The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. VII] O F S C O T L A X D 99
CHAPTER VII.
Constitution and Laws of the Highlanders— Clanship—Law of
Succession— Law of Marriage and Gradation of Ranks.
The interest, which the GaeHc population in Scotland has
always excited, is to be attributed in a great measure to the
peculiarity
of their character and of their manners. Situated
in the heart of civilization, and of continued improvement in the
form of society, they have for centuries exhibited the strange
contrast of a mountain people retaining their habits of predatory
warfare and pastoral occupation with singular tenacity, in spite
of the advancement of society around them ; while speaking a
peculiar language, and wearing a peculiar dress, they possessed
in a very great degree the imaginative character and rude virtues
of a simple and uncultivated race. In a work so limited as the
present, it would be impossible to present anything
like a
complete view of a subject of this nature, and as the great object
of the writer throughout has been to give a correct and authentic,
and consequently a concise, detail of the history of this singular
nation, although perhaps at the expense of the amenity of his
style, and in opposition to the prejudices of his countrymen, he
will, in the following remarks, convey merely a short sketch of
the principal peculiarities of their manners, substituting a true
picture, derived from the most authentic facts which can still be
collected, in place of the loose declamation which that subject
has hitherto in general called forth.
In treating of this matter it will be necessary, for the sake of
perspicuity, to consider it under three different branches ; the
first comprehending their government, laws, and distinction of
ranks, the second relating to everything connected with their
religion, superstitions, and music, and the last branch consisting