Chapter I · ​—INTRODUCTION.

Section I.

The Scope of the Work.

IN every stage of a nation’s career from barbarism to civilisation, there are many conditions involved. The underlying causes of progress in the early stages being so remote and varied that they often elude investigation; still, if some of the salient points of the process can be reached, the social phenomena may be partially realised: if the surrounding circumstances of early tribes can be ascertained, patient research may elicit valuable results. It is exceedingly interesting to search for the causes and the influences which have operated upon the life of our early ancestors in their many struggles. To trace the light of consciousness dawning, and experience slowly becoming more effective, gradually dispelling the mists of far-gone ages​—the spirits, myths, and legends, which enveloped the minds and affected the thoughts and emotions of our early kindred​—till the flickering rays of intelligence ascended the horizon, and the shadows and myths receded, step by step into the background. Yet the many retarding influences and circumstances constantly recurring, and the difficulties and obstacles encountered at every turn, were only slowly overcome by the persistent energy of man. As time rolled on, original thought was developed, new influences and agencies arose and came into operation, which tended to subdue the ruder features of the race and to promote social organisation and advance culture; and when these became effectual, the people gradually emerged from the trammels of ignorance and superstition, and at last enjoyed a more secure and happier life.

Any attempt to indicate the causes which have induced a number of scattered tribes, almost living in a primitive state, to pass through the various stages of progress to a comparatively high civilisation, must examine many conflicting agencies. The difficulties of truly assigning the effects of different causes, especially in the early stages, are very great, where ascertained facts are few and the phenomena so obscure; while the natural tendency of the human mind to generalise upon incomplete data is not easily resisted. Scotland offers a fair and tempting field for the study of this subject. Inasmuch as we find man living there in a very early stage, and can trace the social organisation of tribes, their conflicts issuing in the foundation of a monarchy, and the development of an intense nationality; and the beginnings of industry, of art, and of culture among the people, and their continuous progress, through the various stages of civilisation, onward to the present time. In this period, extending over four thousand years, we can study the various agencies and influences, and the different historic conditions which successively arose, and controlled the stream of events and moulded the historic phenomena. Thus the aboriginal race which long occupied the country, were subdued and absorbed by another race, which in turn were invaded by powerful enemies, but the natives made a vigorous resistance. After this, other migrations and invasions followed, issuing in new historic conditions, which contributed to the extension of the kingdom, and the development of the nation. In the natural course of events the kingdom fell under the influence of foreign interference, which led to new invasions and determined attempts to conquer the nation. The people resisted, and a long struggle for liberty and independence ensued, which, in its heroic features of resistance to oppression and the importance of its ultimate result, is unmatched in the annals of any nation. While later, internal political and religious conflicts were manifested in a variety of forms, and constitute an exceedingly interesting and important part of the national history. Thus, although some countries have a greater history than Scotland, few have a longer, a more eventful, or a more peculiarly interesting one.

The work does not profess to present an exhaustive political history. This branch will be treated according to its comparative importance in the different periods, and the relative value of its facts and phenomena, viewed as a factor in the general movement of the nation. The main aim of the work being to reach the moral and intellectual factors of progress, and especially to present ample details of the material and social conditions of each period; and thus embracing all the causes, agencies, and influences, in a connected scheme, to unfold the successive stages of the progress, the culture, and the development of the civilisation of the people.

As the term civilisation, in its widest import, includes all the material and intellectual products, the religion and social organisations and institutions of a civilised nation, a disquisition on the elements of these complex subjects would be out of character in this section. From my standpoint, historically, civilisation began with the first conscious efforts of man, whenever he began to act with an end in view, such as to make weapons to defend himself or implements to procure food: and this is sometimes called the primitive state, from which mankind have gradually advanced in culture, more or less, according as surrounding nature, circumstances, and historic conditions, were favourable to their progress, or the reverse. To trace and explain such a progress and development in the limited area of Scotland is the conception and end of this work; so the prehistoric ages will be treated in a concise and connected form onward into the historic age, and associated with the manifold causes, circumstances, changes, and influences, which have operated upon the people, and ultimately resulted in our present stage of civilisation.

The primary causes of civilisation may be shortly indicated thus:​—1, The human mind itself; 2, Surrounding nature, including climate, soil, and natural products; 3, Historical conditions; and 4, Social and material conditions. The mind of man is the prime factor of civilisation, and unless this is recognised no satisfactory explanation of development and progress can be given. For the internal power of the mind is the only natural and conceivable cause of the origin of civilisation; insomuch, that without it civilisation is inexplicable. Still, the circumstances in which man finds himself placed may have an important effect upon him. In the early stages, climate, soil, and natural products have a potent bearing on the direction which man’s progress might take; if he can live without much effort, as when his wants are supplied by nature in abundance, he will feel inclined to enjoy himself in ease. But the increase of numbers sooner or later begins to affect him, and exertion in the form of migration or in other ways at last becomes necessary, and outward movements and conflicts would then commence. When historical conditions arise, they become the chief external causes of relative changes in the state of society, but such changes may not be always favourable to progress, though they often tend in that direction. The social and material conditions are exceedingly important factors in civilisation. It is principally the social feeling which originates society, and binds mankind into groups, tribes, and nations. Religion also often operates as a social influence, in association at first with the instinct of self-preservation, and at later stages in association with the higher emotions.

The lower and narrower forms of moral tendency spring out of human nature and the necessities of life​—the social and sympathetic feelings. The higher sentiments and emotions, and the definite ideas of right and wrong, of justice, honesty, truth, and so on, were only developed slowly, and with extreme difficulty. The very sentiment and idea upon which justice itself rests is distinctly progressive; as at first it appears obscure and often contorted, so it has only been gradually growing in clearness, in purity, and in comprehensiveness. How far it is even yet from being perfect needs no exposition.

Following the lines above indicated, the geographical and physical features of the country will be described, seeing that they have had an influence on the development of the inhabitants. The direct action of climate, soil, and food, on man is difficult to estimate, and varies in different quarters of the globe; its operation is obscure, as it is independent of volition, and man is merely passive under it. But the indirect action of external nature is more potent on the development of man, for it presupposes a reaction on his part under the stimulus of his wants and activities, and in this relation the influence of physical agencies upon man and society, especially in the early stages, were everywhere felt.

We may safely assume that man has always sought to gratify the inherent cravings of his being. His primeval feelings and passions were strong, and sometimes bounded into activity with endless degrees of force; hence the varied ethnic affinities of races, the diversity of historical conditions, tribal and political conflicts, conquests, and amalgamations, which have contributed to produce such manifold results throughout the world.

Myth appears to spring from the same source as science; originally it was simply man’s early attempt to interpret his surroundings. In the myth-making stage of culture, man was ignorant of the causes of the natural forces around him, hence he was eagerly looking for something to give him an explanation of external phenomena. He found an explanation in his own will and feelings; and so every moving object, animate and inanimate, was thought to be impelled by a force akin to his own mind. All the mental powers that man found in himself were transferred to external nature. Thus the ancient world became inhabited by multitudes of spirits, demons, and gods. Long after the original mythical meanings were lost, new explanations were fastened on names and words, and thus the process proceeded;¹ until the attainment of definite knowledge dethroned the swarms of spirits, gods, demons, and witches.

¹ Celtic Mythology, by Alexander Macbain, M.A.

Section II.

Geographical and Physical Features of the Country.

Scotland is separated from England by the River Tweed, the Cheviot Hills, the Liddel Water, and the Solway Firth; the Cheviot range naturally tended to fix the southern limit of the country. The boundary line runs in a slanting direction from Berwick-on-Tweed to the Solway Firth, a distance of seventy miles, and except on this line Scotland is surrounded by the sea. On the east side lies the North Sea, on the west the Atlantic Ocean; the North Channel, between the south-western part of the country and Ireland, is only thirteen and a half miles broad at the Mull of Cantyre, and the most southerly part of the coast is washed by the Irish Sea. The west coast is nearly in a line with the east of Ireland, and the greater part of Scotland lies west of England; and the south-eastern end of the island approaches so near the continent of Europe that the opposite coasts of England and France are only twenty-one miles apart from each other at the narrowest point of the Channel. Between Scotland and Norway there are 300 miles of sea, and between Denmark and Scotland 400 miles of sea. These natural facts, as we shall find, had an important bearing on the early history of the island.

The coasts of Scotland are very irregular, and broken, and rocky. On the whole of the west coast there are numerous arms and inlets of the sea, which penetrate far into the interior of the country, while here and there the land extends out to the sea in numerous islands and surf-beaten rocks. Amongst the most noted of these inlets of the sea are Lochs Linnhe, Torridon, Duich, Hourn, and Nevis; on the south and north coasts the bays and inlets are not so numerous, though on the northern there are the Firths of Moray, Inverness, Beauly, Cromarty, and Dornoch. The east coast is much less indented than the other sides, but on it are the two important estuaries of the Forth and Tay. Owing to these numerous firths, inlets, and arms of the sea, the coast-line of Scotland measures about 2,500 miles, which affords many industrial and commercial advantages.

