Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

DANES OF LEWIS. 275
ployed in fishing- j and their whole style appeared so new,
that we lay to for the purpose of bringing one of them
alongside. They were manned by nine men, having
eight rowers in double banks; a practice no where else
in use in this country. The purchase of their fish, and a
bribe of tobacco, soon made us good friends; and we
found them a lively, good-humoured people, totally un-
like, in manners as well as persons, to their neighbours.
They present an interesting singularity in the population
of these islands; being of pure Danish origin, although
speaking unmixed Gaelic, as our seamen assured us. It
would not have been easy to mistake them for Highlanders;
as they resembled exactly the people whom we
had every day met manning the northern timber-freighted
ships. Fat and fair, with the ruddy complexions and
blue eyes of their race, their manners appeared peculiarly
mild and pleasing; although their aspect seemed, at
first sight, rude enough ;
their fair hair being matted, as
if from their birth it had never been profaned by comb
or scissars,and looking very much like Lord Foppington's
wig; and their dress being of woollen only, with conical
caps, and without handkerchief or vestige of linen. The
tangled and matted forest must have impeded the travels
of its tenants considerably ; and as to pursuing thera
through the dense underwoods, that must have been im-
possible. But this was a primitive fashion among the
northern nations. In ancient days, among the Franks
at least, this long hair was also a mark of dignity :
and
if entanglement and dirt were additionally honourable,
as long nails are in China, and as Julian esteemed res-
pecting his beard, my friends of the Butt were crinite,
capillate, and crinigerous enough to compete for any
honours. When "Capillatus" meant noble, and " Cri-
niger" was Prince and Lord, round heads and croppies
must have been in great disgrace, as in some times of
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