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Afirming that it is

an almose deede to God,

To make the English subjects taste
the Irish rebells rodde.

To spoile, to kill, to burne,
this friar's counsell is;
And for the doing of the same,

he warrantes heavenlie blisse.

He tells a holie tale;

the white he turnes to blacke;

And through the pardons in his male,

he workes a knavishe knacke.

The wreckful invasion of a part of the English pale is then described with some spirit; the burning of houses, driving off cattle, and all pertaining to such predatory inroads, is illustrated by a rude cut. The defeat of the Irish by a party of English soldiers from the next garrison, is then commemorated, and in like manner adorned with an engraving, in which the friar is exhibited mourning over the slain chieftain; or, as the rubric expresses it,

though of a different kind, serves to establish the existence of ascetic religionists, to a comparatively late period, in the Highlands and Western Isles. There is a great deal of simplicity in the description, for which, as for much similar information, I am obliged to Dr John Martin, who visited the Hebrides at the suggestion of Sir Robert Sibbald, a Scottish antiquarian of eminence, and early in the eighteenth century published a description of them, which procured him admission into the Royal Society. He died in London about 1719. His work is a strange mixture of learning, observation, and gross credulity.

<< I remember,» says this author, «< I have seen an old lay-capuchin here (in the island of Benbecula), called in their language Brahir-bocht, that is, Poor Brother; which is literally true; for he answers this character, having nothing but what is given him: he holds himself fully satisfied with food and raiment, and lives in as great simplicity as any of his order! his diet is very mean, and he drinks only fair water: his habit is no

The friar then, that treacherous knave, with ough ough-bone lament, less mortifying than that of his brethren elsewhere; he

To see his cousin Devill's-son to have so foul event.

The matter is handled at great length in the text, of which the following verses are more than sufficient sample:

The frier seying this,

lamentes that lucklesse parte, And curseth to the pitte of hell

the death man's sturdie harte: Yet for to quight them with

the frier taketh paine,

For all the synnes that e'er he did remission to obtaine.

And therefore serves his booke, the candell and the bell;

But thinke you that suche apishe toies bring damned souls from hell?

It 'longs not to my parte infernal things to knowe;

But I believe till later daie,

thei rise not from belowe.

Yet hope that friers give

to this rebellious rout,

If that their soules should chaunce in hell,

to bringe them quickly out,

Doeth make them lead suche lives,
as neither God nor man,

Without revenge for their desartes,
permitte to suffer can.
Thus friers are the cause,

the fountain and the spring,
Of hurleburls in this lande,
of eche unhappie thing.
Thei cause him to rebell

against their sovereigne queene, And through rebellion often tymes their lives doe vanishe clene. So as by friers' meanes,

in whom all follie swimme, The Irishe karne doe often lose

the life, with hedde and limme.'

wears a short coat, which comes no farther than his middle, with narrow sleeves like a waistcoat: he wears a plad above it, girt about the middle, which reaches to his knee the plad is fastened on his breast with a wooden pin, his neck bare, and his feet often so too: he wears a hat for ornament, and the string about it is a bit of fisher's line, made of horse-hair. This plad he wears instead of a gown worn by those of his order in other countries. I told him he wanted the flaxen girdle that men of his order usually wear: he answered me, that he wore a leather one, which was the same thing. Upon the matter, if he is spoke to when at meat, he answers again; which is contrary to the custom of his order. This poor man frequently diverts himself with angling of trouts; he lies upon straw, and has no bell (as others have) to call him to his devotions, but only his conscience, as he told me.»-MARTIN'S Description of the Western Islands, p.

82.

Note 3. Stanza v.

Of Brian's birth strange tales were told.

The legend which follows is not of the author's invention. It is possible he may differ from modern critics, in supposing that the records of human superstition, if peculiar to, and characteristic of, the country in which the scene is laid, are a legitimate subject of poetry. He gives, however, a ready assent to the narrower proposition, which condemns all attempts of an irregular and disordered fancy to excite terror, by accumulating a train of fantastic and incoherent horrors, whether borrowed from all countries, and patched upon a narrative belonging to one which knew them not, or derived from the author's own imagination.

