If No Such Place Can Be Found, The Ground Must Be Cut
Away.
The walls are made by piling stones against the earth, on
either side.
It is then roofed by larger stones laid across the
cavern, which therefore cannot be wide. Over the roof, turfs were
placed, and grass was suffered to grow; and the mouth was concealed
by bushes, or some other cover.
These caves were represented to us as the cabins of the first rude
inhabitants, of which, however, I am by no means persuaded. This
was so low, that no man could stand upright in it. By their
construction they are all so narrow, that two can never pass along
them together, and being subterraneous, they must be always damp.
They are not the work of an age much ruder than the present; for
they are formed with as much art as the construction of a common
hut requires. I imagine them to have been places only of
occasional use, in which the Islander, upon a sudden alarm, hid his
utensils, or his cloaths, and perhaps sometimes his wife and
children.
This cave we entered, but could not proceed the whole length, and
went away without knowing how far it was carried. For this
omission we shall be blamed, as we perhaps have blamed other
travellers; but the day was rainy, and the ground was damp. We had
with us neither spades nor pickaxes, and if love of ease surmounted
our desire of knowledge, the offence has not the invidiousness of
singularity.
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