midnight
On our arrival , however , we found we had committed a small oversight , in leaving the corpse behind ; so we were obliged to wheel about , and met the old gentlewoman half way , being carried upon poles by the nearest relations of her family , and attended by the coronach , composed of a multitude of old hags , who tore their hair , beat their breasts , and howled most hideously . At the grave , the orator , or senachie , pronounced the panegyric of the defunct , every period being confirmed by a yell of the coronach . The body was committed to the earth , the pipers playing a pibroch all the time ; and all the company standing uncovered . The ceremony was closed with the discharge of pistols ; then we returned to the castle , resumed the bottle , and by midnight there was not a sober person in the family , the females excepted . The ` squire and I were , with some difficulty , permitted to retire with our landlord in the evening ; but our entertainer was a little chagrined at our retreat ; and afterwards seemed to think it a disparagement to his family , that not above a hundred gallons of whisky had been drunk upon such a solemn occasion . This morning we got up by four , to hunt the roebuck , and , in half an hour , found breakfast ready served in the hall . The hunters consisted of Sir George Colquhoun and me , as strangers -LRB- my uncle not chusing to be of the party -RRB- , of the laird in person , the laird 's brother , the laird 's brother 's son , the laird 's sister 's son , the laird 's father 's brother 's son , and all their foster brothers , who are counted parcel of the family : but we were attended by an infinite number of Gaelly 's , or ragged Highlanders without shoes or stockings .