In the present case, therefore, I appeal to the record which I have transcribed, with the variation of a very few words, from the geographical collections made by the Laird of Macfarlane. I know not whether it be ne

As the Irish tribes, and those of the Scottish Highlands, are much more intimately allied, by language, manners, dress, and customs, than the antiquaries of either country have been willing to admit, I flatter my-cessary to remark, that the miscellaneous concourse of self I have here produced a strong warrant for the character sketched in the text. The following picture,

This curious Picture of Ireland was inserted by the author in the republication of Somers' Tracts, vol. I, in which the plates have been also inserted, from the only impressions known to exist, belonging to the copy in the Advocates' Library. See Somers' Tracts, vol. I, pp. 591, 594.

youths and maidens on the night and on the spot where the miracle is said to have taken place, might, even in a credulous age, have somewhat diminished the wonder which accompanied the conception of Gilli-Doir-Magrevollich.

<<< There is bot two myles from Inverloghie, the church of Kilmalee, in Loghyeld. In ancient times there was

so eager to have believed. It was a natural attribute of
such a character as the supposed hermit, that he should
credit the numerous superstitions with which the minds
of ordinary Highlanders are almost always embued.
A
few of these are slightly alluded to in this stanza.
River Demon, or River-horse, for it is that form which
he commonly assumes, is the Kelpy of the Lowlands, an
evil and malicious spirit, delighting to forebode and to

The

ane church builded upon ane hill, which was above this church, which doeth now stand in this toune; and ancient men doeth say, 'that there was a battell foughten on ane little hill not the tenth part of a myle from this church, be certaine men which they did not know what they were. And long tyme thereafter, certain herds of that toune, and of the next toune, called Unnatt, both wenches and youthes, did on a time conveen with others on that hill: and the day being somewhat cold, did ga-witness calamity. He frequents most Highland lakes and ther the bones of the dead men that were slayne long time before in that place, and did make a fire to warm them. At last they did all remove from the fire, except one maid or wench, which was verie cold, and she did remain there for a space. She being quyetlie her alone, without any other companie, took up her clothes above her knees, or thereby, to warm her; a wind did come and caste the ashes upon her, and she was conceived of ane man-child. Several tymes thereafter she was verie sick, and at last she was knowne to be with chyld. And then her parents did ask at her the matter heiroff, which the wench could not weel answer which way to satisfie them. At last she resolved them with ane answer. As fortune fell upon her concerning this marvellous miracle, the chyld being borne, his name was called Gili-doir Maghrevolich; that is to say, the Black Child, Son to the Bones. So called, his grandfather sent him to school, and so he was a good schollar, and godlie. He did build this church which doeth now stand in Lochyeld, called Kilmalie.»-MACFARLANE, ut II, supra, 188.

Note 4. Stanza v.

Yet ne'er again to braid her hair

The virgin snood did Alice wear.

The snood, or riband, with which a Scottish lass braided her hair, had an emblematical signification, and applied to her maiden character. It was exchanged for the curch, toy, or coif, when she passed, by marriage, into the matron state. But if the damsel was so unfortunate as to lose pretensions to the name of maiden, without gaining a right to that of matron, she was neither permitted to use the snood, nor advanced to the graver dignity of the curch. In old Scottish songs there occur many sly allusions to such misfortune, as in the old words to the popular tune of << Ower the muir amang the heather. >>

Down amang the broom, the broom,
Down amang the broom, my dearie,
The lassie lost her silken snood,
That gart her greet till she was wearie.

Note 5. Stanza vii.

The desert gave him visions wild,

Such as might suit the spectre's child.

In adopting the legend concerning the birth of the Founder of the Church of Kilmalie, the author has endeavoured to trace the effects which such a belief was likely to produce, in a barbarous age, on the person to whom it related. It seems likely that he must have become a fanatic or an impostor, or that mixture of both which forms a more frequent character than either of them, as existing separately. In truth, mad persons are frequently more anxious to impress upon others a faith in their visions, than they are themselves confirmed in their reality: as, on the other hand, it is difficult for the most cool-headed impostor long to personate an enthusiast, without in some degree believing what he is

rivers; and one of his most memorable exploits was performed upon the banks of Loch Vennachar, in the very district which forms the scene of our action: it consisted in the destruction of a funeral procession, with all its attendants. The «< noontide hag,» called in Gaelic Glas-lich, a tall, emaciated, gigantic female figure, is supposed in particular to haunt the district of Knoidart. A goblin dressed in antique armour, and having one hand covered with blood, called, from that circumstance, Lham-dearg, or Red-hand, is a tenant of the forests of Glenmore and Rothiemurchus. Other spirits of the desert, all frightful in shape and malignant in disposition, are believed to frequent different mountains and glens of the Highlands, where any unusual appearance, produced by mist, or the strange lights that are sometimes thrown upon particular objects, never fails to present an apparition to the imagination of the solitary and melancholy mountaineer.