The Orkney Islands lie off the northern mainland, and are separated from Caithness by the Pentland Firth​—a dangerous channel​—6 miles broad, and noted for the strength and rapidity of its tides and currents. This group of islands amounts to upwards of sixty, but most of them are small, and others merely bare rocks, and only twenty-nine are inhabited. The largest of the group is about thirty miles in length. The surface of these islands mostly consists of heathy wastes, intersected with rocks, swamps, and lochs; there are scarcely any trees, and the cultivated portions yield oats and green crops. The only towns are Kirkwall and Stromness. The climate is rather moist, but not severe.

The Shetland ♦Islands lie about one hundred miles off the northern coast of Scotland, and they are separated from the Orkneys by seventy miles of sea. This group exceeds one hundred islands, but more than the half of them are small holms or rocky islets, and only about thirty of them are inhabited. These islands have a less favourable climate than the Orkneys; they are more rugged, and the agriculture is poor; but the Shetland sheep yield a fine soft wool, which is much valued. The inhabitants chiefly live by fishing, and Lerwick, their only town, has a harbour which is frequented by the vessels of different nations as a haven of refuge. The Shetlands are only two hundred miles from Norway, and hence they became important in relation to the ethnology and colonisation of the northern and western coasts of Scotland.

The Hebrides or Western Isles lie on the western side of Scotland, and are very numerous. They stretch along the western shores nearly to the coasts of Ireland, and are regarded as the natural breakwater of the north-west coasts. They consist of two chief groups: 1, those lying close to the mainland, as Mull, Islay, Skye, and others, called the inner group; 2, those lying to the west of the Channel of Minch, and usually called the outer islands. These outer ones form a continuous group of 140 miles in length, and so close together that they have been regarded as one, and named the Long Island. Lewis is sixty miles long, being the longest of the group, and the longest island belonging to Scotland. Probably some of these islands were inhabited at an early period, and they became connected with the ethnology and the colonisation of the west of Scotland; and also with the introduction of Christianity, and thus were associated with the early history of the country.

The islands in the Firth of Clyde are Bute and Arran, the two Cumbraes, and the Rock of Ailsa. The climate of Bute is mild, and its central and southern parts are well suited for tillage and pasture, but its northern extremity is rugged. Arran is remarkable for its lofty hills and glens, and only a small portion of it is suitable for cultivation. Ailsa Craig lies in the broad part of the Firth, and is simply an insulated rocky hill, about two miles in circumference, and rising in steep cliffs to 1,098 feet above the sea. It is a great resort of the solan goose and immense numbers of other sea birds.

On the east coast there are only a few detached islets. The Bass Rock, on the south side of the entrance of the Firth of Forth, is a mass of basalt rising perpendicularly to 400 feet. The islands of May, Inchkeith, and Inchcolm, are all in the Forth. The Bell Rock lies 14 miles east of the entrance of the Firth of Tay, and is the site of a notable lighthouse.

Turning now to the mainland, the country presents to the eye an exceedingly varied prospect. The fine diversity of mountains and wooded heights, rivers and valleys, narrow glens and ravines, and lakes, present stretches of charming scenery, and in other parts a succession of picturesque scenes of rugged and wild scenery, striking and imposing from the grandeur of their outstanding features. Many of the valleys and glens in every quarter of the country present scenery of exquisite beauty when seen in a fine summer-day in all their verdant glory. The existing aspects of external nature are the result of the operation of forces which have been working for untold æons, stretching far back into eternity. If we could recall the echoes from that vasty deep, and figure in imagination the successive phenomena as they appeared, then we might form some faint idea of the sublimity and the infinite significance of the great work of creation. The space which Scotland now occupies, and after the formation of its rocks, was repeatedly submerged by the ocean, and also at different periods enveloped in mountains of snow and glacier ice. The action of immense moving masses of glacier ice have contributed much to deepen and smooth the glens and the lochs, and to modify the contour of the mountains and hills;¹ while the wasting powers which rain, frost, wind, and the sea possess, have all contributed to produce changes on the surface of the earth, and formed the many contrasts, the varied and picturesque features of the grand and beautiful scenery of the country.

¹ Dr. A. Geikie’s Scenery of Scotland, pages 81‒87, 1887. “While land-ice is thus a most powerful geological agent in new-modelling the surface of the earth, its operations are not entirely confined to the dry land. As already stated, it creeps along the sea bottom for some distance from land until flotation comes into play, when large masses break off from the ice-cliff, and rising up and floating, sail away seaward as icebergs. These ice islands carry with them any soil or rock-rubbish which may have fallen upon them from inland cliffs while they formed part of the ice-sheet of the country. The debris so borne off is, of course, thrown down upon the sea bottom as each berg melts away, after a voyage of perhaps hundreds of miles. Year by year whole fleets of these bergs are sent southwards in the arctic regions, so that the bed of the northern seas must be strewn with earth and boulders. As only between an eighth and a ninth part of a mass of ice appears above the sea water on which it floats, the bulk of many bergs must be enormous. One rising two hundred feet above the waves​—not an uncommon height​—must have its bottom more than seven hundred feet below them, and the thickness of the ice cap at its outer edge must be there about two thousand feet. The Antarctic ice-sheets and icebergs are of still more colossal dimensions.”

The mountain ranges and the river system of the country may be briefly indicated. The Highlands are naturally marked off by mountains from the eastern Lowlands and the central valleys of the Forth and Clyde. The Grampian range of mountains stretches from near the coast of Kincardineshire across the country to Ardnamurchan on the west coast. These mountains vary greatly in figure and elevation; the average height of their higher summits runs from 3000 to 4000 feet above sea level, and their greatest height is reached at the top of Ben Nevis, which rises 4,406 feet, but it is not quite within the limit of perpetual snow. To the north of the Grampians ranges of mountains run off in successive waves to Cape Wrath, the shores of the North Sea, and the Moray Firth, and southward along the west coasts to the Mull of Cantyre, gradually diminishing in height as they approach the coasts, where the river valleys widen out into limited plains. These mountains are mainly formed of masses of rocks consisting of gneiss, granite, schist, and other crystalline rocks, and bands of quartzose, which are associated with some strips of limestone.

The scenery of the Highlands presents many varied and striking features, associated with much similarity and wonderful order. The craggy array of peaks overhanging the narrow passes and glens, often present to the eye a marked similarity of bend and slope, of figure and contour; still taking the whole of the Highlands, a rich variety of contrasts can easily be observed. Many of the Highland valleys present exceedingly picturesque and beautiful scenery.

Glenmore, or the Great Glen, is a remarkable feature in the physical structure of the Highlands. It extends from the Moray Firth at Inverness to the Sound of Mull, a distance of about one hundred miles, and separates the Highlands into two regions. In its middle portion there are three lakes​—Loch Ness, the source of the beautiful river Ness, which flows through the town of Inverness; Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy. These lochs are very deep. “The deepest soundings in Loch Ness gives a depth of 129 fathoms opposite the Falls of Foyers; in Loch Oich, 23 fathoms; in Loch Lochy, 76 fathoms.”¹ The lochs are situated in the midst of varied and beautiful scenery; and the Caledonian Canal now connects them by navigable channels from shore to shore.

¹ “Its very straightness is enough to suggest that the Great Glen owes its direction to a line of dislocation. I ascertained in the year 1864 that the line of the fracture, or of one continued in the same line, can be seen along the western side of the Moray Firth, where the Jurassic beds of Eathic and Shandwick are thrown down against the Old Red Sandstone. Hence the downthrow at this end of the line is to the east side. It seems to me that this line has been from a very early geological period up, indeed, to the present day, a line of weakness in the crust of the earth. The prolongation of the tongue of the Old Red Sandstone up the valley of Loch Ness appears to show that the valley is older than that formation; the dislocation of the Eathic and Shandwick shales proves disturbance even after the Lias; and the agitation of the waters of Loch Ness, during great earthquakes in modern times, shows that, even yet, underground movements tend to reveal themselves along the same old line. Hence it may be reasonably conjectured that the fracture along the line of the Great Glen has been repeatedly modified during the subterranean changes of successive geological periods.” Geikie’s Scenery of Scotland, page 234.

Some parts of the Highlands consist of barren moor, such as the Moor of Rannoch, extending to 400 square miles, which is little better than a desert. Its surface is level and a part of it covered by a bog; it produces no vegetation, except a few fir trees, but granite covers many miles of it. To the north of it another sterile tract lies between Ben Nevis and the shores of Loch Ericht.

The Lowland region is marked off on the one side by the lines of the Highland mountains, and on the other by the southern uplands. From St. Abb’s Head to the cliffs of Portpatrick a range of hilly ground runs across the country from sea to sea; and in East Lothian and Edinburghshire, the long chain of the Lammermuir Hills rises into steep heights. The surface of the Lammermuirs, like most of the southern hills, is pretty smooth and covered with heath or coarse grass, except where the peat covers the hollows, and where the streams keep open their channels through the bare drift or hard rock. The tops of these hills are usually broad, smooth, and grassy; but on the western ridges they descend abruptly into the plains, and present gulleys and narrow glens, through which the drainage flows into the low grounds. These heights of the Lammermuirs fairly represent the general features of the scenery of the country between the North Sea and the Vale of the Nith, although in the higher parts of the region the smoothness and verdure of the hills are exchanged for the rocky scarfs, bare crags and cliffs, and deep narrow defiles, which remind us of some parts of the Highlands.¹

¹ Geikie’s Scenery of Scotland, page 281, et seq.

