Page:Gallant exploits of Lord Dundee.pdf/4

12 their clan or their countryː These they accounted their highest accomplishments.

Their Christianity was strongly tinctured with traditions derived from the ancient bards of their country: For they were believers in ghosts: They marked the appearances of the heavens; and, by the forms of the clouds, which in their variable climate were continually shifting, were induced to guess at present, and to predict future events; and they even thought, that to some men the Divinity had communicated a portion of his own prescience. From this mixture of system they did not enter much into disputes concerning the particular modes of christianity; but every man followed, with indifference of sentiment, the mode which his chieftain had assumed. Perhaps, to the same cause it is owing, that their country is the only one in Europe, into which persecution never entered.

Their dress, which was the last remains of the Roman habit in Europe, was well suited to the nature of their country, and still better to the necessities of war. It consisted of a roll of light woolen, called a plaid, six yards in length, and two in breadth, girt like the Roman toga around the waist, and wrapped loosely about the body, the upper appet of which rested on the left shoulder, leaving the right arm at full liberty; a jacket of thick cloth, fitted tightly to the body, and, in latter times, a loost-short garment of light woolen, which went round the waist and covered the thigh. In rein they formed the plaid into folds, and, laying it on the shoulders, were coversd, as with a roof. When they were obliged to lie abroad in the hills, in their hunting parties, or tending their cattle, or in war, the plaid served them both for bed and for covering; for, when three men slept together