Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/72

 *ness, and better architecture, brought out some pails of milk. The villagers gathered about us in considerable numbers, I believe without any evil intention, but with a very savage wildness of aspect and manner. When our meal was over, Mr. Boswell sliced the bread, and divided it amongst them, as he supposed them never to have tasted a wheaten loaf before. He then gave them little pieces of twisted tobacco, and, among the children, we distributed a small handful of halfpence, which they received with great eagerness. Yet, I have been since told, that the people of that valley are not indigent; and when we mentioned them afterwards, as needy and pitiable, a Highland lady let us know, that we might spare our commiseration; for the dame, whose milk we drank, had probably more than a dozen milk-cows. She seemed unwilling to take any price, but, being pressed to make a demand, at last named a shilling. Honesty is not greater where elegance is less. One of the by-standers, as we were told afterwards, advised her to ask more, but she said a shilling was enough. We gave her half-a-crown, and I hope got some credit by our behaviour; for the company said, if our interpreters did not flatter us, that they had not seen such a day, since the old laird of Macleod passed through their country.

The Macraes, as we heard afterwards in the Hebrides, were originally an indigent and subordinate clan, and having no farms nor stock, were in great numbers servants to the Maclellans, who, in the war of Charles the first, took arms at the call of the heroick Montrose, and were, in one of his battles, almost all destroyed. The women, that were left at home, being thus deprived of their husbands, like the Scythian ladies of old, married their servants, and the Macraes became a considerable race.

As we continued our journey, we were at leisure to extend our speculations, and to investigate the reason of those peculiarities, by which such rugged regions, as these before us, are generally distinguished.