The Lammermuirs, the Moorfoots, and the Pentland Hills, form a range running from east to west; further south, the Cheviots, the Moffat Hills, and the Lowther Hills, form a continuous range extending in a zig-zag course from east to west. The general features of these southern and border hills are remarkably uniform throughout; they are mostly covered with pasture nearly to the tops, and a great part of this region is naturally a pasture land.

The Lowlands of southern Scotland consist of a series of fertile valleys, some of which are of considerable extent. It may be observed that a different local topography prevails; as the term dale, instead of strath or glen, is used to indicate a stretch of low lying ground, a cultivated valley or a pastoral one. Amongst these notable local districts are Tweeddale, Teviotdale, and Lauderdale, which belong to the basin of the Tweed; Liddlesdale, Eskdale, Annandale, and Nithsdale, each of which belong to the respective rivers of the same name, and slope toward the shores of the Solway Firth; the vale of Yarrow, the vale of Gala, and Ettrick, which have been rendered famous in the national songs and poetry.

But many parts of the central Lowlands are dotted with hills, and even long ranges. The Sidlaw Hills commence in the vicinity of Perth, thence extending in a north-east direction and terminating by a rapid declivity on the side of Strathmore, but descending in a fine succession of terraces towards the North Sea. The Ochil Hills, with their offshoots, occupy much of the peninsula of Fife, and in some parts rise to a considerable height; Ben Glack is 2359 feet above sea level.

Among the influences of external nature few have a more important bearing upon the people than the water courses of the country. The Watershed of Scotland runs southward from Cape Wrath to the head of Loch Quoich, whence it turns eastward between Lochs Lochy and Oich, then sweeping round the top of Strathspey and over the hills above the head of Loch Laggan, and thence following a curving southerly course past the west end of the Moor of Rannoch and the Brae Lyon mountains to Crianlarich, thence across Ben Lomond and south-eastward over the Campsie Fells into the broad Lowland valley: whence skirting the south-western parts of Linlithgow and Mid-Lothian, it sweeps up into the Pentland Hills, and then south between the valleys of the Clyde and Tweed to the Hartfell Heights, thence it strikes across to the Cheviot Hills. To the west of this line the water flows into the Atlantic, and to the east, into the North Sea or the Firths connected with it. Owing to the steep and mountainous nature of the west side of the Island, the Watershed keeps much nearer to the Atlantic than to the North Sea; and hence the greater part of the country is drained into the latter. In the northern half of Scotland no large river enters the Atlantic; on the western side of the Watershed as it runs through the counties of Sutherland, Ross, and Inverness, nearly all the great valleys which enter the sea come down from the south-east, and have their seaward portions filled by the tides of the Atlantic. Thus they form the series of inland sea lochs, narrow firths, and fords which characterise the western shores of the country.

On the north-east side, the Ness, the Spey, the Deveron, the Don, the Dee, the North Esk, the South Esk, and the Tay, and a number of smaller rivers, carry the drainage of the mountains into the sea. The principal rivers of the Central Lowlands are the Tay, the Forth, and the Clyde. The Tay descends from the heights of the Highlands, and as it were issues into the Lowlands through the narrow defile of Birnam, winds by Perth and gradually opens into a fine estuary; and pours a greater body of water into the sea than any other river in Britain. The Forth rises on the eastern side of Ben Lomond; and issues from the Highlands through the narrow defile of Aberfoyle; and winding on it passes by Stirling and Alloa, and enters its estuary. The Clyde rises from the Moffat Hills in the Southern uplands, flows northward, winding its course through the broad meadows, cultivated fields, fine woodlands, and beautiful stretches of scenery. The basins of the Forth and Clyde are not separated by ranges of hills, between the two rivers, the ground undulates across the great coal and iron fields from Campsie to the Pentland Hills.

The numerous rivers and streams give rise to a corresponding variety of defiles, straths, dales, and valleys. Besides those already mentioned, there are in the north-eastern side of the ♦country, the valleys of the Dee, the Don, the Deveron, the Spey, and the Ness; and the notable ravines of the Findhorn, Nairn, and Beauly. Much of the best cultivable land of the country lies in the valleys, on the banks and haughs of the rivers.

Caithness presents a tract of comparatively flat land; and in the lower parts of Moray, Banffshire, and Aberdeenshire, there are considerable stretches of pretty level ground; but the greatest extent of level land in Scotland is the plain of Strathmore, which runs from the banks of the river Forth to the vicinity of Stonehaven, where it is terminated by the eastern Grampians. This plain is nearly ninety miles in length, and its breadth varies from sixteen miles at its widest part along the course of the Forth and Teith to less than a mile at its northern extremity. It is the largest extent of level and cultivable land in Scotland. The Carse of Gowrie lies along the banks of the beautiful estuary of the Tay, it is two or three miles broad, and one of the most fertile spots in Scotland. The Carse of Stirling lies on the south side of the Forth, and is remarkably fertile.

The Central Region extending between the Firths of Forth and Clyde presents a striking feature in the physical configuration of the country. The two Firths penetrate inwards on opposite sides, and opening out the mouths of the rivers, nearly cuts the country into two halves; and at this point reduces its breadth to forty miles. These natural features have had a controlling influence on the stream of events for ages: 1, In relation to the origin of historical conditions; 2, In relation to military and political conditions; 3, In relation to national defence and political independence; 4, In relation to the development of industry and commerce. The details of these will successively appear in the sequel of the work.

Lakes are still pretty numerous in Scotland; although in early times they were far more numerous. During the last hundred and fifty years many lochs have been drained and turned into cultivated land; while the natural processes of growth have transformed others into mosses. They are most numerous in the Highland and Middle divisions of the country. Loch Lomond is the largest one in the Kingdom; it is twenty-four miles long and seven miles broad at its widest part. It contains upwards of thirty islands, many of which are richly wooded. For some time it has been held to be scientifically proved, that the greater part of the lochs of Scotland were formed or at least deepened by the action of glacier ice; some of them are scooped out of solid rock, the immense weight of a great moving mass of ice having effected this result.

Although the country is comparatively poor in soil, it is rich in the raw materials of industry. Limestone, greenstone, freestone, flagstone, slatestone, and granite of various colours are abundant. The carboniferous rocks extend from Fife Ness to the coast of Ayrshire, and cover the greater part of the Central Region​—the coal, iron, and shale district. It has been estimated that the total depth of the carboniferous strata cannot be less than 6000 feet.¹ The richest portions of the coal fields are in Clydesdale, Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire; the counties of Ayr, Fife, Stirling, Edinburgh, and Linlithgow, follow in order; and in most of these counties more or less valuable beds of ironstone, shale, and limestone, are intermixed with the coal. Broken strata of coal have been found as far north as Sutherlandshire. Lead and copper are found in small quantities; gold also has been discovered in several parts of the country, though not in sufficient quantities to repay the labour of searching for it. About twenty years ago, a number of persons employed themselves searching for gold in Sutherlandshire, and though small quantities were found, the occupation did not prove remunerative.

¹ Geikie’s Scenery of Scotland, page 329, 1887.

Within the limit of the close of the latest geological epoch, the flora and fauna of the country may be briefly noticed. The character of the vegetation varied in different localities, and according to altitude on the mountains. Heaths, and here and there a straggling alpine plant, graced the higher brows of the mountains; lower down, on their ribs, waving ferns and other wild growths shot up; around their base, and some 1500 feet upward on their sides, trees of pine and oak spread out their trunks and branches. The oak also abounded on the low grounds, and other indigenous trees, such as the birch, hazel, alder, willow, and juniper, all lived and grew wonderfully. In the boggy valley and glen, marsh plants, sea growths, and other wild flowers sprang up. In the more level and dry grounds, natural grasses, and wood wherever the conditions were suitable covered the scene. How many of the fruit bearing trees and bushes were indigenous I am unable to tell; that there were wild fruit of various kinds need not be doubted.

Passing to the fauna of the country, vast multitudes of trout swarmed in the streams, rivers, and lakes; and immense shoals of fish, then as now, inhabited the firths and bays, and the encircling ocean. Touching the feathered species, there were several kinds of game, wild ducks, and fresh water and sea fowls were plentiful. Rapacious birds of the hawk and owl varieties, and the golden eagle were common. The British Islands are very rich in birds, nearly three hundred species are known, some of which are nowhere else found. The small singing birds of the country are well known, and need not be enumerated, for in spring and summer they enliven the garden, the wood, the valley and the mountain. Among the higher indigenous animals there were one or two species of the ox, from which the native cattle were probably derived. The sheep, red deer, and the roebuck were common; and the dog and the horse appear to have been domesticated at a very early period. The hare, the fox, wild cats, weasels, fumarts, and other wild animals, some of which have long been extinct in Scotland, such as the wild boar, the wolf, the beaver, and others, were common. The wolf held out for many centuries into the present era, and Acts of Parliament were passed in the fifteenth century, commanding the people to muster at certain seasons every year to hunt and destroy them.

