Hew Morrison Collection > Leabhar Nan Gleann

The others live beyond it. Both of them
inhabit upon baiTen, uncultivated mountains,
or in desert, marshy plains, where they have
neither walls nor towns uor manured lands, but
feed upon the milk of their flocks, what they
get by hunting, and some wild fruits. They
never eat fish, though they have plenty of
them. They have no other houses than tents,
where they live stark naked and barefooted.
The women are common between them, and
they take an equal care of all the children
they bring forth. Their government is
popular, and they dearly love freebooting.
They fight upon chariots. Their horses are
low, but swift. They have great agiUty of
body, and tread very securely at the same time.
The arms they make use of are a buckler, a
poinard, a short lance, at the lower end of
which is a piece of tin in the form of an apple,
with which their custom is to make a noise,
with a design to frighten their enemies. They
are accustomed to fatigue, to bear hunger,
cold, and all maruier of hardships. They run
into the morasses up to the neck, and live
several days there witliout eating. When
they are in the woods they feed upon roots
and leaves. They make a certain food tkat
so admirably su^jports the spirits that when
they have taken the quantity of a bean they
feel no more hunger or thirst. This ìb the
manner of living among the inhabitants of
Britain. , . Severus having undertaken to
reduce the whole island imder his subjection,
entered into "Caledonia," where he had end-
less fatigues to sustain, forests to cut down,
mountains to level, morasses to dry up, and
bridges to build. He had no battles to fight,
and saw no enemies in a body. Instead of
appearing, they exposed their flocks of sheep
and oxen, with a design to surprise our soldiers
that should stray from the army for the sake
of plunder. The warriors, too, extremely
incommoded our troops, insomuch that some