A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans : with an ...

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WARLIKE CHARAt:rER rONTFMT'T OF DEATH |
succeeded them, and clieered on their respective parties with their war-
like and inspiring strains. After tlie termination of the battle, the bari)
celebrated tlie praises of the brave warriors wlio had fallen in battle, and
related the heroic actions of the survivors to excite them to similar ex-
ertions on future occasions. To impress still more deeply upon the
minds of the survivors the honour and heroism of their fallen friends, the
piper was employed to perform plaintive dirges for the slain.
From the associations raised in the mind by the great respect tiuis
paid to the dead, and the honours which awaited the survivors who dis-
tinguished themselves in the field of battle, by their actions being cele-
bi'ated by the bards, and transmitted to posterity, originated that magnanimous
contempt of death for which the Highlanders are noted. While
among some people the idea of death is avoided with studious alarm, the
Highlander will speak of it with an easy and unconcerned familiarity, as
.an event of ordinary occurrence, but in a way " equally remote from
dastardly aftectation, or fool-hardy presumption, and proportioned solely
to the inevitable certainty of the event itself."*
To be interred decently, and in a becoming manner, is a material con-
sideration in the mind of a Highlander, and care is generally taken, even
by the poorest, long before the approach of death, to provide sufficient ar-
ticles to insure a respectable interment. To wish one another an honour-
able death, crioch o/mrac/i, n considered friendly by the Highlanders, and
even children will sometimes express the same sentiment towards their pa-
rents. " A man well known to the writer of these pages was remarkable
for his filled affection, even among the sons and daughters of the moun-
tains, so distinguished for that branch of piety. His mother being a
widow, and having a numerous family, who liad married very early, he
continued to live single, that he might the more sedulously attend to
her comfort, and watch over her declining years with the tenderest care.
On her birth-day, he always collected his brotheis and sisters, and all
their families, to a sort of kindly feast, and, in conclusion, gave a toast,
not easily translated from the empliatic language, without circumlocution,
An easy and decorous departure to my mother, comes nearest to
it. This toast, which would shake the nerves of fashionable delicacy,
was received with great applause, the old woman remarking, that God
had been always good to her, and she hoped she would die as decently
as she had lived, tor it is thought of the utmost consequence to die
decently. The ritual of decorous departure, and of behaviour to be
observed by the friends of the dying on that solemn occasion, being
fully established, nothing is more common than to take a solemn leave
of old people, as if they were going on a journej', and pretty much in
the same terms. People frequently send conditional messages to the
dejjarted. If you are permitted, tell my dear brotlier, that I have mere-
ly endured the world since he lift U, and that I have been very kind
• Sic wart's Sk«i.;hts.
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