Although the main outline of the country was the same then as now; yet the external surface and face of the country then presented a very different aspect to that which we see around us in every quarter at the present time. There was more water over the whole country; the Firths of Forth and Clyde rose some thirty feet above the present level of their tides; and the ground on which Leith, Dundee, Arbroath, Ayr, Greenock, Cromarty, and many other towns on the coast now stand, was then either wholly or in part covered with water. The rivers too were then much larger than they are now, and in many places their waters spread over a wider area. Then there were ♦innumerable lakes and swamps, black mosses and moors; and vast forests which swept in long withdrawing glades across the country. Thick clouds of mist often enveloped the land and water, and a severer climate prevailed. The reigning silence was only broken by the howl and snort of the wild beasts which roamed throughout the country. Such was the state of the country, when man first planted his foot on the soil of Scotland, and found himself surrounded by the conditions and the natural resources of the home, which I have briefly described; and how far he has turned them to account this history should show.

The influence of climate, soil, food, and other natural agencies on man, and the early inhabitants of Scotland, have now to be considered. According to the brief statement in the first section, it is extremely difficult to distinguish in the early stages of society, what is due to external agencies on the one hand, from what is due on the other to the internal energy of man himself. Still the co-relative potency of external influences and natural agencies on the destiny of the human race can hardly be questioned. At once discarding visionary notions, and endeavouring to grapple with the real and living world; we find men naked upon the earth amid the forces of nature, and on every side ferocious and venomous creatures to contend against; while he had everything to learn, how to protect himself and to fight and struggle for his life. Thus we must see the importance of the surrounding conditions and circumstances. Here man had to shield himself from the biting cold and frost, there from the scorching and burning sun; everywhere he found himself face to face with numerous forces which might have hurt or destroyed him.

Looking then to the climate and soil of Scotland in prehistoric times, the difficulty of obtaining food and protection from the cold and frost incident to the country, would have been the first matters to seriously affect the early inhabitants. The limited quantity of vegetable roots and wild fruit, which the soil spontaneously produced, must have rendered a supply of food from this source exceedingly precarious; and, prior to cultivation in so sterile a country, the early inhabitants could hardly have subsisted on vegetable food. The only remaining source of food in sufficient abundance was the wild animals, fowls, and the fish swarming in the waters. But it demanded much exertion and some ingenuity on man’s part to procure a supply of this description; owing to the coldness of the climate, however, and his imperfect means of sheltering himself, animal food was most suitable for him, as it is best fitted to keep up the warmth of the body. The results of these external conditions on the spirit and habits of the early inhabitants may be easily realised. The exertion and risk incurred in pursuing and slaying wild animals would naturally ♦develop habits of daring and determination; and the very efforts necessary for his self-preservation tended to develop his faculties. In short, we may easily comprehend how the circumstances in which man found himself placed in this quarter of the globe, were admirably calculated to develop a fund of energy, a spirit of independence, and a physical constitution capable of great and heroic endurance.

The natural structure of the country was favourable to lawless freedom. Geographically there are few countries less adapted to the requirements of a central despotism than Scotland. As the obstacles interposed by nature rendered regular communication between the different parts of the country almost impossible for ages, the results of these structural features of the country have been enormous, and they will again and again force themselves upon our notice. Here I am mainly concerned with the effort to understand their early effects. Their outcome was exhibited in the form of a number of little local rulers planted throughout the country​—sometimes called chiefs, at other times nobles, and they long possessed the supreme power in Scotland, though not always its nominal holders; and they offered a prolonged and determined resistance to the formation of an effective central authority.

The general features of a country may be considered in relation to the imagination, and also in relation to the understanding. The appearances presented by external nature to the eye and the senses mainly operates through the imagination, and this process has been supposed to have originated many of the superstitions which have afflicted mankind, such as those primitive notions of spirits and ghosts, myths, legends, and so on, which arose in the infancy of the race. Generally, it may be said, that whatever in the aspects of nature is calculated to inspire feelings of fear, terror, or bewilderment, and everything that raises in the mind an idea of the uncontrollable and unfathomable, has a tendency to inflame the uncultured imagination. In the early prehistoric ages, when men looked around and contrasted their own powers with the forces of nature, they were apt to become painfully conscious of their own helplessness and their dependent condition. Hence have sprung up the mythologies and polytheisms of the world. In those regions of the earth, where nature is seen on a grand and imposing scale, the impressions produced on the mind would be the most effective and abiding.

But the mountains and rivers of Scotland, though numerous, cannot be considered as being on an exceedingly grand scale, when compared with those of other countries. The aspects of these mountains and rivers could scarcely have presented an unsurmountableness calculated to overawe or stagger the minds of the people, although doubtless in the early stages these outstanding features of the country had some effect upon the feelings of the inhabitants. The rolling and raging waves of the sea, the rocks, and torrents streaming down the mountains, the storms and mists, have all been considered as suggesting and intensifying the superstitions of the Scots.¹ It seems to me that the influence of these natural agencies on the peculiar characteristics of Scotch superstition have been greatly overdrawn. There were many other ways in which their superstitions might have arisen, even supposing that the Scots had any superstitions essentially peculiar to themselves.

¹ Buckle’s History of Civilisation, Volume II., page 181; Burton’s Criminal Trials in Scotland, Volume I., pages 240‒248.

In relation to the understanding, on the other hand, the influence of the mountains and hills, the rivers, the lakes, the firths, and the sea, on the mind and daily life of the inhabitants, is clearly manifested. This will appear on all sides as we proceed with their history. The hills and elevated rocks were selected as the appropriate sites for strongholds; and the lakes were utilised for a similar purpose. We find the banks of rivers, the heights near the side of an estuary, and the elevated positions in the vicinity of the sea shore, all chosen with remarkable sagacity as the fittest sites for the habitations of communities. Here we can trace with something like precision the co-relative action of external nature on the understanding of man; here we can see him picking out the spots best suited for his purposes, and exerting that faculty which has enabled the human race to obtain an undisputed supremacy upon the earth.

Section III.

Historic Interpretation​—Ethnological Problem.

I. Whether man was originally descended from some species of extinct or still surviving apes,¹ does not come within the scope of my subject. But to render my principle of historic interpretation clear, it is necessary to make a brief statement. Man from the beginning of his career upon the earth has been in possession of his physical organism, his external senses, and his psychical faculties. Although in the early stages his mental powers were undeveloped, still he had the use of his external senses and the capacity of thinking, however limited his views might have been. For in the order of human development thought necessarily preceded language, and always has preceded it. In spite of the opinion of an eminent writer, who has asserted and reiterated that thought and language is absolutely identical, a notion well calculated to introduce confusion into the subject.² In nature and reality, if thought had not preceded language, the rational origin of language itself would be inconceivable. Is there not evidence recorded of individuals, who have thought much without using articulate language? I have observed an infant of three months old manifest distinct evidence of memory in relation to inanimate objects. I have also observed infants of eighteen months, who had a clear idea of the relation of cause and effect, and showed a wonderful power of reasoning and a spirit of inquiry. It is the internal psychical capacity of the mind-thinking power, which renders language itself possible. In the early stages of the human race it is certain that man did think hard and long too​—thousands of years before he had even a very limited vocabulary of articulate speech; and we know that alphabets and written languages were only of comparatively recent origin. Instead of language being absolutely identical with thought, it is merely an instrument for the expression and communication of thought, and an instrument to some extent fortuitously formed, as is shown by the multitude of different languages; and even the most highly developed ones are inadequate to express the infinite combinations and relations of thought.

¹ “My own theory of the matter, however, is slightly different from this. For, while accepting all that goes to constitute the substance of Mr. Darwin’s suggestion, I think it almost certain that the faculty of articulate sign-making was a product of a much later evolution, so that the creature who first presented this faculty must have already been more human than ape like. This Homo alius stands before the mind’s eye as an almost brutal object, indeed, yet still erect in attitude, shaping his flints to serve as tools and weapons, living in tribes or societies, and able in no small degree to communicate the logic of his recepts by means of gesture-signs, facial expressions, and vocal tones. From such an origin the subsequent evolution of sign-making faculty in the direction of articulate sounds would be an even more easy matter to imagine than it was under the previous hypothesis. Having traced the probable course of this evolution, as inferred by sundry analogies; and having dwelt upon the remarkable significance in this connection of the inarticulate sounds which still survive as so-called ‘clicks’ in the lowly formed language of Africa; I went on to detail sundry considerations which seemed to render probable the prolonged existence of the imaginary being in question​—traced the presumable phases of his subsequent evolution, and met the objection which might be raised on the score of Homo alius being Homo postulatus.” Mental Evolution of Man, by G. J. Romanes, M.A., LL.D., page 429, 1888. This volume is part of an attempt to strengthen the theory of evolution, by showing how the psychological barrier between man and the brute may be overcome. The effort is carried on with vigour and considerable ingenuity.

² Gifford Lectures, pages 24, 356, 406, by Max Müller, 1888.

From the historic standpoint, languages may be called the products of social organisation. Thus different tribes, communities, and nations originate and develop languages in harmony with their special circumstances, social state, and stages of civilisation. The evolution of language everywhere is partly a natural and partly an artificial process, springing out of the growth of the varied organisations, states of society, and human culture; and hence the multiplicity and diversity of languages throughout the world.

But the laws of thought are not dependent on language, or necessarily identical with any form of speech. Thought can create mere arbitrary signs, such as the formula and symbols used in science, which in themselves have no meaning until the mind and the laws of thought assign to them ideas, powers, and so on, which represent quantity and quality and explain the infinite relations of the universe. But, excepting Max Müller, did any one ever assert that the symbols themselves were identical with the ideas, thoughts, and reasonings involved in mathematics, astronomy, and chemistry?

