The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. I] OF SCOTLAND 177
Scandinavian, Norman, or Saxon, and he will find different
origins assigned to many of the clans, all of which are supported
by arguments and authorities equally strong. Among so many
conflicting traditions and systems, he will probably feel himself
in considerable uncertainty, and the presumption which naturally
arises in his mind is, that all these systems and traditions are
equally false, and that the true origin of the Highlanders has
yet to be discovered. This presumption will be strengthened
when he remarks, that in none of these traditions is a native
origin ever assigned to any of the clans, but that, on the
contrary, they are all brought from some one foreign people
or another ; a system which reason shows to be as impossible
as it is unsupported by history and inconsistent with the internal
condition of the country. But a closer inspection will discover
to him a still more remarkable circumstance— viz., that there
Succession
^"'^.s been in the Highlands, from the earliest period,
Tn t'he^'*''*°* ^ succession of traditions regarding the origin of the
Highlands.
different clans, which are equally opposed to each
other, and which have equally obtained credit in the Highlands,
at the time when they severally prevailed. It will be proper,
therefore, to notice shortly these successive systems of tradi-
tionary origin which have sprung up
at different times in the
Highlands, and the causes which led to their being adopted
by the clans.
The immediate effect of the Scottish conquest, in 843, was
the overthrow of the civilization and learning of the country.
The Southern Picts, a people comparatively civilized, and who
possessed in some degree the monkish learning of the age, were
overrun by the still barbarous Scottish hordes, assisted by the
equally barbarous Pictish tribes of the mountains. After this
event, succeeded a period of confusion and civil war, arising
from the struggles between the races of the Scots and of the
Northern Picts, for pre-eminence on the one part, and inde-
pendence on the other ; and when order and learning once
more lifted up their heads amongst the contending tribes, a race
of kings of Scottish lineage were firmly established on the
throne, and the name of Scot and Scotland had spread over the
whole country.
A knowledge of the real origin of the Highland
clans was, in some degree, lost in the confusion. The natural
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