There are said to be in Barra a race of horses yet smaller, of which the highest is not above thirty-six inches.

The rent of Rum is not great.  Mr. Maclean declared, that he should be very rich, if he could set his land at two-pence halfpenny an acre.  The inhabitants are fifty-eight families, who continued Papists for some time after the Laird became a Protestant.  Their adherence to their old religion was strengthened by the countenance of the Laird’s sister, a zealous Romanist, till one Sunday, as they were going to mass under the conduct of their patroness, Maclean met them on the way, gave one of them a blow on the head with a yellow stick, I suppose a cane, for which the Earse had no name, and drove them to the kirk, from which they have never since departed.  Since the use of this method of conversion, the inhabitants of Egg and Canna, who continue Papists, call the Protestantism of Rum, the religion of the Yellow Stick.

The only Popish Islands are Egg and Canna.  Egg is the principal Island of a parish, in which, though he has no congregation, the Protestant Minister resides.  I have heard of nothing curious in it, but the cave in which a former generation of the Islanders were smothered by Macleod.

If we had travelled with more leisure, it had not been fit to have neglected the Popish Islands.  Popery is favourable to ceremony; and among ignorant nations, ceremony is the only preservative of tradition.  Since protestantism was extended to the savage parts of Scotland, it has perhaps been one of the chief labours of the Ministers to abolish stated observances, because they continued the remembrance of the former religion.  We therefore who came to hear old traditions, and see antiquated manners, should probably have found them amongst the Papists.

Canna, the other Popish Island, belongs to Clanronald.  It is said not to comprise more than twelve miles of land, and yet maintains as many inhabitants as Rum.

We were at Col under the protection of the young Laird, without any of the distresses, which Mr. Pennant, in a fit of simple credulity, seems to think almost worthy of an elegy by Ossian.  Wherever we roved, we were pleased to see the reverence with which his subjects regarded him.  He did not endeavour to dazzle them by any magnificence of dress:  his only distinction was a feather in his bonnet; but as soon as he appeared, they forsook their work and clustered about him:  he took them by the hand, and they seemed mutually delighted.  He has the proper disposition of a Chieftain, and seems desirous to continue the customs of his house.  The bagpiper played regularly, when dinner was served, whose person and dress made a good appearance; and he brought no disgrace upon the family of Rankin, which has long supplied the Lairds of Col with hereditary musick.

The Tacksmen of Col seem to live with less dignity and convenience than those of Sky; where they had good houses, and tables not only plentiful, but delicate.  In Col only two houses pay the window tax; for only two have six windows, which, I suppose, are the Laird’s and Mr. Macsweyn’s.