In the earliest stage of society man’s thinking faculty appears to have been comparatively narrow, owing to his limited experience. Still it is an ♦indispensable requisite of a historic principle of interpretation to take account of the inner psychical faculties of man as a factor in the origin of the first stage of society, in the subsequent creation of historical conditions, and throughout the entire development of civilisation. The psychical characteristics of tribes are more important than their physical peculiarities, and when both sides of these characteristics are strongly marked, they tend to make new historical conditions, to produce relative changes, and thus advance civilisation. There is little progress in human society until a series of intersective relations arise and begin to operate and affect the positions and circumstances of tribes, and then onward and progressive movements gradually proceed.

In the interpretation of the prehistoric ages and early culture the first requisite is a just conception of human nature, to recognise the natural rights of all communities, and human rights, wherever there is evidence of their existence. For it must be remembered that there has been an almost perpetual tendency among the more powerful peoples to cruelly oppress the weaker and less fortunate communities.

Touching the investigation of the remains, relics, and the phenomena of a people in a given area, the first question is, what are the facts? The relation of such facts as can be ascertained, and their meaning, have to be explained. Following the natural course of development in Scotland, we find a people using stone and taking the materials within their reach, adapting them to suit the ends and circumstances of their daily life. Associated with this people and their stage of culture we find a series of remarkable structural remains which demands the greatest care and discrimination to interpret, owing to the remoteness of the period and the very imperfect knowledge of these people now obtainable. Explanations of unfamiliar phenomena are often apt to be wrong, unless when carefully made, and only relevant points admitted as evidence.

Proceeding down the stream of time we find a people using bronze, and manufacturing their weapons and implements in this material. They developed a culture which is specially connected with the products of this industry, and they occasionally adorned their persons with fine ornaments of jet and gold. This people erected stone circles in which they placed the remains of the dead, and they also erected unchambered cairns over the remains of the dead. But there is an overlapping of the bronze and iron periods, which causes difficulty in the sequent arrangement of certain classes of remains, and in such cases I have endeavoured to make the best use of circumstantial evidence. In Scotland there is a remarkable overlapping of all the three stages of stone, bronze, and iron; and, therefore, though bronze and iron implements may be found associated with the earth houses and the crannogs, it does not follow that their origin and period of occupation should be assigned to the iron age.

The discrimination and estimation of historical evidence, and prehistoric evidence in particular, is a difficult and arduous task. In estimating prehistoric evidence great care and caution is requisite, since owing to the imperfect character of the materials on which to form a direct conclusion, recourse to inference is tried: and many of the inferences which have been drawn in this department rests on no sufficient evidence; the merest shadow of analogy, far fetched instances from some other quarter of the globe​—utterly inapplicable to the point in hand, some allusion or conjecture found in Greek and Roman literature, have been often adduced as evidence, which it is heresy to question.

Even written materials, and national documents, when viewed as matter of historical evidence, must be discriminated, and their value estimated according to circumstances and the characteristics of the times to which they belong. Thus, surrounding circumstances is always an element of more or less value in estimating every description of historical evidence.

Strange as it seems, the intelligence of mankind has often been in advance of their means. This appears to have been the case in the earlier stages of human progress. Even now intellect is in advance of the means of attainment amongst the highest civilised nations. This is the case in physical science generally; and when we look at ethical and social science, it is plain that intellect is far ahead of the means of attainment. For instance, it is well known that unequal and defective laws produce disastrous results. So the difficulty in this lies not in the want of knowledge, but about the most efficient remedies, and the most effective means of applying them to remove the evils. On these points men hold different opinions, and so the evils continue. Such has been more or less the experience of mankind from the dawn of consciousness to the present hour. Man knew about many things long before he could command the requisite means to accomplish them; and therefore the mere wrecks and fragments of the handiwork of prehistoric peoples are not a complete index of their intelligence and powers. This has to be taken into account in our interpretation, and in our final estimate of the culture of such peoples. We can easily realise that similar difficulties, and much greater ones, beset our early ancestors, than those which still beset many of our own efforts.

But the description of prehistoric objects would have little interest, unless we knew about the people who produced and used these things in their daily life, something touching the race then inhabiting the country, and whence they came. To this question I will now turn.

II. For long it was the fashion to fix the cradle of the human race somewhere in the centre of Asia. It was said, that all the early movements of mankind were always from the East to the West: that all the migrations of the tribes which had peopled Europe, came at intervals in successive hordes from the East. It was also said, that the progress of civilisation had followed the sun from the East to the West. In the first edition of this volume (1877) I ventured to make the following statement:​—“Touching the idea so generally embraced, that the early invasions of Europe have always been from the East to the West, I confess that I cannot see the necessity for this assumption. Its wide prevalence is probably largely due to long fixed habits of thought. Why should the central region of Asia be deemed the cradle of the human race? This does not relieve the problem of any of its difficulties. It is just as easy to conceive man originating in one place as in another; in the heart of Africa, America, or Europe, as in Asia, especially as the race had spread over all these quarters of the earth long before we have any records. What can all our science tell us about the spot where man first came into existence? Imaginary theories are swiftly formed on a point of which nothing is known. There is little or no philosophic ground for this Eastern origin of the race; and it is vain to cover our ignorance in the garb of knowledge.” The only semblance of a reason for imagining that the centre of Asia was the cradle of the race, is the assumption that it was warm in this region, and therefore primitive man could easily have lived and multiplied there; but of course we cannot know whether it was warm or not at the period of man’s first appearance on the earth.

Recently vigorous attempts have been made to shift the cradle of the great Aryan race from the centre of Asia to Europe. In the early part of this century comparative philology gave currency to the relationship of the far-spread family of Aryan languages. Then shortly after a theory was formed to the effect that these allied languages had all originally sprung from a clan somewhere located in Asia, in Bactria, or the banks of the Oxus. But it is now strongly contended that Europe was the centre in which the ancestors of the Aryan race first saw the light, and that there is no Aryan race in the same sense that there is an Aryan language, and that the question touching the origin of the Aryans can only refer to the ethnic affinities of those various races which have acquired Aryan speech. The real problem is among which of these races did Aryan language arise, and where was the cradle of that race?¹ This is not likely to be soon solved.

¹ The Origin of the Aryans, by Isaac Taylor, LL.D., page 7, 1890. J. G. Rhode first advanced the theory that central Asia was the cradle of the Indo-European race, and based his arguments mainly on geographical indications. Pott’s argument is founded on the notion that “the path of the sun must be the path of culture.” Ibid., pages 9, 10. Hegel also strongly maintained that the spirit of humanity, in its historic manifestation, followed the course of the sun from the east to the west, and at last culminated in the German nation, which being interpreted meant in himself​—in his own system of philosophy.

In 1848 Jacob Grimm ennunciated the theory that​—“Few will be found to question that all the nations of Europe migrated anciently from Asia,” and so on. In 1859 Max Müller adopted Grimm’s theory, and superimposed on it a fine flowing poetic strain, which captivated multitudes of people. The same year Pictet published the first volume of his Origines Indo-Européennes, in which he presented an elaborate theory of the successive Aryan migrations from Central Asia. He brought the Celts south of the Caspian and through the Caucasus to the north of the Black Sea, and then up the Danube to the extreme west of Europe; and the Greeks and Italians by a route, south of the Caspian, through Asia Minor to Greece and Italy; while the Slavs and Teutons marched north of the Caspian through the Russian steppes. Taylor’s Origin of the Aryans, pages 11‒12.

Amongst the causes which tended to discredit the Asiatic origin of the Aryans may be mentioned the evidence of the antiquity of man presented by geology, prehistoric investigation, anthropological study, and craniology. From the results obtained in these branches of inquiry, it became apparent that man in Europe was the contemporary of the mammoth, the reindeer, the musk-sheep, lion, elephant, bear, and other animals, which are either locally or wholly extinct. It further appeared that man had inhabited France and the south of Britain at the close of the quaternary period.¹ When this was at last recognised, views of man and traditional notions which had long prevailed began to recede into the region of delusion. It was then asked whether there was any real evidence of these great successive migrations from Central Asia? “Is there any reason for supposing that the present inhabitants of Europe are not in the main the descendants of the neolithic races whose rude implements fill our museums? If not, what has become of these primitive peoples?”² After it had been shown that the skulls of the primitive inhabitants of central France were of the same type as those of the present inhabitants, and that the skulls of the Spanish Basques belonged to another neolithic type, and similar results obtained in Denmark, Britain, and Eastern Europe, the logical conclusion from such facts seemed clear.³

¹ Prehistoric Europe, by J. Geikie, LL.D., pages 19‒23, 74, 89, 92, et seq., 114, 360, 378, 544‒556; The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain, by J. Evans, pages 430‒462, 578‒621.

² Taylor’s Origin of the Aryans, page 19.

³ The Human Species, by A. De ♦Quatrefages, 1879. This authority says:​—“In the quaternary period there is more precise information about man than of several of the existing races. The caves which he inhabited, those in which he buried his dead, and the alluvial deposits formed by rivers which have borne away his corpse, have preserved numerous bones for our study. As many as forty different places in all, especially in the western portion of Europe, have supplied our museums with as many as forty skulls, more or less intact, and numbers of fragments of the cranium and face, as well as a great number of the bones of the trunk and limbs, and even some entire skeletons,” page 287.

