| The Highlanders, like the inhabitants of
other romantic and mountainous regions, always retain an enthusiastic attachment to their
country, which neither distance of place nor length of time can efface. This strong
feeling has, we think, been attributed erroneously to the powerful and lasting effect
which the external objects of nature, seen in their wildest and most fantastic forms and
features, are calculated to impress upon the imagination. Firmly attached as they were to their country, the Highlanders had also a
singular predilection for the place of their birth. An amusing instance of this local
attachment is mentioned by General Stewart. A tenant of his father's, at the foot of the
mountain Shichallion, having removed and followed his son to a farm which the latter had
taken at some distance lower down the country, the old man was missing for a considerable
time one morning, and on being asked on his return where he had been, replied, "As I
was sitting by the side of the river, a thought came across me, that, perhaps, some of the
waters from Shichallion, and the sweet fountains that watered the farm of my forefathers,
might now be passing by me, and that if I bathed they might touch my skin. I immediately
stripped, and, from the pleasure I felt in being surrounded by the pure waters of
Leidna-breilag (the name of the farm) I could not tear myself away sooner." But this
fondness of the Highlander was not confined to the desire of living upon the beloved spot
- it extended even to the grave. The idea of dying at a distance from home and among
strangers could not be endured, and the aged Highlander, when absent from his native
place, felt discomposed lest death should overtake him before his return. To be consigned
to the grave among strangers, without the attendance and sympathy of friends, and at a
distance from their family, was considered a heavy calamity; and even to this day, people
make the greatest exertions to carry home the bodies of such relations as happen to die
far from the ground hallowed by the ashes of their forefathers.
This trait was exemplified in the case of a woman aged
ninety-one, who a few years ago went to Perth from her house in Strathblane in perfect
health, and in the possession of all her faculties. A few days after her arrival in Perth,
where she had gone to visit her daughter, she had a slight attack of fever. One evening a
considerable quantity of snow had fallen, and she expressed great anxiety, particularly
when told that a heavier fall was expected. Next morning her bed was found empty, and no
trace of her could be discovered, till the second day, when she sent word that she had
slipt out of the house at midnight, set off on foot through the snow, and never stopped
till she reached home, a distance of twenty miles. When questioned some time afterwards
why she went away so abruptly, she answered, "If my sickness had increased, and if I
had died, they could not have sent my remains home through the deep snows. If I had told
my daughter, perhaps she would have locked the door upon me, and God forbid that my bones
should be at such a distance from home, and be buried among Gall-na-machair, The strangers
of the plain." |
