the outside claimed more and more of their attention. They had a bad system - or, indeed, none at all - of herding their cattle, which took up far more of their time than it should have. During the Spring practically each family tended their own stock, and it was nothing uncommon to see a dozen persons thus engaged. This was not productive work by any means, but there was a touch of the pastoral life about it which appealed to one. There, 'midst budding bush and tree, the birds singing gaily and joyfully at the return of the year, gambolled the young and joked the elderly, the whole morning on end, while the cattle browsed peacefully on the green grass and the various herbs that grew everywhere at their feet, and from which came milk rich as the nectar of the gods. By ten or eleven o'clock the milking cows were all driven inside, while the younger stock lay out on the meadows. Towards one o'clock they were all again driven a-field. Later on in the year the herding was done in a slightly more business-like manner. The families took the whole stock a day or two days about - according to the number of heads of cattle - thus each family had a turn a-week at the work. A little judicious fencing would have saved a great deal of the time expended on herding, but primitive methods lingered long among the smaller holders.

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The principal work of the latter end of Spring and beginning of Summer was the getting down of the various seeds in good time and condition. The weather was, of course, a great element in all this. The High­lander often went much more by signs than by dates. There was the old saying: ''An ciad Mart leig seachad, 's an dara ma 's fhéudar; ach an treas Mart ged naeh rachadh clach a' chinne-mheòir an aghaidh na gaoithe tuatha, cuir an siol 's an talamh;" usually emphasised by another:

Everybody had also heard the proverbial lines:

A new moon to come on a Saturday was much disliked, if occurring in Spring or in the Autumn. "Solas an t-Sathuirae 's t-Earrach no 's t-Fhoghar, 's leòr aon 's na seachd bliadhna dhiubh." But the growth of the grass and the budding of the leaves were usually closely watched. We knew one old man who, when he saw a certain tree, not far from his home, putting forth signs of life, lost no time in. getting the seeds down. Potato-planting was a kind of partnership business; something like the herding among the small tenantry. Each family was assisted by a member or two from each of the others, and there was much festivity and fun connected with the work. There was at each planting a, dinner, which was usually an event in its way. A

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bottle or two of whisky graced the occasion, and the first toast was:

The period of the potato-planting was one of the most joyful and interesting during the year.

By the middle of Summer, cutting, spreading, and stacking the peats were usually in hand. While the peats were being cut most of the families were together in the hills, and those days were, indeed, a jolly period. During the meal hour it was quite usual to tumble some one or other into the moss-pool, from which the party came forth anything but comfortable or clean. Pitched battles also frequently took place, in the course of which the combatants got thoroughly bespattered with the soft peat.

Hay-making, and attending to the potato crop, took up the most of the time devoted to the ground during July. But usually, towards the end of that month, or, at latest, in the beginning of August, a member from most of the families travelled to Loch-Hourn for a load of fresh herrings. In each cart was carried home, in course of some three days or so, about a barrel and a half of herrings, which were immediately salted for use during the ensuing Winter and Spring. Herring then formed an important article of diet throughout the Highlands. When cooked fresh and taken with the new potatoes - and both generally came together at about the close of the dog-days - the diet was, indeed, a delicious one, and food good enough for any.

During August and the first half of September the land did not require much attention, and the younger

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male members of the families were usually engaged at work here and there, where they could earn money. Since the shootings came to take a hold in almost every district in the Highlands, one or two from our families have been obtaining work about the big houses - the young men as gillies and hall-boys, and the young girls as domestic servants. This used to be a particularly jolly and happy time of the year in our midst.

During the latter half of September harvesting operations were usually in hand. This was a time of glory. "There was beauty all around," and "there was joy in every sound." Poetry reigned in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. She sang with the breeze; she danced lightly on tip-toe amidst the undulating corn, waving in joyful measure her golden wand. She made her habitation in the stocks, beaming gleefully on the contented husbandman as he went in and out among them. She rode about in her equipage of diamond and pearl and gold, calling the heavens to behold and admire the beauty and glory of earth in September, the charming Empress of the Seasons. The taking home of the "maiden" - a small sheaf of corn picked from the last load, and kept above the dresser or the door until replaced by the next - was fol­ lowed in due time by the potato-lifting, which was for most cold and disagreeable work.

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CONCLUSION.

"Tempora mutantur."A great change has come over the whole scene. No part of Loch Ness-side seems now to us what at one time it was. The people have become less interesting - less individual in many respects. Modernisation has brought with it a wave of indifference to home sentiment. There may be - and probably is - an enlarged outlook, an extended horizon; but all this is material. We sometimes still find our memory back amidst the scenes and associations of our very happy boyhood in old Invermoriston, and we take farewell of the subject and the memories it kindles by quoting the following verses in conclusion:

Cnoc-na-h-Ath.

'S trie a bhios mi 'smaointeach C' òit' an diugh bheil na laoich, Bhiodh a' cruinneachadh aon uair Aig taobh Cnoc-na-h-Ath.
C'àit' an diugh bheil na fearaibh A bha fiùghantach, smearail ? 'S ann tha 'n t-ionndrain 's a bhail' Air laoich ghasda mo ghràidh.
'S trie a chunna mi còmhla Prasgan cuideachdail, còirte, Air lomagan bòidheach Cnooan còsach na h-Ath.
;S iomadh màthair bha pròiseil, Agus piuthar chuir dòchas As na fleasgaichean òga Dh' fhàgadh òighean fo phràmh.

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Mar ùr phris ann an gleann iad, Ri taice nan seann-chraoibh, 'S grian na h-òig' orra 'dannsa, 'S iad am Bealltuinn am fàis—
Ach mar osag a' Gheamhraidh Sgaoileadh tional an t-Samhraidh, Chuir an saoghal air chall iad, 'S cha 'n 'eil ann diu ach sgàil'.
Tha cuid shios 'us cuid shuas dhiu; Cuid gu deas agus tuath dhiu; Tha cuid eile thair chuan diu; 'S cuid 's an uaigh dhiu' aig tàmh.
Thug gach bliadhna cuid fhéin bhuainn, 'S beag nach d' fhalbh iad gu léir oirnn ; 'S dh' fhàgadh sinne gu déurach, Caoidh nan tréun fhir a bha.
a'   ghrioch.

Chapter 17