Note 6. Stanza vii.

The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream.

Most great families in the Highlands were supposed to have a tutelar, or rather a domestic spirit, attached to them, who took an interest in their prosperity, and intimated, by its wailings, any approaching disaster. That of Grant of Grant was called May Moullach, and appeared in the form of a girl, who had her arm covered with hair. Grant of Rothiemurchus had an attendant called Bodach-an-dun, or the Ghost of the hill :—and many other examples might be mentioned. The BanSchie1 implies the female fairy, whose lamentations were often supposed to precede the death of a chieftain of particular families. When she is visible, it is in the form of an old woman, with a blue mantle and streaming hair. A superstition of the same kind is, I believe, universally received by the inferior ranks of the native Irish.

The death of the head of a Highland family is also
sometimes supposed to be announced by a chain of
lights of different colours, called Dr'eug, or death of the
Druid. The direction which it takes marks the place of
the funeral.
Note 7.
Stanza vii.

Sounds, too, had come in midnight blast,
Of charging steeds, careering fast
Along Benharrow's shingly side,
Where mortal horseman ne'er might ride.

A presage of the kind alluded to in the text is still believed to announce death to the ancient Highland family of M'Lean of Lochbuy. The spirit of an ancestor slain in battle is heard to gallop along a stony bank, and then to ride thrice around the family residence, ringing his fairy bridle, and thus intimating the approaching calamity. How easily the eye as well as the ear may be deceived upon such occasions, is evident

1 In the first edition, this was erroneously explained as equivalent to Ben Schichian, or the head of the Fairies.

Note 8. Stanza viii.

Whose parents in Inch-Cailliach wave
Their shadows o'er Clan-Alpine's grave.

Inch-Cailliach, the Isle of Nuns, or of Old Women, is a most beautiful island at the lower extremity of Loch Lomond. The church belonging to the former nunnery was long used as the place of worship for the parish of Buchanan, but scarce any vestiges of it now remain. The burial ground continues to be used, and contains the family places of sepulture of serveral neighbouring clans. The monuments of the lairds of Macgregor, and of other families, claiming a descent from the old Scottish King Alpine, are most remarkable. The Highlanders are as jealous of their rights of sepulture, as may be expected from a people whose whole laws and government, if clanship can be called so,

from the stories of armies in the air, and other spectral phenomena with which history abounds. Such an apparition is said to have been witnessed upon the side of Southfell mountain, between Penrith and Keswick, upon the 23d June, 1744, by two persons, William Lancaster of Blakehills, and Daniel Stricket his servant, whose attestation to the fact, with a full account of the apparition, dated the 21st July, 1745, is printed in Clarke's Survey of the Lakes. The apparition consisted of several troops of horse moving in regular order, with a steady rapid motion, making a curved sweep around the fell, and seeming to the spectators to disappear over the ridge of the mountain. Many persons witnessed this phenomenon, and observed the last, or last but one, of the supposed troop, occasionally leave his rank, and pass at a gallop to the front, when he resumed the same steady pace. This curious appear-turned upon the single principle of family descent. ance, making the necessary allowance for imagination, may be perhaps sufficiently accounted for by optical deception.-Survey of the Lakes, p. 25.

"

May his ashes be scattered on the water,» was one of the deepest and most solemn imprecations which they used against an enemy.

Note 9. Stanza xiii. the dun deer's hide On fleeter foot was never tied.

The present brogue of the Highlanders is made of

water; for walking the moors dry-shod is a matter altogether out of question. The ancient buskin was still ruder, being made of undressed deer's hide, with the hair outwards, a circumstance which procured the Highlanders the well-known epithet of Red-shanks. The process is very accurately described by one Elder (himself a Highlander), in the project for a union between England and Scotland, addressed to Henry VIII. <«<We go a hunting; and after that we have slain reddeer, we flay off the skin by and by, and setting of our bare-foot on the inside thereof, for want of cunning shoe-makers, by your grace's pardon, we play the coblers, compassing and measuring so much thereof as shall reach up to our ancles, pricking the upper part thereof with holes, that the water may repass where it enters, and stretching it up with a strong thong of the same above our said ancles. So, and please your noble grace, we make our shoes. Therefore, we using such manner of shoes, the rough hairy side outwards, in your grace's dominions of England we be called Rough footed Scots.»-PINKERTON's History, vol. II, p. 397.

