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WE have endeavoured to
describe the general features of the average Highland parish of our own
times. There are a few peculiarities long associated with the
Highlands—such as witchcraft, second-sight, and certain other
superstitious beliefs—to which some may think a distinct chapter should
have been allotted. Such beliefs, however, are all but vanished, being
very much scared by railways, newspapers, and schools, not to speak of
the influence of the pulpit, though this latter has not always been so
helpful as might be wished. As, however, such beliefs widely prevailed
until within a recent period, and as isolated traces of them may yet
exist, a few general remarks on the subject may suitably occupy a part
of this concluding chapter.
Reputed witches and
uncanny ones of that ilk, that "took away" the milk, as was alleged,
from cows, and that dealt in other mischievous practices, were by no
means rare in the Highlands about twenty years ago. We remember some
score years ago having seen a representative of the hated sisterhood.
She was old, and had a wrinkled and somewhat sable face,—all which
features, of course, are ordinarily considered requisites in a witch.
She invariably carried about with her a small tin pail, and it was in
this pail the appliances for her alleged diabolical artifices were
believed to reside. She was peculiar among witches because of the pail.
Other witches went about without a pail, and were not supposed to be
engaged in evil-doing beyond the pale of their homes, whereas the pail
witch was believed to be capable of doing injury anywhere with the pail.
Schoolboys half trembled at the sight of her when she came from her home
in the hills to the little village; and certain owners of cattle no
sooner saw her than they deputed a special messenger to go to look after
the cows, lest by her odious charms, as was alleged, she might "take
away," or take the virtue from, the milk. In such houses as she honoured
with a visit it was thought prudent to be kind to her ; for—so thought
those that made her peace-offerings—who knew what she might do to man or
beast, or both? She and her pail have disappeared some dozen years ago,
and though she had several rival witches in her day in her
neighbourhood, it will to-day be difficult in the same district to find
even one successor.
We also remember having
frequently seen in a Highland parish some twenty years ago an old man,
one of several believed in the district to possess second-sight. He said
that he "saw" funerals weeks before the event; and it was alleged that
at church, and other gatherings, he at times "saw " on some one or other
a shroud!—a sure sign that the person was soon to die, the nearness of
the event being in proportion to the extent of the body covered by the
shroud. If to the waist, a month or two might elapse, but if to the
neck, a few days only, while if reaching the head, an early sudden death
might be expected. Others again, not however persons credited with
second-sight, alleged that they saw and heard premonitions of
death,—such as hearing noises and seeing lights in a joiner's shop when
it was known the workmen were away—these sounds and lights being taken
as a proof that a coffin would very soon be made in the joiner's
workshop. Some years ago we heard a somewhat intelligent shopkeeper in a
Highland parish gravely saying that one afternoon in his shop lie saw a
bundle of white cotton moving voluntarily on a shelf and unfold itself
along the floor! which automatic exercise he explained by saying that
part of the cotton was soon after used as a shroud.
A remarkably tenacious
superstition is the belief in "the seventh son" being able to cure
scrofula. We knew some dozen years ago two cases where this, so to
speak, inherited royal-touch cure was being tried. In one of the cases
the seventh son, called the "doctor" by the other members of the family,
and a very smart little fellow, was so young that he had to be carried a
part of the way to the residence of his patient. The "doctor" is to-day
a big boy—a young man, indeed—and right heartily does he laugh at the
elaborate farce in which he was wont in early life to play so important
a part. In some districts there is no small credence given to the
allegation that certain days are unlucky, and many persons consider it
unlucky to find a pin or meet a toad on the road; and there are
instances of people avoiding meeting certain persons, whom to meet they
consider unlucky. These and suchlike time-honoured beliefs and customs,
we repeat, are fading. A few yet believe in them, encouraged in some
instances by remarkable coincidences and the wish to believe; but the
growing doubt regarding them among grown-up people generally, and the
utter disbelief in them, as a rule, among the young and the educated,
clearly prove these beliefs and customs must soon altogether yield to
the progress of to-day.
Some may have desiderated
in these pages more special attention to the subject of education and
schools. This is unnecessary. The matter has been incidentally referred
to in one or two portions of the book, and such other features as are
special and important may be briefly told.
Gaelic schools, once
common in the Highlands, are now exceeding rare. Ten years ago we
visited a Gaelic school taught by an intelligent old man,—who, by the
way, expressed but slender faith in the necessity of his special work.
The district is a populous one, containing some three hundred
inhabitants, but there were only some half-dozen pupils. To-day there is
not one pupil. A few hundred yards from where the Gaelic school used to
be there is a large Board school, with two teachers, but Gaelic is not
taught; and it is worth mentioning, that while thirty years ago the
great majority of teachers in the Highlands could speak Gaelic, today
very many are unable to speak it,
The changes brought about
in educational matters by the Act of 1872 are, as yet, not marked. 1
Zany parishes have more schools, but the compulsory clause does not in
every place show improved attendance. In the matter of religious
instruction in schools, "use and wont" may be said to be universally
required, School Boards usually deputing the clergy to inquire into the
manner in which this important matter is attended to.
