Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

FOOD OF THE HIGHLANDS. 337
lieroic Vyallace. But they have nothing- of the spirit of
an old Roman in them, or of a warlike Dane either; or
they Mould not neglect that of which these bold fellows
spoke with a delight as great as they spoke of glorious
war. If this project should fail, I know of no way of at-
tacking Donald, but through those marrying propensities
which I discussed sometime ago. In Dhagistan, no Tar-
tar is allowed to marry who has not planted a hundred
fruit trees: but perhaps Donald thinks he has performed
this duty, according to the Irish translation, when he has
dug up a few yards of peat, and laid down a hundred po-
tatoe sets.
In sober sadness, there is difficulty in all innovation ;
but had there never been any exertions made for such
purposes, we might all have been ouran outangs to this
day. The potatoe has been introduced into the Highlands
as it has every where else, and through much
contention and prejudice. This was a serious breach in
Highland philosophy; and it is far easier to make a
second than a first, as it is easy to enlarge the old one
by battering on at the first hole vvhich our shot have
made in the bastion. It is far from true that this is a
race averse to innovation. It has always appeared to me
far otherwise. They are an acute, observing, and rea-
soning people; and that, not from education, and there-
fore only among the upper ranks, but down to the lowest
of the community. If I were to seek, in Britain, for an
intractable people in this respect, it should be among the
proud English boors; and that, too, very high in the
scale. In them, it arises from ignorance added to con-
ceit, from sheer bullet-headed obstinacy : in the High-
landers, the difficulty to contend with is, on the contrary,
contentedness or indolence ; while many of the difficul-
ties to be surmounted, flow also from poverty and many
VOL. III. z