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HISTORY OY EUOHANH.

CHAP.

XIII.

Ids').

were many miniature courts, in each of which a petty prince,•attended by guards, by armour bearers, by musicians, by ahereditary orator, by a hereditary poet laureate, kept a rudestate, dispensed a rude justice, waged wars, and concludedtreaties. While the old Gaelic institutions were in full vigour,no account of them was given by any observer, qualified tojudge of them fairly. Had such an observer studied the cha-racter of the Highlanders, he would doubtless have found in itclosely intermingled the good and the bad qualities of an unci-vilised nation. He would have found that the people had nolove for their country or for their king; that they had no attach-ment to any commonwealth larger than the clan, or to anymagistrate superior to the chief. He would have found that lifewas governed by a code of morality and honour widely differentfrom that which is established in peaceful and prosperous socie-ties. He would have learned that a stab in the back, or a shotfrom behind a fragment of rock, were approved modes of takingsatisfaction for insults. He would have heard men relateboastfully how they or their fathers had wreaked on hereditaryenemies in a neighbouring valley such vengeance as would havemade old soldiers of the Thirty Years’ War shudder. He wouldhave found that robbery was held to be a calling, not merely in-nocent, but honourable. He would have seen, wherever heturned, that dislike of steady industry, and that disposition tothrow on the weaker sex the heaviest part of manual labour,which are characteristic of savages. He would have been struckby the spectacle of athletic men basking in the sun, angling forsalmon, or taking aim at grouse, while their aged mothers, theirpregnant wives, their tender daughters, were reaping thescanty harvest of oats. Nor did the women repine at their hardlot. In their view it was quite fit that a man, especially if heassumed the aristocratic title of Duinhe Wassel and adorned hisbonnet with the eagle’s feather, should take his ease, except