Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 7, 1899

1(52
THE CELTIC MONTHLY
THE CLANS: PAST AND PRESENT.
By R. S. 'J\ MacEwen, of Lincoln's Inn,
Harrister-at-Laiv.
[Continued jrom page 149).
Clan Names, Lancuaoe, and Customs.
Iifl/^|LAN names, and the .surnames of Gaelic
VlM''ii origin, were entirely based upon the
JfiS^ personal name. They were derived from
the personal name of the founder or chief of the
clan, and were in no respect territorial. In the
Lowlands and in the north we find a few terri-
torial names — such as Buchanan, Ross, Suther-
land — with chiefs of Lowland, Norse, and
Flemish origin. But although the Highland
clans and chiefs in the eighteenth century, and
long before that date, were of mixed race, the
Celtic blood largely prevailed. They spoke the
language and observed the rites and customs of
their Celtic ancestors. The whole of the High-
lands had been for so many centuries over-run
and occupied by the Celtic races, that, long after
their descendants had become a mi.\ed people,
the Celtic language and customs prevailed ; and
the language and literature survive to the
present day.
E.XTENSION OF ClAN.S AND SeI'TS.
The Acts of 1587 and 1594 give the names
of forty-two clans and " broken men." These
represent the principal clans as known at the
present time ; but comparing these rolls with
Mr. Adam's lists,* one is struck by the fact that
several names which appear in the former no
longer find a place amongst the present-day
clans ; while, on the other hand, a large number
of clans, septs, and names appear in the modern
lists which had no place in the earlier Acts.
Instead of the forty-two clans and 'broken men"
of 1594, we now have seventy-,eight — " each
having its own tartan " — and some five hundred
names of septs and dependents sprung from or
connected with the larger clans. Some clans
of an earlier date than the IGth century had
become extinct by that time ; others had
been reduced and had become affiliated to larger
clans, retaining only their original names. The
great increase in the number of clans and
clan septs in later times is thus accounted for ;
as time wore on, and just as clans developed
from the tribes, so septs developed within the
clans — the kinsmen of the chiefs who had
acquired lands and founded families being the
leaders. Under the feudal system, the land
became hereditary in these families ; and we find
local chieftains and lairds all over the Highlands
each with a following of his own — in some cases
still continuing in the original confederacy and
owning its chief; in others, setting up as separate
organizations, with themselves as chiefs. Skene
says: "The most infiuential of these was that
of the oldest cadet in the family which had been
longest separated from the main stem ; and usually
presented the appearance of a rival house little
less powerful than that of the chief." He
sums up the actual position by a quotation from
a writer of the early part of last century, whose
views he adopts : " The Highlanders are divided
into triV)es or clans, under chiefs or chieftains, as
they are known in Scotland ; and each clan
again divided into branches from the main stock,
who have chieftains over them. These are sub-
divided into smaller branches of fifty or sixty
men, who deduce their original from their par-
ticular chieftains, and rely upon them as their
more immediate protectors and defenders. The
ordinary Highlanders esteem it the most sublime
degree of virtue to love their chief and pay him
a blind obedience, although it be in opposition
to the government, the laws of the kingdom, or
even to the law of God. Next to this love of
their chief is that of the particular branch from
whence they sprung ; and in a third degree to
those of the whole clan or name, whom they
. will assist, right or wrong, against those of any
other tribe with which they are at variance.
They likewise owe good-will to such clans as they
esteem to be their particular well-wishers ; and,
lastly, they have an adherence one to another as
Highlanders, in opposition to the people of the
Low Country, whom they despise as inferior to
them in courage, and believe they have a right
to plunder them whenever it is in their power.
This last arises from a tradition that the Low-
lands, in old times, were the possessions of their
ancestors."!
Employments of tue Clans.
One would be apt to conclude, from a study
of their history, that raiding their neighbours
and fighting formed the chief business in life
of the clans ; and, no doubt, they did a good deal
of this. Many of the clans had long and bitter
feuds with each other. Raids and counter-raids,
attacks and reprisals, were frequent and tierce,
and often arose from the most trivial causes ; as,
for instance, the beheading of Alexander, chief
of Clan Gunn, at Inverness by the Earl of
Murray, for his audacity at Aberdeen, when, as
a follower of the Earl of Caithness, he refused
to yield " the top of the street " to the Earl.
They were really, however, an agricultural people,
and their wealth consisted in cattle and sheep.
Their debts and fines were paid in kind. On
the sea-board they added fishing to the cultiva-
*" Whiit is mv Tartan I " f'Celtic Scotland,"