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practifed very lately in the Hebrides, and probably fill continues, not only at St. Kilda, where money not yet known, but in others of the fmaller and remoter iflands. It were perhaps to be defired, that no change in this particular fhould have been made. When the laird could only eat the produce of his lands, he was under the neceffity of refiding upon them; and when the tenant could not convert his ftock into more portable riches, he could never be tempted away from his farm, from the only place where he could be wealthy. Money confounds fubordination, by overpowering the diftinctions of rank and birth, and weakens authority, by fupplying power of refiftance, or expedients for efcape. The feudal fyftem is formed for a nation employed in agriculture, and has never long kept its hold where gold and filvet have become common.

Their arms were anciently the Glaymore, or great two-handed sword, and afterwards the two-edged fword and target, or buckler, which was sustained on the left arm. In the midst of the target, which was made of wood, covered with leather, and studded with nails, a flender lance, about two feet long, was fome times fixed; it was heavy and cumberous, and accordingly has for fome time paft been gradually laid afide. Very few targets were at Culloden. The dirk, or broad dagger, I am afraid, was of more ufe in pri vate quarrels than in battles. The Lochaber ax is only a flight alteration of the old English bill.

After all that has been faid of the force and terrour of the Highland (word, I could not find that the art of defence was any part of common education.

The

The gentlemen were perhaps fometimes skilful gla diators, but the common men had no other powers than those of violence and courage. Yet it is well known, that the onset of the Highlanders was very formidable. As an army cannot confift of philofophers, a panick is eafily excited by any unwonted mode of annoyance. New dangers are naturally magnified; and men accustomed only to exchange bullets at a diftance, and rather to hear their enemies than fee them, are discouraged and amazed when they find themselves encountered hand to hand, and catch the gleam of fteel flashing in their faces.

The Highland weapons gave opportunity for many exertions of perfonal courage, and fometimes for fingle combats in the field; like thofe which occur fo frequently in fabulous wars. At Falkirk, a gentleman now living, was, I fuppofe after the retreat of the king's troops, engaged at a distance from the rest with an Irish dragoon. They were both fkilful fwordsmen, and the conteft was not eafily decided : the dragoon at laft had the advantage, and the Highlander called for quarter; but quarter was refused him, and the fight continued till he was reduced to defend himself upon his knee. At that inftant one of the Macleods came to his refcue; who, as it is faid, offered quarter to the dragoon, but he thought himself obliged to reject what he had before refused, and, as battle gives little time to deliberate, was immediately killed.

Funerals were formerly folemnized by calling multitudes together, and entertaining them at a great expenfe. This emulation of ufelefs coft has been

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for fome time difcouraged, and at last in the isle of Sky is almost fuppreffed.

Of the Earfe language, as I understand nothing, I cannot fay more than I have been told. It is the rude. fpeech of a barbarous people, who had few thoughts to exprefs, and were content, as they conceived grofsly, to be grossly understood. After what has been lately talked of Highland bards, and Highland genius, many will startle when they are told, that the Earfe never was a written language; that there is not in the world an Earfe manufcript a hundred years old; and that the founds of the Highlanders were never expreffed by letters, till some little books of piety were tranflated, and a metrical version of the Pfalms was made by the fynod of Argyle. Whoever therefore now writes in this language, fpells according to his own perception of the found, and his own idea of the power of the letters. The Welsh and the Irish are cultivated tongues. The Welsh, two hundred years ago, infulted their English neighbours for the inftability of their orthography; while the Earfe merely floated in the breath of the people, and could therefore receive little improvement.

When a language begins to teem with books, it is tending to refinement; as thofe who undertake to teach others must have undergone fome labour in improving themselves, they fet a proportionate value on their own thoughts, and wish to enforce them by efficacious expreffions; fpeech becomes embodied and permanent; different modes and phrafes are compared, and the best obtains an establishment. By degrees, one age improves upon another. Exactnefs is VOL. VIII.

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first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There may poffibly be books without a polished language, but there can be no polished language without books.

That the bards could not read more than the reft of their countrymen, it is reasonable to fuppofe; because, if they had read, they could probably have written; and how high their compofitions may reasonably be rated, an enquirer may beft judge by confidering what ftores of imagery, what principles of ratiocination, what comprehenfion of knowledge, and what delicacy of elocution he has known any man attain who cannot read. The state of the bards was yet more hopeless. He that cannot read, may now converfe with those that can; but the bard was a barbarian among barbarians, who, knowing nothing himself, lived with others that knew no more.

There has lately been in the islands one of these illiterate poets, who hearing the Bible read at church, is faid to have turned the facred hiftory into verfe. I heard part of a dialogue, compofed by him, tranflated by a young lady in Mull, and thought it had more meaning than I expected from a man totally uneducated; but he had fome opportunities of knowledge; he lived among a learned people. After all that has been done for the instruction of the Highlanders, the antipathy between their language and literature ftill continues; and no man that has learned only Earfe is, at this time, able to read.

The

The Earfe has many dialects, and the words used in fome iflands are not always known in others. In literate nations, though the pronunciation, and fometimes the words of common speech, may differ, as now in England, compared with the fouth of Scotland, yet there is a written diction, which pervades all dialects, and is understood in every province. But where the whole language is colloquial, he that has only one part, never gets the reft, as he cannot get it but by change of refidence.

In an unwritten fpeech, nothing that is not very fhort is tranfmitted from one generation to another. Few have opportunities of hearing a long compofition often enough to learn it, or have inclination to repeat it fo often as is neceffary to retain it; and what is once forgotten is loft for ever. I believe there cannot be recovered in the whole Earfe language, five hundred lines of which there is any evidence to prove them a hundred years old. Yet I hear that the father of Offian boasts of two chests more of ancient poetry, which he fuppreffes, because they are too good for the English.

He that goes into the Highlands with a mind naturally acquiefcent, and a credulity eager for wonders, may come back with an opinion very different from mine; for the inhabitants, knowing the ignorance of all ftrangers in their language and antiquities, perhaps are not very fcrupulous adherents to truth; yet I do not fay that they deliberately speak studied falsehood, or have a fettled purpose to deceive. They have enquired and confidered little, and do not always feel their own ignorance. They are not much accustomed to be interrogated by others: and feem never to have thought

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