Education, generally
speaking, is undoubtedly making rapid strides in the Highlands, and did
so likewise under the old parochial system, which, as a rule, worked
admirably in the Northern Highlands. Thirty years ago, in a Highland
parish of say fourteen hundred inhabitants, it would have been easy
enough to find three hundred, or nearly one-fourth, unable to read or
write, while in a similar parish to-day it will be difficult to find
sixty persons thus uneducated. No doubt, just like other people, some
Highlanders that take up the pen make at times .a slightly remarkable
figure with it. During the taking of the census of 1871, a West Highland
crofter, 46 years old, wrote down his age at 406, the adding of nothing,
strange to say, giving him an antediluvian venerableness. But since the
last census there has been as, marked progress educationally among the
crofter population, so that in future there will be less likelihood of a
similarly inaccurate ciphering taking place.
It may be thought by some
that a special chapter should have been devoted to an account of the
general character of the residents in a Highland parish of to-day. This
would have been advisable, and even necessary, were the
character-peculiarities of such residents numerous or marked. Such
peculiarities of character and disposition as were associated with the
Highlander when the Highlands were remote have very much faded, along
with the individuality of the Highlander of that period—an individuality
now very much, because of the growing communication with the larger
world outside his native hills and glens, merged in the national life
and character. Bravery, hardihood, and endurance yet characterise the
better type of Highlander; but, happily, the isolation and local
misunderstandings, to put the latter mildly, that so often long ago
called forth these qualities in uninviting fields, are altogether, in
the case of the latter, and all but in the case of the former, gone. The
perseverance and determination implied in the qualities mentioned are to
no small extent observable to-day in more peaceful walks of life; and it
is well known that, because of these two latter features, Highlanders
going to push their fortune in southern towns and in foreign lands are
often especially successful. As to other features of character little
need be said. For a long time Highlanders were believed by many to be a
simple-minded if not guileless people; while others in recent times
speak of them in quite a different strain. Each estimate, very probably,
is partial truth. We suppose that, so far as guile and guilelessness are
concerned, Highlanders are very much like their fellow-creatures the
whole world over, and neither better than they ought to be, nor perhaps
so bad as they themselves allege of each other,—so that it is
unnecessary to discuss the matter. To-day we occasionally meet a
veritable Nathanael in a Highland parish; but though, as a class, as
genuine very probably as their neighbours, to call them guileless as a
people would be to say what few, if any, of themselves believe. It is
common enough in a Highland parish of today to hear such expressions
among the natives as "the people are getting much sharper and smairter
like than they were before;" and such sharpness and smartness, though
referred to as evidence of progress, are mentioned in a tone and manner
calculated to convey the impression that there is no wish or reason to
claim for the people a prevailing guilelessness.
It may be worth noticing,
also, that some who can compare the Highlands past and of to-day declare
that the people are less social to-day, less kindly interested, indeed,
in each other's welfare. It would be foreign to our purpose to discuss
this matter at length. It may be observed, however, that the fact of the
people to-day being busier, and competition greater, may partly explain
the change, if change there be. We do not think that, beyond what might
be thus accounted for, there is any marked absence of the sort of
kindliness indicated ; and even should the people seem to be less
kindly, which we fear is true of some, to some extent there is a real
widening of healthful sympathies, brought about by the changes that have
diminished what was a merely local, and often only an apparent,
attachment. Some people, more prejudiced than enlightened, allege that
at the period of the Secession of 1843 from the Church of Scotland,
practical Christianity was at a low ebb in the Highlands; but the
general character of the Highlanders at present in the matter of purity
and truthfulness cannot be said to prove that any moral improvement has
taken place in the Highlands as the result of that Secession; nor,
besides, is it easy to avoid the conclusion that if pulpit utterances in
a certain quarter had been less devoid of Christian charity, a greater
measure of friendliness, and consequently of straightforwardness, might
to-day characterise the people generally. That there are kindly and
straightforward ones among Highlanders, and, relatively, as many as
among other people, we rejoice to believe; and notwithstanding that some
of themselves regettingly allege that "the people are no what they
were,"—that, in other words, deterioration in general character has
taken place, and especially in the matter of truthfulness and purity of
life—we believe that under intelligent, manly leadership in matters
religious, and with definite encouragement towards self-improvement and
the bettering of their general circumstances, Highlanders, as many of
them have already done, would, as much at least as other people, reflect
credit on themselves, and constitute no small help to the promotion of
the national welfare.
And now we have done.
With reference to any subject which may have been either omitted or only
slightly referred to, it will, we think, be found such matter is either
not peculiar to Highland parishes, or if peculiar, will soon cease to be
so. We trust we have succeeded in describing the actual circumstances of
the average Highland parish of to-day, and it has been our endeavour to
make the description representative, with the view of including the
Highlands generally, and, more especially, the rural districts.
Should any enthusiastic
Highlander have desiderated more detailed reference to the heroic deeds
in which Highlanders in days of yore took part, or have liked less
confident forecasting as to the prospects of Gaelic as a spoken
language, and more exhaustive treatment of beliefs and customs long
associated with the Highlands, we must remind such enthusiastic one
that, while sympathising with him in what is virtually a fond patriotic
remembering of other days, our aim has been to describe a Highland
parish of to-day.
THE END. |
