"Martin, in his description of the Western Islands, printed in 1703, when their use would appear to have been still remembered, speaks of them [these underground structures] as 'little stone-houses, built under ground, called earth-houses, which served to hide a few people and their goods in time of war.'"[63] Dean Monro writes, "There is sundry coves and holes in the earth, coverit with hedder above, quhilk fosters many rebellis in the country of the North head of Ywst" [North Uist].[64] "From O'Flaherty's description of West Connaught, written in 1684, it appears," observes Captain Thomas,[65] but referring more strictly to the beehive-house, "that this style of dwelling had already become archaic." For, although that writer mentions certain "cloghans" as being still inhabited, holding forty men in some cases, yet he says they were "so ancient that nobody knows how long ago any of them were made." Of the underground galleries another writer says: "It has been doubted if these houses were ever really used as places of abode.... But as to this there can be no real doubt. The substances found in many of them have been the accumulated _débris_ of food used by man.... Ornaments of bronze have been found in a few of them, and beads of streaked glass. In some cases the articles found would indicate that the occupation of these houses had come down to comparatively recent times."[66] In conclusion, these remarks of Captain Thomas, who made so thorough a study of the subject, may be quoted:-- "The Pict's house on the Holm of Papay [Orkney] would have held, besides the chiefs at each end, all the families in [the island of] Papay Westray when it was built. Maes howe[67] was for three families--grandees, no doubt; but the numbers it was intended to hold in the _beds_ may be learned by comparing them with the Amazon's House, St. Kilda."[68] "I consider the relation between the _boths_ [beehive houses] and the Picts' houses of the Orkneys (and elsewhere) to be evident--the same method of forming the arch, the low and narrow doors and passages, the enormous thickness of the walls, when compared with the interior accommodation--exist in both. When a _both_ is covered with green turf it becomes a chambered tumulus, and when buried by drifting sand it is a subterranean Pict's house.... I regard the comparatively large Picts' houses of the Orkneys as the pastoral residence of the Pictish lord, fitted to contain his numerous family and dependents. Such an one exists on the Holm of Papa Westray, which, according to the Highland method of stowage, would certainly contain a whole clan. When writing the description of it, I had not made acquaintance with a people who would close the door to keep in the smoke, or that nested in holes in a wall like sand-martins....