Supernatural intimations of approaching fate are not, I believe, confined to Highland families. Howell mentions having seen at a lapidary's, in 1632, a monumental stone, prepared for four persons of the name of Oxenham, before the death of each of whom the inscription stated a white bird to have appeared and flut-half dried leather, with holes to admit and let out the tered around the bed, while the patient was in the last agony.-Familiar Letters, edit. 1726, 247. Glanville mentions one family, the members of which received this solemn sign by music, the sound of which floated from the family residence, and seemed to die in a neighbouring wood; another, that of Captain Wood of Bampton, to whom the signal was given by knocking. But the most remarkable instance of the kind occurs in the MS. Memoirs of Lady Fanshaw, so exemplary for her conjugal affection. Her husband, Sir Richard, and she chanced, during their abode in Ireland, to visit a friend, the head of a sept, who resided in his ancient baronial castle, surrounded with a moat. At midnight, she was awakened by a ghastly and supernatural scream, and, looking out of bed, beheld, by the moonlight, a female face and part of the form, hovering at the window. The distance from the ground, as well as the circumstance of the moat, excluded the possibility that what she beheld was of this world. The face was that of a young and rather handsome woman, but pale, and the hair, which was reddish, loose, and dishevelled. The dress, which Lady Fanshaw's terror did not prevent her remarking accurately, was that of the ancient Irish. This apparition continued to exhibit itself for some time, and then vanished with two shrieks similar to that which had first excited Lady Fanshaw's attention. In the morning, with infinite terror, she communicated to her host what she had witnessed, and found him prepared not only to credit but to account for the apparition. «< A near relation of my family," said he, «< expired last night in this castle. We disguised our certain expectation of the event from you, lest it should throw a cloud over the cheerful reception which was your due. Now, before such an event happens in this family and castle, the female spectre whom you have seen always is visible. She is believed to be the spirit of a woman of inferior rank, whom one of my ancestors degraded himself by marrying, and whom afterwards, to expiate the dishonour done his family, he caused to be drowned in the castle moat.>>

Note 10. Stauza xv.

The dismal coronach.

The coronach of the Highlanders, like the ululatus of the Romans, and the ululoo of the Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation, poured forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend. When the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his death. The following is a lamentation of this kind, literally translated from the Gaelic, to some of the ideas of which the text stands indebted. The tune is so popular, that it has since become the war-march, or gathering of the clan.

Coronach on Sir Lauchlan, Chief of Maclean.
Which of all the Senachies

Can trace thy line from the root, up to Paradise,
But Macvuirih, the son of Fergus?

No sooner had thine ancient stately tree
Taken firm root in Albion,

Than one of thy forefathers fell at Harlaw.'T was then we lost a chief of deathless name!

"T is no base weed-no planted tree,

Nor a seedling of last autumn;

Nor a sapling planted at Beltain;'

Wide, wide around were spread its lofty branches

But the topmost bough is lowly laid!

Thou hast forsaken us before Sawaine. 2

Thy dwelling is the winter bouse;

Loud, sad, and mighty is thy death song!
Oh! courteous champion of Montrose !
Oh! stately warrior of the Celtic Isles !

Thou shalt buckle thy harness on no more!

The coronach has for some years past been superseded at funerals by the use of the bagpipe; and that also is, like many other Highland peculiarities, falling into disuse, unless in remote districts.

Note 11. Stanza xix.
Benledi saw the cross of fire,

It glanced like lightning up Strath-Ire.

A glance at the provincial map of Perthshire, or at any large map of Scotland, will trace the progress of the signal through the small district of lakes and mountains, which, in exercise of my poetical privilege, I have subjected to the authority of my imaginary chieftain; and which, at the period of my romance, was really occupied by a clan who claimed a descent from Alpine, a clan the most unfortunate, and most persecuted, but neither the least distinguished, least powerful, nor least brave, of the tribes of the Gael.