“In fossil, as well as in modern skulls, we find between races and individuals oscillations of a more or less striking character. Although these are often of less extent in known fossil races than those observed in existing populations.” Ibid., page 293.

“In all fossil races we find the essentially human character of the predominance of the cranium over the face. With them, as with us, the bony framework which contains the brain becomes longer, narrower, or shorter, at the same time increasing in size; it rises or is flattened, but always possesses a capacity comparable to that of the present day.” Ibid., page 295.

“We admit, then, two dolichocephalic races​—those of ♦Canstadt and of ♦Cro-Magnon. The more or less brachycephalic races are four in number. Under the name of Furfooz races we have included two races discovered in that famous locality, (the valley of the Lesse, in Belgium). The Grenelle race (name of a place near Paris) and that of La Truchere also take their names from the localities where they were found.” Ibid., page 301. He gives many interesting details of these several races, but the evidence on which some of the details rests does not come up to my standard.

It was seen that the Aryan languages must either all have originated in Europe, one member, the Indo-Iranian, separating from the rest and migrating to its present region, or they must all have originated in Asia, and then migrated severally to Europe, still retaining in their new homes the precise relative positions which their mutual connections prove must have originally existed. Which of the two alternatives is the more probable? That of a single migration, of a people whom we know to have been nomads at no very remote period, or six distinct migrations of six separate peoples, of which there is no evidence that they ever migrated at all, and whose traditions assert that they were aboriginal?¹

¹ Taylor’s Origin of the Aryans, pages 22‒23.

According to Dr. Schrander two positions are settled​—that from the earliest period of which there is evidence we find Asiatic Aryans on the Jaxartes, and the European Aryans in Northern Europe. He maintains that not a shred of evidence has been adduced to show that any migration of the European Aryans from the East ever occurred. At the earliest period the European Aryans seem to have been moving toward the south and the south-east; and he has now finally placed the main original home of the Aryans on the Middle Volga where it is joined by the Sanna.

As yet, however, there is not a concurrence of view among scholars and inquirers, some holding that Central Europe was the original cradle of the Aryans, others Eastern Europe, and some Northern Europe. The problem itself has often been discussed with needless heat. French and German scholars range themselves on opposite sides, and each representative of the two nationalities vehemently contends in turn that his ancestors alone were the pure primitive Aryans.¹

¹ ♦Poesche writes thus:​—“The true scientific theory, which uplifts itself calm and clear, like the summit of Olympus, over the passing storm-clouds, is that a noble, fair-haired, blue-eyed people vanquished and subjugated an earlier race of short stature and dark hair. In opposition to this is the French theory, without scientific foundation, originating in political hatred, which asserts that the primitive Aryans were a short and dark people, who Aryanised the tall, fair race.” Die Arier, page 44.

M. Chavée maintains that the mental superiority lies with the other race:​—“Look at the beautifully formed head of the Iranians and Hindus, so intelligent and so well developed. Look at the perfection of those admirable languages, the Sanscrit and the Zind. The Germans have merely defaced and spoilt the beautiful structure of the primitive Aryan speech.” Again, Ujfalvy remarks: “If superiority consists merely in physical energy, enterprise, invasion, conquest, then the fair dolichocephalic race may claim to be the leading race in the world; but if we consider mental qualities, the artistic and intellectual faculties, then the superiority lies with the brachycephalic race.” Another Frenchman, De Mortillet, in his Le Préhistorique, strongly maintains that the civilisation of Europe is almost entirely due to the great brachycephalic race.

The German writers further argue, “That while the peasantry and middle classes over the greater part of Europe are brachycephalic, the nobles and landed proprietors approximate rather to the long Teutonic type. This, they say, is a proof that a brachycephalic aboriginal people was conquered and Aryanised by Teutonic invaders.” Origin of the Aryans, pages 227, 229.

Dr. Taylor has presented the following conclusions:​—“The four European types of race may be traced continuously in occupation of their present seats to the neolithic period; and in the case of the Italic and Swiss pile dwellers, and the round barrow people of Britain, we must believe that their speech in neolithic times was Aryan​—either Celtic or Italic. We are, therefore, forced to adopt the view that one of the four races must be identified with the primitive Aryans, and that this race, whichever it was, imposed its Aryan speech on the other three. It is most reasonable to believe that the Aryan civilisation originated with the broad-headed race of Central Europe, which possessed the skill to construct, with rude stone tools, the pile dwellings of Switzerland and Italy. And on archæological grounds we have come to the conclusion that the Slavo-Celtic race, as represented in the round barrows of Britain, and in the pile dwellings of Central Europe, comes nearest to the primitive Aryans as disclosed by linguistic palæontology. Aryan speech may have been evolved out of a language of the Ural Altaic class; the grammatical resemblances pointing to a primitive unity of speech, just as the physical resemblances point to a primitive unity of race. There must have been some ruder form of speech from which the elaborate Aryan inflection was evolved, and there is no other known form of speech, except the Ural Altaic, which can be regarded as the germ out of which the Aryan languages may have sprung. We have also arrived at the conclusion that the Celto-Slavic race best represents the primitive Aryans, whose speech may have been evolved out of a language of the Ural Altaic class. We may, therefore, conjecture that at the close of the reindeer period a Finnic people appeared in Western Europe, whose speech, remaining stationary, is represented by the agglutinative Basque, and that much later, at the beginning of the pastoral age, when the ox had been tamed, a taller and more powerful Finnic-Ugric people developed in Central Europe the inflective Aryan speech.”¹

¹ Origin of the Aryans, pages 217, 242, 295‒296.

Whether the Aryan language was originated in Europe or not, it seems pretty evident that its origin must stretch back to a period at least three or four thousand years before the Christian era. But identity or relationship of language by no means proves identity of race; at the utmost it only raises a presumption in favour of a common racial origin. Language belongs to the organised community, not specially to the race; so it can only prove social contact, not racial kinship, unless where other evidence is available, such as physical characteristics, religious beliefs, similar customs and habits. Tribes and races sometimes lose their own speech and adopt the tongues of others,​—a social phenomena which occurs from various causes operating in the ceaseless evolution of human society.

I have briefly touched on the early inhabitants of Europe, and the questions of the origin of the Aryan race and languages, merely preparatory to the treatment of the ethnology of Scotland. No relics of Palæolithic man have been found anywhere in Scotland.¹ Although such relics, and even fragments of human bones have been discovered in the southern parts of the island, yet it is not usually maintained that these earliest tribes or cavemen survived through the subsequent geological and climatic changes, and continuously occupied the country on to the polished stone age.² I now come to the ethnological problem in the limited sense in which it relates to Scotland; but this question cannot be treated at all without reference to the southern part of the island and to the Continent.

¹ Geikie’s Prehistoric Europe, page 428.

² “We have seen that during the last glacial epoch Palæolithic man retreated with the reindeer and its congeners, and occupied the valleys of Southern France. What is his subsequent history? Did he return northwards with the Arctic and Alpine animals to re-occupy the Belgian and English caves in Postglacial times? As a matter of fact, he did not.... It is open, of course, to argue that the Neolithic race or races were identical with the Palæeolithic tribes, who had somehow acquired a knowledge of husbandry, spinning, and pottery; who had learned to domesticate certain animals, and to finish their implements more perfectly.... All this is possible, but, on the other hand, it is so extremely improbable that, until some positive evidence in favour of such a view be advanced, we may well leave it out of account.... Other writers are of opinion that the man of the reindeer period in Southern France probably remained where he was, to become absorbed in the new wave of population that swept into Europe at the close of the glacial period.... There are certain appearances in some Pyrenean caves, as in that of Gourdan, described by M. ♦Piette, which lead to the suspicion that the interval between the Palæolithic and Neolithic ages in Southern France may not have been prolonged.” Ibid., pages 546, 551‒552.

The earliest prehistoric race in Britain of whom we have reliable evidence, was a long-headed people of comparatively short stature. Their physical characteristics resembled the Berber race and North African tribes, and they probably migrated from that quarter into Europe at a very remote period. They seem to have spread over the Spanish peninsula, the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, Sardinia, Corsica, Southern Italy, and a great part of France; but they do not appear to have extended to Germany or the north-east of Europe. They were non-Aryan in race and in speech, and probably spoke Numidian dialects akin to the inscriptions of that character. This race arrived in the south of Britain about the beginning of the polished stone period: and gradually spread over the Island, and even reached the Orkneys.

They appear to have inhabited the Island alone for a very long period. They constructed the long barrows of England: and the chambered cairns of Caithness, Argyle, and Orkney. In Scotland they also seem to have constructed the curious underground structures called earth-houses, as will be shown in the sequel.

