第38章 OSTIG IN SKY(3)

The inhabitants of Sky,and of the other Islands,which I have seen,are commonly of the middle stature,with fewer among them very tall or very short,than are seen in England,or perhaps,as their numbers are small,the chances of any deviation from the common measure are necessarily few.The tallest men that I saw are among those of higher rank.In regions of barrenness and scarcity,the human race is hindered in its growth by the same causes as other animals.

The ladies have as much beauty here as in other places,but bloom and softness are not to be expected among the lower classes,whose faces are exposed to the rudeness of the climate,and whose features are sometimes contracted by want,and sometimes hardened by the blasts.Supreme beauty is seldom found in cottages or work-shops,even where no real hardships are suffered.To expand the human face to its full perfection,it seems necessary that the mind should co-operate by placidness of content,or consciousness of superiority.

Their strength is proportionate to their size,but they are accustomed to run upon rough ground,and therefore can with great agility skip over the bog,or clamber the mountain.For a campaign in the wastes of America,soldiers better qualified could not have been found.Having little work to do,they are not willing,nor perhaps able to endure a long continuance of manual labour,and are therefore considered as habitually idle.

Having never been supplied with those accommodations,which life extensively diversified with trades affords,they supply their wants by very insufficient shifts,and endure many inconveniences,which a little attention would easily relieve.I have seen a horse carrying home the harvest on a crate.Under his tail was a stick for a crupper,held at the two ends by twists of straw.Hemp will grow in their islands,and therefore ropes may be had.If they wanted hemp,they might make better cordage of rushes,or perhaps of nettles,than of straw.

Their method of life neither secures them perpetual health,nor exposes them to any particular diseases.There are physicians in the Islands,who,I believe,all practise chirurgery,and all compound their own medicines.

It is generally supposed,that life is longer in places where there are few opportunities of luxury;but I found no instance here of extraordinary longevity.A cottager grows old over his oaten cakes,like a citizen at a turtle feast.He is indeed seldom incommoded by corpulence.Poverty preserves him from sinking under the burden of himself,but he escapes no other injury of time.

Instances of long life are often related,which those who hear them are more willing to credit than examine.To be told that any man has attained a hundred years,gives hope and comfort to him who stands trembling on the brink of his own climacterick.

Length of life is distributed impartially to very different modes of life in very different climates;and the mountains have no greater examples of age and health than the low lands,where I was introduced to two ladies of high quality;one of whom,in her ninety-fourth year,presided at her table with the full exercise of all her powers;and the other has attained her eighty-fourth,without any diminution of her vivacity,and with little reason to accuse time of depredations on her beauty.

In the Islands,as in most other places,the inhabitants are of different rank,and one does not encroach here upon another.Where there is no commerce nor manufacture,he that is born poor can scarcely become rich;and if none are able to buy estates,he that is born to land cannot annihilate his family by selling it.This was once the state of these countries.Perhaps there is no example,till within a century and half,of any family whose estate was alienated otherwise than by violence or forfeiture.Since money has been brought amongst them,they have found,like others,the art of spending more than they receive;and I saw with grief the chief of a very ancient clan,whose Island was condemned by law to be sold for the satisfaction of his creditors.

The name of highest dignity is Laird,of which there are in the extensive Isle of Sky only three,Macdonald,Macleod,and Mackinnon.The Laird is the original owner of the land,whose natural power must be very great,where no man lives but by agriculture;and where the produce of the land is not conveyed through the labyrinths of traffick,but passes directly from the hand that gathers it to the mouth that eats it.The Laird has all those in his power that live upon his farms.Kings can,for the most part,only exalt or degrade.The Laird at pleasure can feed or starve,can give bread,or withold it.This inherent power was yet strengthened by the kindness of consanguinity,and the reverence of patriarchal authority.The Laird was the father of the Clan,and his tenants commonly bore his name.And to these principles of original command was added,for many ages,an exclusive right of legal jurisdiction.

This multifarious,and extensive obligation operated with force scarcely credible.Every duty,moral or political,was absorbed in affection and adherence to the Chief.Not many years have passed since the clans knew no law but the Laird's will.He told them to whom they should be friends or enemies,what King they should obey,and what religion they should profess.

When the Scots first rose in arms against the succession of the house of Hanover,Lovat,the Chief of the Frasers,was in exile for a rape.The Frasers were very numerous,and very zealous against the government.A pardon was sent to Lovat.He came to the English camp,and the clan immediately deserted to him.