Slioch non rioghridh duchaisach Bha shios an Dun-Staiobhinish Aig an roubh crun na Halba othus 'Stag a cheil duchas fast ris.

The first stage of the fiery cross is to Duncraggan, a place near the Brigg of Turk, where a short stream divides Loch-Achray from Loch Vennachar. From thence, it passes towards Callender, and then, turning to the left up the pass of Lennie, is consigned to Norman at the chapel of Saint Bride, which stood on a small and romantic knoll in the middle of the valley, called StrathIre. Tombea and Arnandave, or Armandave, are names of places in the vicinity. The alarm is then supposed to pass along the lake of Lubnaig, and through the various glens in the district of Balquidder, including the neighbouring tracts of Glenfinlas and Strath-Gartney.

Note 12. Stanza xxiv.

Not faster o'er thy heathery braes,
Balquidder, speeds the midnight blaze.

It may be necessary to inform the southern reader, that the heath on the Scottish moor-lands is often set

fire to, that the sheep may have the advantage of the young herbage produced in room of the tough old heather-plants. This custom (execrated by sportsmen) produces occasionally the most beautiful nocturnal appearances, similar almost to the discharge of a volThe simile is not new to poetry. The charge of a warrior, in the fine ballad of Hardyknute, is said to

cano.

be « like a fire to heather set.>>

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and a solemn oath. In other respects, they were like most savage nations, capricious in their ideas conOne solemn cerning the obligatory power of oaths. mode of swearing was by kissing the dirk, imprecating upon themselves death by that, or a similar weapon, if they broke their vow. But for oaths in the usual form, they are said to have had little respect. As for the reverence due to the chief, it may be guessed from the following odd example of the Highland point of honour: <<< The clan whereto the above-mentioned tribe belongs, is the only one I have heard of, which is without a chief that is, being divided into families, under several chieftains, without any particular patriarch of the whole name. And this is a great reproach, as may appear from an affair that fell out at my table, in the Highlands, between one of that name and a Cameron. The provocation given by the latter, was-Name your chief. The return of it, at once, was,-You are a fool. They went out next morning, but, having early notice of it, I sent a small party of soldiers after them, which, in all probability, prevented some barbarous mischief that might have ensued; for the chiefless Highlander, who is himself a petty chieftain, was going to the place appointed with a small sword and pistol, whereas the Cameron (an old man) took with him only his broadsword, according to agreement.

« When all was over, and I had, at least seemingly, reconciled them, I was told the words, of which I seemed to think but slightly were, to one of the clan, the greatest of all provocations.»-Letters from the North of Scotland, vol. II, p. 221.

Note 14. Stanza xxvii. -Coir-nan-Uriskin.

<< This is a very steep and most romantic hollow in the mountain of Ben-venue, overhanging the southeastern extremity of Loch Katrine. It is surrounded with stupendous rocks, and overshadowed with birchtrees, mingled with oaks, the spontaneous production of the mountain, even where its cliffs appear denuded of soil. A dale in so wild a situation, and amid a people whose genius bordered on the romantic, did not remain without appropriate deities. The name literally implies the Corri, or Den of the Wild or Shaggy Men. Perhaps this, as conjectured by Mr Alexander Campbell,' may have originally only implied its being the haunt of a ferocious banditti. But tradition has ascribed to the Urisk, who gives name to the cavern, a figure between a goat and a man; in short, however much the classical reader may be startled, precisely that of the Grecian Satyr. The Urisk seems not to have inherited, with the form, the petulance of the sylvan deity of the classics: his occupations, on the contrary, resembled those of Milton's Lubber Fiend, or of the Scottish Brownie, appearance. though he differed from both in name and «The Urisks,» say Dr Graham, «< were a sort of lubberly supernaturals, who, like the Brownies, could be gained over by kind attention, to perform the drudgery of the farm, and it was believed that many of the families in the Highlands had one of the order attached to it. They were supposed to be dispersed over the Highlands, each in his own wild recess, but the solemn stated meetings of the order were regularly held in this cave of Ben-venue. This current superstition, no doubt,

1 Journey from Edinburgh, 1802, p. 109.

alludes to some circumstance in the ancient history of this country.»-Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire. 1806. p. 19.

