in many particulars, experience similar emotions. On hearing the national ranz de vaches, their bowels yearn to revisit the ever dear scenes of their youth. So powerfully is the amor patriæ awakened by this celebrated air, that it was found necessary to prohibit its being played under pain of death among the troops, who would burst into tears on hearing it, desert their colours, and even die.

"No songs could be more happily constructed for singing during labour, than those of the Highlanders, every person being able to join in them, sufficient intervals being allowed for breathing time. In a certain part of the song, the leader stops to take breath, when all the others strike in and complete the air with a chorus of words and syllables, generally without signification, but admirably adapted to give effect to the time. In singing during a social meeting, the company reach their plaids or handkerchiefs from one to another, and swaying them gently in their hands, from side to side, take part in the chorus as above. A large company thus connected, and see-sawing in regular time, has a curious effect; sometimes the bonnet is mutually grasped over the table. The low country manner is, to cross arms and shake each other's hands to the air of "auld lang syne," or any other popular and commemorative melody. Fhir a bhata, or, the boatmen, is sung in the above manner, by the Highlanders with much effect. It is the song of a girl whose lover is at sea, whose safety she prays for, and whose return she anxiously expects. The greater proportion of Gaëlic songs, whether sung in the person of males or females, celebrate the valour and heroism, or other manly qualifications, of the Clans." *

Connected with the Gaelic music, the musical instruments of the Celts remain to be noticed; but we shall confine our observations to the harp and to the bag-pipe, the latter of which has long since superseded the former in the Highlands. The harp is the most noted instrument of antiquity, and was in use among many nations. It was, in particular, the favourite instrument of the Celts. The Irish were great proficients in harp music, and they are said to have made great improvements on the instrument itself. So honourable was the occupation of a harper among the Irish, that none but freemen were permitted to play on the harp, and it was reckoned a disgrace for a gentleman not to have a harp, and be able to play on it. The royal household always included a harper, who bore a distinguished rank. Even kings did not disdain to relieve the cares of royalty by touching the strings of the harp; and we are told by Major, that James I., who died in fourteen hundred and thirty-seven, excelled the best harpers among the Irish, and the Scotch Highlanders. But harpers were not confined to the houses of kings, for every chief had his harper, as well as his bard.

The precise period when the harp was superseded by the bag-pipe it is not easy to ascertain. Roderick Morrison, usually called Rory Dall, or the blind, was one of the last native harpers. He was harper

• Logan II. 255.

to the laird of M'Leod. On the death of his master, Morrison led an itinerant life, and in sixteen hundred and fifty, he paid a visit to Robertson of Lude, on which occasion he composed a porst or air, called Suipar chiurn na Leod, or Lude's Supper, which, with other pieces, is still preserved. M'Intosh, the compiler of the Gaelic Proverbs, relates the following anecdote of Mr. Robertson, who, it appears, was a harp player himself of some eminence. "One night, my father, James M'Intosh, said to Lude, that he would be happy to hear him play upon the harp, which, at that time, began to give place to the violin. After supper, Lude and he retired to another room, in which there was a couple of harps, one of which belonged to Queen Mary. James, says Lude, here are two harps; the largest one is the loudest, but the small one is the sweetest, which do you wish to hear played? James answered the small one, which Lude took up, and played upon, till daylight."

The last harper, as is commonly supposed, was Murdoch McDonald, harper to M'Lean of Coll. He received instructions in playing from Rory Dall, in Sky, and afterwards in Ireland, and from accounts of payments made to him, by M'Lean, still extant, Murdoch seems to have continued in his family till the year seventeen hundred and thirty-four, when he appears to have gone to Quinish, in Mull, where he died.

The history of the bag-pipe is curious and interesting, but such history does not fall within the scope of this work. Although a very ancient instrument it does not appear to have been known to the Celtic nations. It was in use among the Trojans, Greeks and Romans; but how or in what manner it came to be introduced into the Highlands, is a question which cannot be solved. Two suppositions have been started on this point, either that it was brought in by the Romans, or by the Northern Nations. The latter conjecture appears to be the most probable, for we cannot possibly imagine, that if the bag-pipe had been introduced so early, as the Roman epoch, no notice should have been taken of that instrument, by the more early annalists and poets. But if the bag-pipe was an imported instrument, how does it happen that the great Highland pipe is peculiar to the Highlands, and is perhaps the only national instrument in Europe? If it was introduced by the Romans, or by the people of Scandinavia, how has it happened that no traces of that instrument in its present shape are to be found anywhere except in the Highlands? There is, indeed, some plausibility in these interrogatories, but they are easily answered by supposing, what is very probable, that the great bag-pipe, in its present form, is the work of modern improvement, and that, originally, the instrument was much the same, as is still seen in Belgium and Italy.