The first migration of a race of people of Aryan descent, who spoke a Celtic dialect, came from the Continent of Europe, and arrived on the southern or eastern shores of Britain, long before the close of the stone period. It is almost certain that there were several unrecorded migrations of Celtic tribes from the coasts of France and Belgium to the southern parts of Britain. These tribes spread very slowly over the country, and subdued, and intermixed with the long headed race which had preceded them in the occupation of the Island. The new-comers soon realised the advantage of living on friendly terms with the original inhabitants, instead of attempting to exterminate them; as all the available evidence tends to show that the two races peaceably and slowly amalgamated. The skulls and remains of the two peoples have often been found lying together in the same barrows.¹

¹ British Barrows. By Wm. Greenwell, pages 126‒129, 559‒632.

The earlier race, sometimes called Iberians, Basques, and other names, were a short limbed people, only averaging about five feet five inches in height, the tallest of the men reaching five feet six inches, and the shortest of the women four feet eight inches. Their heads were long and narrow, of the type termed dolichocephalic: their physical frame was not strong, though some individuals of the race possessed well developed muscular powers. It is said that they were dark and swarthy in complexion. On the other hand, the newly arrived Celtic tribes were of the brachycephalic type​—a people with broad heads and very powerful physical frames; their average height was about five feet nine inches; and the female sex was also tall, very handsome and muscular.¹

¹ Ibid., pages 559‒632, 680, 682, et seq. Strabo, when speaking of the inhabitants of the interior of Britain, says of the Coritavi, a tribe in Lincolnshire:​—“The men are taller than the Celts of Gaul; their hair is not so yellow and their limbs are more loosely knit. To show how tall they are, I may say that I saw myself some of their young men at Rome, and they were taller by six inches than any one else in the city.” Elton’s Origins of English History, page 240, 1882.

The Celts imposed their Aryan speech on the aboriginal race, and became the ruling people.¹ They formed themselves into strong but separate tribes. Owing to a number of natural causes and circumstances, the movement of the Celtic people into the interior of the country, northward and westward, was extremely gradual and slow:​—1, They had to come to an understanding with the original inhabitants as they advanced, even though there was little fighting; 2, A large part of the country was then covered with swamps, fens, and dense forests; 3, The natural barriers of rivers and firths which often overflowed their valleys, and of mountain ranges; 4, The difficulties connected with procuring a sufficient supply of food; and 5, The difficulties of protecting themselves from the severe colds and frosts, as the climate was much colder than the sunny region which they had left. Taking these conditions and circumstances into account, which must have greatly impeded the onward and outward movement of the Celts in overrunning the Island, we may reasonably assume that from the time the first Celtic tribes landed in the south of England, to the time when they reached the quarter now called Scotland, at least a century had elapsed. After they had crossed the borders, it must have taken more than another century to overrun Scotland and reach the extremities of the northern Highlands. If we recall the fact, that it took the Romans with all their resources, appliances, and disciplined legions, upwards of forty years to conquer their way from the South of England to the Firth of Forth, we will easily realise the probable truth of what has just been indicated.

¹ Some recent writers have in a half-hearted way maintained that one of the prehistoric races of Britain was of a Finnish type from the Baltic region; but there seems to be a lack of evidence to support this view. See Origins of English History, by Elton, pages 126, 144, 151, 160, 167‒179. The evidence adduced by this writer in support of the Finnic origin of the men of the Bronze age in Britain is altogether unsatisfactory, and indicates a lack of knowledge touching the conditions of the prehistoric ages.

As I have said, there were probably several unrecorded migrations or invasions of Celtic tribes from Gaul or Belgium into Britain. The result of this would have been a continuance and an intensification of the onward and outward movement of the people; and ultimately the creation of real historical conditions, which in turn and in process of time, would account for all the varieties of Celtic language in the British Islands.

At a much later period, and after the foundation of the Gaulish empire in the sixth century B.C., invasions of Britain from the Gaulish territories took place. About the end of the second century B.C., the King of Soissons had extended his sway over a portion of southern Britain; and those Gaulish people, who came over during the later period, settled along the southern and eastern shores of England, and carried on a commercial traffic with their kindred on the other side of the Channel. But they did not then penetrate far into the interior of the country. In 58‒50 B.C. Cæsar conquered Gaul; and in 55‒54 he twice attempted to conquer Britain but failed; and nearly a century elapsed ere the Romans made another effort to conquer the Island.

Thus, at the opening of the Christian era, the whole area of Scotland was inhabited by people speaking an Aryan language​—called Celtic. But this people themselves, as we have seen, were not a pure Celtic race; on the contrary, they had intermingled with and absorbed that original short-stature and long-headed race, whose blood runs in their veins more or less to this day. The same may be said of the whole of England, excepting the narrow strips along the southern and eastern shores which had been colonised by the later migrations and invasions of the Gauls. I must now turn to Ireland and its early inhabitants.

Into the maze of Irish ethnology and endless legends I cannot enter at length, but it is necessary to state a few facts. Ireland was inhabited in the Stone age, and probably by tribes akin to the short stature people which we have found occupying Britain. Celtic tribes migrated to Ireland at a very early prehistoric period, either from the Continent or from the southern shores of Britain. This Island was not invaded by the Romans, and consequently its early inhabitants were permitted to follow their own course of development uninterrupted by external interference till a much later period than Britain. The population of Ireland seems to have multiplied rapidly, and became crowded at a comparatively early period; and they began to molest the western shores of Britain in the early centuries of the Christian era. Migrations from Ireland to the western parts of Scotland became frequent; and an intercourse based on ethnic affinities sprung up between the two countries. The details of this connection will appear in the sequel.

About the seventh century the Scandinavians began a movement through the ocean towards the Shetland and Orkney Islands, and onward to the northern quarter of Scotland, which they ultimately reached; and hence became an element of the ethnology of Scotland. This movement will be detailed in the subsequent narrative. The Angles or Saxons reached the southern borders of Scotland about the middle of the sixth century, and settled in Lothian. Their subsequent movement and intermixture with the earlier inhabitants, and the gradual spread of their language, will be treated at length in the sequel. The last ethnic influx was the Norman Invasion; and in so far as it effected Scotland, it will be specially discussed in its appropriate order.

The origin and the consecutive relations of the constituent elements of the ethnology of the people of Scotland as briefly indicated in the preceding pages, may now be summarised:​—1, The aboriginal people were a race of short stature, with long narrow heads; 2, They were invaded and subdued by a taller and broad-headed race, of Aryan descent, and speaking a Celtic dialect, and ultimately these two races amalgamated; 3, At a later period, Gaulish tribes settled on the south and south-eastern shores of England; 4, Migrations from Ireland, of tribes speaking Celtic, to the western parts of Scotland, began early in the Christian era and continued for several centuries; 5, The movement of the Scandinavians to the Shetland and Orkney Islands, onward to the Western Isles and the northern mainland of Scotland; 6, The invasion and settlement of the Saxons in the south of Scotland; 7, Finally, an influx of Norman nobles. Such simply stated, were the real ethnological elements out of which the Scottish nation was ultimately developed. Thus the subject is freed from a mass of legends and the obscuring accretions of many generations.

Section IV.

The Stone Age.

In this section and the following one, an attempt will be made to indicate the state of the inhabitants in the earliest times. Although the relics, implements and structures, which they have left, may not always be available for eliciting clear information, still these remains when well sifted yield valuable results. In such an expository narrative, touching prehistoric matters, dates can rarely be assigned; but the natural sequence of development may be followed, and several stages of early civilisation explained.

Beginning with the group of things which may safely be assumed to have been an indispensable requisite in the circumstances of the daily life of the people, namely, their weapons, tools, and implements. The greater number of our stone implements and weapons have been casually found in the ground, in draining, ploughing, making roads, in peat mosses, the beds of rivers, on the margins of lochs, and on the sandy wastes near the sea shore. It must be observed that all these stone tools and weapons are not strictly assignable to the stone age, for such stone objects are sometimes found in bronze age graves, and in association with many other circumstances, which clearly indicate a survival of some kinds of stone objects and implements into a much later period. Moreover, various kinds of stone implements seem to have continued in use long after the introduction of bronze.¹ So far as investigation has been made, there appears to be almost universal evidence of a stone age over the globe at one time or another, which shows that the early culture of the human race has proceeded on wonderfully similar lines in the most distant regions of the earth. On the other hand, there is often no satisfactory evidence of the same wide and distinct character of a passing from the stone age and through the bronze age. But the causes of this are easily understood, and will become clear as we proceed.

¹ “Sir William Wilde informs us that in Ireland stone hammers, and not unfrequently stone anvils, have been employed by country smiths and tinkers in some of the remote country districts until a comparative recent period. The same use of stone hammers and anvils for forging prevails among the Kaffirs of the present day. In Iceland, also, perforated stone hammers are still in use for pounding dried fish, driving in stakes, for forging and other purposes.” Evans’ Ancient Stone Implements, page 11, 1872. For other instances of the use of stone for various purposes in the Shetland and Orkney Islands, see Past and Present, by Dr. A. Mitchell, pages 121‒129.

The stone weapons, tools, and objects, which have been found in Scotland, may be separated into several groups, according to the purposes for which they were used: such as axes, spear and arrow heads, knives, saws, borers, and scrapers.

