full of a light powder, of a brownish colour, which, being exposed to the wind, flies off like smoke. In cases of fracture, a poultice of barley meal and white of eggs must be immediately applied; the part then surrounded by small splinters of wood, tightly wrapt up, and not to be untied for several days. An ointment of St. John's wort, bettonica, and golden rod, all cut and mixed in butter or grease, with which they cure wounds in general, is then applied, and in this manner they treat the most compound fracture with tolerable success. When the feet were benumbed, the West Highlanders used to scarify their heels. When they were hot and galled with hard walking, they were bathed in warm water, wherein red moss had been put. The leaves of alder, applied to the feet, when inflamed by travel, was a prescription in other parts.

A singular but effectual method of inducing perspiration was anciently practised by the inhabitants of the Hebudæ. A large fire was made on the earthen floor, and when it was properly heated, the fire was removed, and a heap of straw spread over the place, upon which was poured a quantity of water. The patient then lay down upon it, and was quickly in a profuse sweat. In more recent times, they adopted another equally efficacious means. The patient's shirt was boiled, and put on wet, and as warm as could be borne. To cure jaundice, the patient laid bare his back, for the inspection of the doctor, who, without any previous intimation, gently, but quickly, passed a hot iron along the vertebræ. Others suddenly dashed a pail of cold water on the naked body. In both cases the cure was produced, or attempted, by the fright which the patient receives.

Having thus described the manner of living among the

h Martin, p. 189.

Highlanders, exhibiting the activity and freedom of their lives, and showing the supply of food which their situation affords, with the means which they adopt to counteract disease or accident, the inference must be, that these people are both healthy and long lived. Such, indeed, is the case, most of them attaining extreme old age, without suffering from any of the maladies which are the scourges of the luxurious and inactive.

Martin, himself a native of the Hebrides, whom it has been found necessary so often to quote, in his very curious and particular account of these islands, and their inhabitants, mentions several instances of protracted existence, some of which came under his own observation. Gilour Mac Crain, an inhabitant of Jurah, he says, kept 180 Christmases, in his own house, and notices a woman in Scarba, who reached the patriarchal age of 140 years, and a person in South Uist, who had but lately died at 138. In more recent times we find Flora Mac Donald, who died in Lewis in 1810, with full possession of her faculties, at the age of 120, and Margaret Innes, who died in Sky in 1814, aged 127. In 1817, Hugh Cameron, called Eobhan na Pillie, died at Lawers in Braidalban, in his 112th year; and one Elizabeth Murray died at Auchenfauld, in Perthshire, when she had reached 116. Peter Gairden, who has been before alluded to, a native of Mar, was a sturdy old Highlander when he died at the advanced age of 132. This veteran, whose portrait has been engraved, continued to wear his native garb, in this and other particulars resembling Alexander Campbell, alias Ibherach, who lived in Glencalvie, in Ross-shire, and was born in 1699. This "ancient of days" died at the age of 117, retaining his vigour of body and mind to the last, and enjoying his favourite amusement of roaming about the glens. A walk of eleven miles, to visit his clergyman, was a recreation, and shortly before

his death he went to Tain, a distance of twenty-six miles in one day. He trod with a firm step, and uniformly dressed in the kilt and short hose, leaving his breast and neck exposed to the blast, however cold. Poor Ibherach, after living so long, was indebted for support to the generosity of his friends. About a year before his death, in 1816, he received from Lord Ashburton a shilling for every year of his life, with something additional for whisky, to moisten his venerable clay, and cheer his spirits in the evening of life. This sum outlasted Campbell, and helped his clansfolk to perform the last offices with becoming decency and respect to the hoary veteran. In August, 1827, John Mac Donald, a native of Glen Tinisdale, in Sky, died at Edinburgh, aged 107. It was too memorable. a circumstance to forget, that early one morning he supplied two females, as he supposed, with water from a fountain, which individuals were Flora Macdonald and Prince Charles Stewart in disguise. This man was very temperate and regular, and never had an hour's illness in his life. On new year's day, 1825, he joined in a reel with his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons.

The public prints have for many years past occasionally recorded the deaths of Highlanders, whose remarkable old age may have entitled them to notice, but who obtained a place in the obituary chiefly from the circumstance of their having been concerned in the last unfortunate struggle, and being supposed at the time the only survivors of those engaged in that affair. Successive communications have hitherto proved the supposition erroneous, and afforded a proof of the general longevity of the Gaël. It is represented, that when his Majesty was in Edinburgh, John Grant, aged 110, was presented to him as one who had fought against the Royal forces in 1745, when, addressing his Sovereign, he observed, that although

"he might not rank among the oldest friends of his throne, he was entitled to say that he was the last of his enemies."

* The great age ascribed to the individuals above mentioned must be taken cum grano. Such exaggerations are common where no exact and authentic records are kept. It is now admitted on all hands that very few, if any, well authenticated instances of any one's having actually reached a hundred years are in existence. ED.

OF THE SHIPPING, COMMERCE, MONEY, AND MANUFACTURES

OF THE CELTS.

IT has been said that no art is so primitive as navigation, nations in the rudest state of existence being found to possess sufficient ingenuity to form vessels capable of bearing them on the surface of the waters. The Gauls, in the most distant ages, appear to have had ships wherein they transported themselves to other countries, as those who, escaping after the battle of Thermopylæ, passed into Asia.

A canoe, formed by hollowing the trunk of a tree, seems the first attempt at ship-building. Hannibal, in passing the Rhone, bought all the small boats of the natives, a great number being there at the time attending the fairs of the sea; he also, as Polybius informs us, made so many vessels of hollow logs of trees, that every man strove to

a Pausanias, i. 4.