Bannatyne Club > Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, e pluribus codicibus consarcinatum approximately A.D. MCCCC [i.e. 1400]

taineers of the intcrior, which it attractcd by its superior fertility, Moray must havc
guffered aumerous changes of its population. Nathing, however, can be a greater
error than to conclude that each successful invasion, or even every conquest, effectcd
a complete cEange of the inhahitants. In barbarous times, and in Scotland as else-
where, a ocnquered native population became a valuable part of the spoil of the
victors. Not so much employed henceforward in war as in agriculture and thc
peaceful arts, it was less exposed to the hazards of successive conquests and revolu-
tions. Even among the warrior ranks, it is unreasonable to suppose that every war
was to extcrmination. Some part would owe their preservation to humanity, some
to policy or fear. However preserved, in the lapse of ages, and in constant political
agitation, the races must bave become mixed ; and if it be asserted that one predo-
minates, we may conclude that it is of those energetic races before whom the Celtic
people have always yielded, and who have left their impress over all Britain, and
perhaps nowhere more than in Moray and the adjoining coast of Buchan. Whether
this be so or not can be gathercd from no other source than the antiquities of the
district, and the featurs, manneres, and language of the inhabitants. These are suffi-
ciently fallacious guidcs in such an enquiry, but more to be relied upon than the
meagre gleanings of Northern Sagas and Irish chronicles, or the genealogies of
dreaming seanachies. k
k The acknowledged fabulousness of our own language of part of its people ; and they mistake
historians has naturally enough diverted the excessively, where they do not altogether despise,
allegiance of later writers to one or other of the geographical features and nomenclature of
those authorities. They are all useful, and all the country.
to be received with distrust, and weighed against The Irish chronicles present us with little
each other, as well as tested by the common rules more than a series of obits, and a vast confusion
of evidence. of fights. The descriptions of the parties are so
There is a romantic exaggeration and a poe- loosely given, that they can generally be read
tical cast of diction in the Sagas, which throw with various meanings. They are a sort of
suspicion on their historical accuracy. Even if authority most convenient for founding theories.
we hold the writers to intend t.ieir works to pass They serve equally wcll for opposite sides.
for sober, veracious narrative, we have much to The internal history of the Highlands of Scot-
allow for their imperfect information when they land,andwithitthe Highlandpedigrees,arebutof
speak of foreign events. Their accounts of ex- yesterday, when compared with those of England
peditions for piracy or conquest were necessarily and the Lowlands of Scotland. There appears
drawn from the boastful reports of the returning to be no evidence of Highland Gaelie writing till
heroes ; and bear the character of rhapsodies towards tlie end of the fifteenth century ; and
framed to their honour, rather than sober accounts even since that period, the written literature and
of real actions. They were peculiarly iguorant records of the Highlanders are limited to a few
regarding Scotland, perhaps from the ui. . 'Wii strings of names, arranged like pedigrees, with-