Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots

aSo Uijlory of the Norwegian
iome of a Scottifli extracftion, and others originally
Norwegians. At the head of each of thele fa-
milies was a perfon of high dignity and impor-
tance among his own people. His ordinary title
was Tierna^ or Annin^ two words of much the
lame fignifi cation ; the fir ft of them belonging to
t-lie Ga!ic tongue, the fecond to the Teutonic.
We learn from Torfaeus and the Highland fenna-
chies, as well as from many paflages in the Chro-
nicle of Man, that thefe Tienis or Armins^ called
frequently the great men of the Illes in that Chro-
i-iicle, were much employed in the adminilliation
of public affairs, and of the utmoft conftquence
at the time of eleding Kings and governors.
It appears from an exprefs article of the paci-
fication of Perth, above inferted, that Magnus
cook care to fecure the ellates, privileges and
rights of all the great men in the Illes, whether
petty Kings, Chieftains, or Arm ins. It was pro-
vided in the fame article, that thefe great men,
and all the other inhabitants of the illes, fhould
be fubjecft to the Kings of Scotland, and governed
by the laws and culloms of that realm for ever.
But to me there feems to be no great temerity iil
affirming, that the Ifles were almoft entirely inde-
pendent of the Scottilh empire, and totally unre-
Icrained by its laws for about two centuries after
tliat tranfacflion. The lords and great chieftains
were abfolute monarchs within their little princi-
palities : all the laws known among their people
were, the arbitrary will and pleafure of theijr
mailers, the decifions of ignorant' brehons, the
canons made by their prieits, abbots and bilhofs,
fome ftrange cuftoms defcended to tlrem from
their ancellors tl.' Caledonians, and fome feudal
infijlutions left amoj.g ilicm by the Norwegians.
It