| The Highlands seem to have had a large number
of men of letters during the 15th century, and most of our existing manuscript materials
seem to be of that age. These materials are of various kinds. They consist of short
theological treatises, with traditional anecdotes of saints and others which seem to have
been prevalent in the church at the time. One of the theological treatises now in the
library of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, has reference to the Sacrament of the
Supper, and maintains the purely Protestant doctrine that the sacrament can only profit
those who receive it in faith. There are anecdotes of priests, often called by the Gaelic
name of maighistir, which would indicate that the priests of the period had wives,
and that the doctrine of celibacy had not then entered the Scottish church. Some of the manuscripts are genealogical, and as such are of much
value to the Scottish historian. They show what the ideas of the senachies of the
thirteenth century were regarding the origin of the Highland clans. Some of these
genealogical records have been published by the Iona Club, and are in this way accessible
to the general reader. They are indicative of the care taken at the period to preserve
memorials of family history, and were of value not only as conducing to the gratification
of family pride, but to the preservation of family property, inasmuch as these were the
only means in accordance with which succession to property could be determined. The
consequence is, that they are not always very reliable, favour being apt to bias the
recorder on one side, just as enmity and ill-will were apt to bias him on the other. It is
remarkable how ready the seanachy of a hostile clan was to proclaim the line of the
rival race illegitimate. This affects the value of these records, but they are valuable
notwithstanding, and are to a considerable extent reliable, especially within the period
where authentic information could be obtained by the writer.
A portion of these manuscripts deals with medical and
metaphysical subjects, the two being often combined. We are hardly prepared to learn to
how great an extent these subjects were studied at an early period in the Highlands. We
are apt to think that the region was a barbarous one without either art or science. A
sight of the sculptures which distinguished the 14th and 15th centuries is prone to remove
this impression. We find a style of sculpture still remaining in ancient crosses and
gravestones that is characteristic of the Highlands; elaborate ornaments of a distinct
character, rich and well executed tracery, figures well designed and finished. Such
sculptures, following upon those of the prehistoric period found still within the ancient
Pictish territory, exist chiefly throughout the West Highlands, and indicate that one art,
at least, of native growth, distinguished the Gaelic Celts of the Middle Ages.
The medical manuscripts existing are chiefly the
productions of the famous Macbeths or Beatons, the hereditary physicians of the Lords of
the Isles for a long series of years. The charter of lands in Islay, already referred to,
drawn out by Fergus Beaton, is of a date as early as 1408, and three hundred years after,
men of the same race are found occupying the same position. Hereditary physicians might
seem to offer but poor prospects to their patients, and that especially at a time when
schools of medicine were almost if not altogether unknown in the country; but the fact is,
that this was the only mode in which medical knowledge could be maintained at all. If such
knowledge were not transmitted from father to son, the probability was that it would
perish, just as was the case with the genealogical knowledge of the seanchies. This
transmission, however, was provided for in the Celtic system, and while there was no doubt
a considerable difference between individuals in the succession in point of mental
endowments, they would all possess a certain measure of skill and acquirement as the
result of family experience. These men were students of the science as it existed at the
time. The Moors were then the chief writers on medicine. Averroes and Avicenna were men
whose names were distinguished, and whose works, although little known now, extended to
the folios. Along with their real and substantial scientific acquirements, they dived deep
into the secrets of Astrology, and our Celtic students, while ready disciples of them in
the former study, followed them most faithfully and zealously in the latter likewise.
There are numerous medical and astrological treatises still existing written in the Gaelic
language, and chiefly taken from the works of Moorish and Arabian writers. How these works
reached the Scottish Highlands it is hard to say, nor is it easier to understand how the
ingredients of the medical prescriptions of these practitioners could be obtained in a
region so inaccessible at the time. The following specimen of the written Gaelic of
medical manuscripts, is taken from Dr O'Donovan's grammar :- |
