Red Wing sentinel. [volume] (Red Wing, M.T. [i.e. Minn.]) 1855-1861, 1859-02-26

Jay. FEBRUARY. rs, l8'
~ 500 U. III. nc
The general disposition pf the remains,
that the haplets islanders died under
the the walls, in families, each little group!
q few feet from the others.
Here and there the remains of detatch-
ed skeleton may be seen, as if a robust
restless in agony, had stalked
in the middle space ere he fell! but
the social arrangement is general one.
And beneath every heap we find at
the depth, as has been said, Of few
inches, the remains Of the straw bed
upon. which the family had lain, largely
mixed with the smaller bones of the
human frame, ribs and vertebrae, and
hands and feet bones; occasionally,
too, with fragments of glazed pottery,
and various other implements of rude
housewifery. The minister found for
me, under one family heap, the pieces
Of a halfburnt unglazed cartheln jar,
with a narrow mouth, that, like the
urns of our ancient tumuli,
had been moulded by the hand, with
out the assistance of the potters's
wheel; and to one Of the fragments
there stuck minute pellet Of gray
hair. From under another heap he
disinterred the handle-stave OF a chlld's
wooden porringer, (6icker) perforated
by hole still bearing the mark Of the
chord that hung it to the wall; and
beside the stave lay few Of the larger,
less destructible bones of the child,
with what for time puzzled us both
not little-one Of the grinders of a
horse. ..e..s.
Certain it was, no horse could have
got there to have dropped tooth-a
foal OF a week old could not have
passed itself through the opening ;
and how that single grinder, evidently
no recent introduction in the cave,
could have got mixed up in the straw
with the human pores, seems an enig.
ma somewhat of the class to which the
reel in the bottle belongs. found in
Edinburgh an unexpected commenta.
tor on the mystery, in the person o1
my little boy, an experimental philos:
opher in his second year. I had
spread out on the floor the curiosities
{of Eigg, among the rest the relics o1
the cave, including the pieces of earth
ern jar, and the fragments of the por
ringer; but the horses tooth seemed
to be the only real curiosity among
them in the eyes of little Bill. He laid
instant hold Of it; and appropriatine
| it toy, continued playing with it til
he fell asleep. 70 sa
have now little doubt but that il
was first brought into the cave by thu
poor child amid whose mouldering re
mains Mr.. Swanson found it. The lit
tie pellet of gray hair spoke of feeble
old age involved in this wholesale
massacree, with the vigorous manhood
of the island; and here was story O
unsuspecting infancy amusing itself OF
the eve Of destruction with its toys
Alas for man! !" Should not spar,
Ninevah, that great city," said God t.
the angry prophet, "wherein are NOR,
than six scorce thousand persons tina
cannot discern between their righ
hand and their? ?" Gods image mus
must have been sadly defaced in tn,
murderers of the poor inoffensive child
rea of Eigg, ere they could have heart
their feeble wailings, raised, no doubt
when the sitting atmosphere withir
began to thicken, and yet ruth]essly
persist in their indiscriminate destruc
ton. '@s st @
Some hundreds of years ago. say.
Mr.. Wilson, "a few Of the Mcleod.
landed'in Eigg from Skye, where, hav
ing greatly misconducted themselves
the Eiggites strapped them to Their
own boats, which they set adrift in tn.
ocean. They were, however, rescued
by some clahsmen and soon after .
strong body Of the McLeods set sal,
from Skye, to revenge themselves OF
Eigg. The natives Of the latter island
feeling they were not Of sufficient fore,
to offer resistance, went and hid them
selves (men, women, and children,) II
this secret cave, which is narrow an.
|of great subteranean length, with al
: exceedingly small enterance. It open
from the broken Of a steep bank alon,
: the shore; and as the whole cost
covenous, their particular retrea
J would have been sought for in vain b
strangers. So the Skyemen, fndin,
the island uninhabited, presumed tn
natives had fled, and satisfied their re
vsngefal feelings BY ransacking an
pillaging the empty houses. Probabl
the moveables were of no great value
) Then they took their departure, an,
left the island, when the sight of
, , solitary sc;ar human being among the cliff
awakened their suspicion, and induce'
them to return. n1ortunutt1..;;, t.;,
slight sprinkling of snow had fallen
!, and the footsteps of an individual wer
traced to the mouth OF the cave. No
having been there ourselves at TIL
period alluded to, we cannot spea1
with certainty as to the nature of tn
parley which ensued or the term
offered by either party, We know tha
lthOse wore not the t1avs IF nro+ocnlc