The effects of this national instrument in arousing the feelings of those who have, from infancy, been accustomed to its wild and warlike tones are truly astonishing. "In halls of joy, and in scenes of mourning it has prevailed; it has animated her (Scotland's) warriors in battle, and welcomed them back after their toils, to the homes of

their love and the hills of their nativity. Its strains were the first sounded on the ears of infancy, and they are the last to be forgotten, in the wanderings of age. Even Highlanders will allow that it is not the gentlest of instruments; but when far from their mountain homes, what sounds, however melodious, could thrill round their heart like one burst of their own wild native pipe? The feelings which other instruments awaken, are general and undefined, because they talk alike to Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, and Highlanders, for they are common to all; but the bag-pipe is sacred to Scotland, and speaks a language which Scotsmen only feel. It talks to them of home and all the past, and brings before them, on the burning shores of India, the wild hills and oft frequented streams of Caledonia; the friends that are thinking of them, and the sweethearts and wives that are weeping for them there! and need it be told here, to how many fields of danger and victory its proud strains have led! There is not a battle that is honourable to Britain in which its war blast has not sounded. When every other instrument has been hushed by the confusion and carnage of the scene, it has been borne into the thick of battle, and, far in the advance, its bleeding but devoted bearer, sinking on the earth, has sounded at once encouragement to his countrymen and his own coronach."* Many interesting anecdotes connected with the use of this instrument on the field of battle will be given when we come to treat of the military history of the modern Highlanders.

History has thrown little light on the state of learning in the Highlands during the Pictish and Scottish periods; but, judging from the well-attested celebrity of the college of Icolm-kill, which shed its rays of knowledge over the mountains and through the glens of Caledonia, we cannot doubt that learning did flourish in some degree among the Scots and Picts. The final destruction of the venerable abbey of Iona, by the Danish pirates, unfortunately checked for a time the pro gress of civilization, and swept away, as is supposed, the proofs collected by the monks in support of the learning of those times, and to which, if they had been preserved, the historian of future ages would have appealed. No man, no scholar, no christian can visit the hallowed ruins of Iona without awakening associations, the most powerful and affecting. Dr. Johnson, the great and inflexible moralist, thus describes the emotions he felt on visiting this celebrated spot: "We were now treading that illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefit of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and from my friends, be such frigid

* Preface to Macdonald's Ancient Martial Music of Scotland.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCOTTISH KINGS.

95

philosophy, as would conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue! That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force on the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warm among the ruins of Iona."

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE SCOTTISH KINGS, from 843 TO 1097, ADJUSTED FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES.

CHAPTER V.

Philological demarcation between the Highlands and Lowlands-Anglo-Saxon colonization of the Highlands-Characteristics of the Highlanders-Care shown by them in educating their Children-Highland Garb-Dress of the women-Antiquity of Tartan -Superstitions of the Highlanders-Kelpies, Urisks, Daoine Shi, &c.-Second Sight -Weddings-Matrimonial fidelity-Punishment of the breach thereof-Reciprocal attachment of Parents and Children-Disgrace and Punishment of Bankruptcy— Fidelity in performing engagements-Courage-Love of Country-Contempt of Death-Hospitality.

We have now arrived at an era in our history, when the line of demarcation between the inhabitants of the Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland begins to appear, and when, by the influx of a Gothic race into the former, the language of that part of North Britain is completely revolutionized, when a new dynasty or race of sovereigns ascends the throne, and when a great change takes place in the laws and constitution of the kingdom.

At the epoch which closes the last chapter, the Gaëlic was the almost universal language of North Britain. In proof of this, reference has been made to proper names, or names of persons and places, which were all Gaëlic during that period, as may be seen by consulting the ancient chartularies and chronicles, the annals of Ulster, and the register of the Priory of St Andrews. In the Lowlands, however, some places still retain the British appellations conferred on them by the aboriginal inhabitants of North Britain. The cause of this may be owing to the close affinity between the same names in the British and Gaëlic; and to this circumstance, that the Gaëlic language did not obtain such a complete mastery over the British in the Lowlands as in the Highlands.

Although the Anglo-Saxon colonization of the Lowlands of Scotland does not come exactly within the design of the present work; yet, as forming an important feature in the history of the Lowlands of Scotland as contradistinguished from the Highlands, a slight notice of it may not be uninteresting.

At the time when the Romans invaded North Britain, the whole population of both ends of the island consisted of a Celtic race, the descendants of its original inhabitants. Shortly after the Roman abdication of North Britain in the year four hundred and forty-six, which was soon succeeded by the final departure of the Romans