388 OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS

calling not merely innocent but honorable. He would have
seen, wherever he turned, that dislike of steady industry,
and that disposition to throw on the weaker sex the heavi-
est part of manual labor, which are characteristic of sav-
ages. He would have been struck by the spectacle of ath-
letic men basking in the sun, angling for salmon, or taking
aim at grouse, while their aged mothers, their pregnant
wives, their tender daughters, were reaping the scanty har-
vest of oats. Nor did the women repine at their hard lot.
In their view it was quite fit that a man, especially if he
assumed the aristocratic title of Duinhe Wassel and adorned
his bonnet with the eagle's feather, s1hould take his ease,
except when he was fighting, hunting, or marauding. To
mention the name of such a man in connection with com-
merce or with any mechanical art was an insult. Agricul-
ture was indeed less despised. Yet a highborn warrior was
much more becomingly employed in plundering the land of
others than in tilling his own.
  "The religion of the greater part of the Highlands was
a rude mixture of Popery and Paganism. The symbol of
redemption was associated with heathen sacrifices and incan-
tations. Baptised men poured libations of ale on one
Dxemon, and set out drink offerings of milk for another.
Seers wrapped themselves up in bulls' hides, and awaited,
in that vesture, the inspiration which was to reveal the fu-
ture. Even among those minstrels and genealogists whose
hereditary vocation was to preserve the memory of past
events, an enquirer would have found very few who could
read. In truth, he might easily have journeyed from sea
to sea without discovering a page of Gaelic printed or
written.
  "The price which he would have had to pay for his