Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

h LECTURE I.
Scandinavian ; some clans, such as the M'Leods
and M'Aulays of Lewis, claim to be of Scandi-
navian descent, with what truth T know not, al-
though that the existence of Scandinavian blood
occurs there to a large extent cannot be doubt-
ed ; and there are feAV parts of the North and
West Highlands where either among the tra-
ditions of the people, or the ruins that add so
much to the picturesque beauty of the country,
something may not be found that speaks of the
past existence and power of the sons of Den-
mark and Norway. It is, perhaps, not beyond
the mark to say, that one-third of the blood of
a large proportion of the inhabitants of the
Western Isles is Scandinavian.
Subsequent to the period of the Danish or
Norwegian power in the Highlands, w^as the
introduction of the Normans. It is perhaps
hardly apprehended now to what an extent a
Norman influence extended into that portion
of the country at an early date. In the thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries the Cheynes
and the Federeths possessed very large portions
of the counties of Caithness, Sutherland, and
Eoss ; the Cardines of Foss were extensive
landowners in Perthshire ; the Cummings were
the most powerful sept in the whole north of
Scotland, having for their territory Lochaber