Axes, including hammers, are of two kinds, those with a hole for a shaft and those without a hole, and the first class is not so numerous as the other. The axes with a hole for a shaft present a greater variety of form, and are often ornamented, while the others are plain. They are rarely made of flint, but often of granite, schist, basalt, greenstone, and other kinds of stones. They vary much in size, and are distinguishable into three varieties, thus: 1, those with an edge at both ends; 2, with an edge at one end only; 3, with both ends blunt or rounded. Those with an edge at both ends are the rarest of the three forms. A fine specimen of this class in greenstone was found in a bronze age grave, in a stone circle, at Crichie, Aberdeenshire. Other examples have been found in Orkney, and in the Island of Coll, in an unfinished condition. It has been supposed that these stones were used as battle axes.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 306‒307, et seq.

The second class, with the edge at one end only, is more common. A fine specimen was found associated with a cremated interment in an urn, which was turned up by the plough near Ardrossan, in Ayrshire. It is formed of granite, with an ornamental band of three incised lines round the concave edges pierced by the shaft hole, and the shorter end finished like a hammer with a rounded face. They have been found in every quarter of the country, and often in an unfinished state. The hole for the handle was usually pierced from both sides, so the boring has not always met exactly. They vary much in size and form, and in degrees of finish and polish. The third class, hammer-shaped at both ends, has been called a war hammer. A very fine specimen of it was found in the parish of Urquhart, Elginshire, formed of a whitish flint, and finely polished.¹

¹ Ibid., pages 309‒319, 320, 321; Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., pages 102‒194; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume IV., pages 55, 379; Volume V., pages 214, 240; Volume VI., pages 42, 86, 310, 332; Volume VII., pages 101, 102, 499; Volume VIII., pages 264, 232; Volume IX., pages 55, 384; Volume X., page 460; Volume XXIII., pages 205, 210.

The class of stone axes without a hole for the shaft are very numerous. They vary greatly in size and shape, from 3 inches in length to 15; some of them are of flint, others of different kinds of stone, and many of them are smoothed and polished over the surface. The smaller ones seem to have been tools, which were used for various purposes, but a number of the larger ones, which are more carefully polished and finished, have been considered weapons.

Arrow-heads show two distinct forms​—the leaf-shaped and the triangular, and it seems probable that the leaf-shaped class may have been the earliest form. But both forms, with barbs and a central stem, were found in a chambered cairn at Unstan, in Orkney. They are all usually made of flint, and none of them are large; some of them have barbs but no stem, others have barbs and stems both. Many of them are beautifully shaped, and some specimens are finely serrated along the edges. Arrow-heads have occasionally been found still in the shaft; an example of a leaf-shaped one was found in 1875 in a moss at Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, with the shaft entire to the length of nine inches. The arrow-heads and spear-heads differ from each other only in size.¹ A very large collection of both arrow and spear heads may be seen in the National Museum at Edinburgh, in provincial museums, and private collections.²

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 354‒365.

² There are upwards of thirty provincial museums in Scotland, which have collections of Scotch antiquities both in stone and bronze, more or less extensive and valuable. Reports on these collections may be seen in the twenty-second volume of the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

There is a series of tools and implements, mostly of flint, which seem to have been used for various purposes in connection with the daily life of the people. These are knives, saws, scrapers, borers, and flaking tools, and we may endeavour to form some idea of the process of their manufacture. The ground-work of all these tools is a flake of flint, struck from a prepared core in such a way that it presents a more or less cross-section. These flakes may be of any length up to six inches, but in Scotland, where it is difficult to find large blocks of flint, the flakes are commonly short. Flakes just as when struck off the core of flint have sometimes been found along with the core itself. Such flakes may be used for many purposes, and many of them show evidence of having been so used without any preparation of the edge. The natural edge, however, soon becomes blunt and broken, so when a cutting tool of this kind was intended for constant use, it was worked along its edges and trimmed to a point resembling a shoemaker’s knife, or of a somewhat oval form. Many flint knives, trimmed for cutting or scraping, have been found throughout the country, some of which are single-edged and others double-edged. But knives, formed of various kinds of stone, have frequently been found, of slatestone, greenstone, schist, and other stones, flat, well-made, and highly finished.¹

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume III., pages 252, 439; Volume VII., pages 121‒136, 212‒219; Volume VIII., pages 64, 66; Volume XI., pages 172‒174; Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 365‒371.

Dr. Evans, perhaps the highest authority on stone tools and implements in Britain, has the following on flint flakes:​—“The inner or flat face of a flake is that produced by the blow which dislodged it from the parent block, core, or nucleus. The outer, ridged, or convex face comprises the other facets. The base, or butt-end of a flake, is that at which the blows to form it were administered, the other end is the point. Flakes may be subdivided into​—1. External, or those which have been struck off by a single blow from the edge of a nodule of flint. Many of these are as symmetrical as those resulting from a more complicated process of manufacture. 2. Ridged flakes, or those presenting a triangular section. One face of these sometimes presents the external crust of the flint; in others the ridge has been formed by transverse chipping, as was the case with the long flaxes of Pressigny, but this method appears to have been almost unknown in Britain. 3. Flat, where the external face is nearly parallel to the internal, and the two edges are formed by narrow facets. These several varieties may be long or short, broad or narrow, straight or curved, thick or thin, pointed or obtuse.” Ancient Stone Implements, pages 248‒49.

A flint saw is simply a flake trimmed to a jagged edge, instead of being sharpened by chipping or grinding. They are mostly of very small size, and in some specimens the teeth are formed with remarkable regularity and fineness. Though not so common as flint-knives, they are not rare, and there are upwards of sixty specimens in the National Museum.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, page 372.

Flint tools, seemingly intended for awls or borers, are not very common in Scotland. Two kinds have been found​—a long-pointed tool, which may have been used for piercing holes in skins or other soft material, and a shorter-pointed tool which may have been used for drilling holes in harder material. Another class have been called flaking tools; they are long and chisel-shaped, and usually appear blunted, worn, and rounded at the ends, as if from attrition against a hard substance. They are supposed to have been used for trimming and chipping other flint and stone tools. The tool called a flint-scraper is a round-nosed flake, with a semicircular end chipped to a bevelled edge, and usually flat on the under side, with the upper side trimmed to a ridged form. There are several varieties of this tool, and they seem to have been used for various purposes. Some of them are double-edged, others circular; and they also vary much in size. There seems to be no doubt that the larger ones were used for scraping hides and preparing leather. It also seems highly probable that the smaller class of these tools were used for a distinctly different purpose​—that of producing fire with a nodule of pyrites of iron​—in the same way as the flint and steel in our own times to strike a light. For the purpose of producing sparks, pyrites is as effective as iron, and they were so used among the Romans until a comparative late period. Pyrites of iron abound in the chalk-beds of England, but when they are exposed upon the surface of the ground decomposition in no very long time removes all appearance of them.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 373‒376; Evans’ Ancient Stone Implements, etc., pages 269‒287, 367, et seq.

Flint is nowhere very abundant in Scotland, but there are some localities which afford transported nodules in greater abundance than others, and in these there is always evidence of a long-continued and widespread industry in the manufacture of tools and weapons from the raw material. A site of such a manufacture was discovered at the confluence of the Leochel and the Don in Aberdeenshire, though flint is not native in the neighbourhood.¹ There is evidence of many such sites of flint manufactures, which, when closely examined, the mass of splinters “usually reveals the fact that among them are many flakes, cores, and unfinished implements, and not unfrequently hammer and anvil-stones, and even perfectly finished knives, saws, arrow-heads, or axes, may be occasionally found, although the rule is that only the waste products of the manufacture are met with. From these and from experimental knowledge of the qualities of the material the processes of the fabrication may to some extent be inferred. The tools were apparently, for the most part, naturally formed pebbles of quartz of a shape and size convenient for the purposes for which they were used. The larger pebbles, often of the shape and size of a cobbler’s lapstone, seem to have been used as anvil-stones, while the smaller pebbles, of such size and shape as could be conveniently grasped in the hand, have been used as hammer-stones.”

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume IV., page 385.

“When the inferences deduced from an examination and comparison of the chips, flakes, and cores, which compose the refuse of these ancient flint workshops, are compared with the results of the methods still employed, whether of savage arrow-makers or civilised manufacturers of gun-flints and strike-a-lights, the ancient methods of workmanship are found to coincide with the natural properties of the material and the modern processes so far as they go. But the ancient flint-workers went further than modern knowledge and modern skill can follow them. There are some of their processes which have not been discovered by modern science, and some of their products which cannot be imitated by modern skill, with all its ingenuity of contrivance and all its resources of means and appliances.”¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 374‒5; Evans’ Ancient Stone Implements, etc., pages 13‒48.

In this very brief account of the weapons, implements, and tools, of our early ancestors of the stone age, we can discern clear evidence of the knowledge, the ingenuity, and the skill which they possessed and exercised in the practical uses which they made of the means within their reach. These products of their industry, associated with their daily life, shows one side of a striking form of culture, considering the surrounding conditions and circumstances. There is another side of this culture, in some respects even more remarkable, and to it I will now turn.

Amongst all the prehistoric remains of Scotland there is scarcely anything that surpasses the Chambered Cairns of the Stone Age in significance and interest. Their great antiquity, their peculiarity of type, and their structural characteristics, associated with the phenomena of their internal deposits, offer a subject for examination of prime historic value. There is little doubt that the Long Barrows of England, and the Chambered Cairns of Caithness, Argyle, and Orkney, are the monuments of one and the same people; and that in the latter, so far as we can discover, we reach the representative of primeval man in Scotland.