Geoscience Reference
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form the unkindness was displayed is unexplained, but it was bad enough for the pig-
mies to hang him on a hill, which was then named Bruich Frangus. It is believed that
St Frangus may have used the structure at Luchruban as a place of retreat, which would
account for the naming of the smaller chamber as a 'chapel.' However, there were the
remains of other chapels and oratories along the coast of Lewis and in the numerous
inlets,andthestructureatLuchrubanresembledthemsomewhat,soitprobablybecame
known as a chapel on account of that similarity.
Ethnological research intheearlytwentieth centuryhadshownthattheoriginsofthe
'pigmies'werenotentirelycertain,buttheywerebelievedtohavebeenSpaniards,who
came toLewisaround500years
BC
.Intheyear
AD
1'bigyellowmen'werebelieved to
havearrivedfromArgyllanddriventhepigmiesfromCunndal(acovenearLuchruban)
to the island of Luchruban. The pigmies grew in number over a period of time and then
emigrated to Europe and Knockaird in the same vicinity. It is said that they lived on
'buffaloes' (presumably oxen), which they killed by throwing 'sharp-pointed knives' at
them. The folklore generally tallies with the ethnological research that the small, dark
aborigines were invaded by the Goidels or early Celts. At Cunndal, W.C. Mackenzie
discoveredsometwenty-fivehutcircles,withoneofthemhavingstonefoundationsand
the others being simply mounds of turf. Mackenzie could find no information in the
district about the hut-circles, except that they had been used for storing seaweed and
for fish-curing purposes. However, further inquiries by him found that the hut circles
had stood there 'from time immemorial', and, according to an old Ness man, they had
formed the dwellings of his pigmies prior to their migration to Luchruban.
There was some dispute as to how the legend of the pigmies came about, with both
John Morison and Martin Martin believing that the legend arose as a result of the dis-
covery of the small bones at Luchruban. Dean Monro, however, believed that the le-
gend was independent of the discovery of the small bones, and other observers were of
the same opinion. The question of the origin of the small bones was partly laid to rest
byW.C.Mackenzie, whodecidedtohavethemexaminedbyanexpert.Hearrangedfor
them to be sent to the Natural History Museum at South Kensington where they were
examined by anatomist Dr Charles W. Andrews. Dr Andrews examined the bones in
greatdetailandfoundthemnottobehuman:Ofthefourteensamplessenttohim,seven
ofthemwerethebonesofmammalsandsevenwerethoseofbirds.Themammalscom-
prised oxen, young lambs, sheep, and a dog (or a fox); the birds were classified as rock
pigeon, the razorbill, the greater and the lesser black-backed gull, and possibly a petrel
(difficult to classify due to the bone being a portion of a mandible). From this invest-
igation it was deduced that mammals and birds formed the diet of the dwellers in this
area. With the exception of the ox, the animals and birds represented by the bones were
