Blair Collection > Treatise on the language, poetry, and music of the Highland clans

26 THE LANGUAGE
A chaoidh sgriobh Ever write
a, chay skriv
Le brigh Gaelic. With meaning Gaelic,
le bri' ga-lic
Some grammarians think the above rule were more honoured in the breach
than the observance, because it requires, that, if the last vowel of any syllable
in a compound word is broad, the initial vowel in the next syllable should also
be broad, and thus leads to the employment of silent vowels. This is true,
but it leads to no confusion, and to very few silent vowels. Instead, therefore,
of desiring to do away with the rule, my wish is that other dialects had an
equally clear rule of spelling. Had the English student a rule for spelling that
language in four lines of four and five syllables each, the saving for the last two
hundred years in time and money would have been incalculable. It is to this
rule for spelling, — the preservation of the initial letter of the roots of compound
words, — and the itinerating labours of the bards and seanachies among the clans,
that the preservation of the Gaelic in its simplicity and purity, for thousands of
years, is to be ascribed.
Clanships were founded in identity of blood and pedigree from the original
patriarch of their respective districts. Hence, any persons acquainted with
their traditions must be aware that the old Highlanders did not consider the
sons of existing chiefs any higher in pedigree, or one iota more aristocratic than
the descendants of any other chief in the long line of descent from the founder
of the clan. The ancestral honours and blood were regarded as the common
inheritance, in which none had any preference. The clan district was also
regarded as the common property of the clan. The common interest required
them to have local clan or district governments ; but the officials were elected
by the clan, and strictly limited to the cleachda, or use and wont. Their laws
or cleachda (custom) were traditional, and known to every member of the clan,
and could not be altered or violated with impunity, even by the most popular
chiefs. They were administered by a judge called hridheamh, (bri'-ev)
(modernised hrelion in Ireland and Wales,) and by a jury, consisting of the
heads of the diflerent families of the clan. The chief was the executive ; but
he was not a member of the brehon court. The judge was, of old, appointed
by the Druids, and probably a member of the Druid order ; but the Druids
constituted, not the civil but the criminal court of the clans. The chief and
chieftains were elected from the nearest in descent to the founder of the clan or
family, not to the last chief or chieftain, as in the feudal succession. Hence, in
general, the brother succeeded to the brother, and the nephew to the uncle,
instead of the son succeeding in lineal descent, as in feudal successions. I am
satisfied that it was the organization of the clans of the north of Europe for
the conquest of the Roman Empire, under partially despotic leaders, on a system
of military subordination, which originated all the essential diflerences between
the Celts and Goths, although they have since then been ascribed by historians
to a difi'erence of race. These leaders, though at the first elected by their