It must be owned that the Coir, or den, does not, in its present state, meet our ideas of a subterraneous grotto, or cave, being only a small and narrow cavity, among huge fragments of rocks rudely piled together. But such a scene is liable to convulsions of nature, which a Lowlander cannot estimate, and which may have choked up what was originally a cavern. At least the name and tradition authorize the author of a fictitious tale to assert its having been such at the remote period in which his scene is laid.

Note 15. Stanza xxvii.

--the wild pass of Beal-nam-Bo. Bealach-nam-Bo, or the pass of cattle, is a most magnificent glade, overhung with aged birch-trees, a little higher up the mountain than the Coir-nan-Uriskin, treated of in the last note. The whole composes the most sublime piece of scenery that imagination can

conceive.

Note 16. Stanza xxvii.

A single page to bear his sword,

Alone attended on his lord.

A Highland chief, being as absolute in his patriarchal authority as any prince, had a corresponding number of officers attached to his person. He had his bodyguards, called Luicht-tach, picked from his clan for strength, activity, and entire devotion to his person. These, according to their deserts, were sure to share abundantly in the rude profusion of his hospitality. It is recorded, for example, by tradition, that Allan Maclean, chief of that clan, happened upon a time to hear one of these favourite retainers observe to his comrade, that their chief grew old-« Whence do you infer that?» replied the other. « When was it,» rejoined the first, « that a soldier of Allan's was obliged, as I am now, not only to eat the flesh from the bore, but even to tear off the inner skin, or filament?» The hint was quite sufficient, and Maclean next morning, to relieve his followers from such dire necessity, undertook an inroad on the main-land, the ravage of which altogether effaced the memory of his former expeditions for the like purpose.

gift subordinate offices, which called immediately round his person those who were most devoted to him, and, being of value in their estimation, were also the means of rewarding them.

CANTO IV.

Note 1. Stanza iv.

The Taghairm call'd; by which, afar,
Our sires foresaw the events of war.

The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newlyslain bullock, and deposited beside a water-fall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the question proposed, and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits who haunt these desolate recesses. In some of the Hebrides they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities, and considered the first fancy which came into their own minds, after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone, and as such, to be, if possible, punctually complied with. Martin has recorded the following curious modes of Highland augury, in which the Taghairm, and its effects upon the person who was subjected to it, may serve to illustrate the text.

you

<< It was an ordinary thing among the over-curious to consult an invisible oracle, concerning the fate of families and battles, etc. This was performed three different ways: the first was by a company of men, one of whom, being detached by lot, was afterwards carried to a river, which was the boundary between two villages; four of the company laid hold on him, and, having shut his eyes, they took him by the legs and arms, and then tossing him to and again, struck his Our officer of engineers, so often quoted, has given hips with force against the bank. One of them cried us a distinct list of the domestic officers who, inde- out, What is it have got here? another answers, A pendent of Luicht-tach, or gardes du corps, belonged log of birch-wood. The other cries again, Let his invito the establishment of a Highland chief. These are, sible friends appear from all quarters, and let them re1. The Henchman. See these notes, p. 187. 2. The lieve him by giving an answer to our present demands; Bard. See p. 182. 3. Blaider, or Spokesman. 4. Gil- and in a few minutes after, a number of little creatures lie-more, or Sword-bearer, alluded to in the text. 5. Gil- came from the sea, who answered the question, and lie-casflue, who carried the chief, if on foot, over the disappeared suddenly. The man was then set at lifords. 6. Gillie-comstraine, who leads the chief's horse.berty, and they all returned home, to take their mea7. Gillie-trushanarinsh, the baggage-man. 8. The piper. 9. The piper's gillie, or attendant, who carries the bagpipe. Although this appeared, naturally enough, very ridiculous to an English officer, who considered the master of such a retinue as no more than an English gentleman of 500l. a-year, yet in the circumstances of the chief, whose strength and importance consisted in the number and attachment of his followers, it was of the last consequence, in point of policy, to have in his

Letters from Scotland, vol. II, pag. 15.

sures according to the prediction of their false prophets; but the poor deluded fools were abused, for the answer was still ambiguous. This was always practised in the night, and may literally be called the work of darkness.

<< I had an account from the most intelligent and judicious men in the Isle of Skie, that about sixty-two years ago, the oracle was thus consulted only once, and that was in the parish of Kilmartin, on the east side, by a wicked and mischievous race of people, who are now extinguished, both root and branch.

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