chiefs of the tribe, the Dalveria Aett, or Dalverian family-a term, according to Skene, "derived from Dala, the Norse name for the district of Argyle, and which implies that they have been for some time indigenous in the district; and this is confirmed in still stronger terms by the Flateybook, consequently the Macdonalds were either the descendants of these Pictish inhabitants of Argyle, or else they must have entered the county subsequently to that period. But the earliest traditions of the family uniformly bear that they had been indigenous in Scotland from a much earlier period than that. Thus, James Macdonell, of Dunluce, in a letter written to King James VI., in 1596, has this passage-Most mightie and potent prince recomend us unto your hieness with our service for ever, your grace shall understand that our forbears hath been from time to time* your servants unto your own kingdome of Scotland.' Although many other passages of a similar nature might be produced, these instances may suffice to show that there existed a tradition in this family of their having been natives of Scotland from time immemorial; and it is therefore scarcely possible to suppose that they could have entered the country subsequently to the ninth century. But besides the strong presumption that the Macdonalds are of Pictish descent, and formed a part of the great tribe of the Gall-gael, we fortunately possess distinct authority for both of these facts. For the former, John Elder includes the Macdonalds among the ancient stoke,' who still retained the tradition of a Pictish descent, in opposition to the later tradition insisted on by the Scottish clergy, and this is sufficient evidence for the fact that the oldest tradition among the Macdonalds must have been one of a Pictish origin. The latter appears equally clear from the last mention of the Gall-gael in which they are described as the inhabitants of Argyle, Kintyre, Arran, and Man; and as these were at this period the exact territories which Somerled possessed, it follows of necessity that the Macdonalds were the same people."

In another part of his valuable and rare work, Skene says that "we are irresistibly driven to the conclusion, that the Highland Clans are not of a different or foreign origin, but they are a part of the original nation who have inhabited the mountains of Scotland as far back as the memory of man or the records of history can reach-that they were divided into several great tribes possessing their hereditary chiefs; and that it was only when the line of these chiefs became extinct, and Saxon nobles came in their place, that the Highland Clans appeared in the peculiar situation and character in which they were afterwards found." And he then proceeds :-"This conclusion to which we have arrived at by these general arguments is strongly corroborated by a very remarkable circumstance; for, notwithstanding that the system of an Irish or Dalriadic origin of the Highland Clans had been introduced as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century, we can still trace the existence in the Highlands, even as late as the sixteenth century, of a still older tradition than that contained in the MS. of 1450; a tradition altogether distinct and different from that one, and one which not only agrees in a singular manner with the system developed in this work, but which also stamps the Dalriadic tradition as the invention of the Scottish Monks, and accounts for its introduction. The first proof of the existence of this tradition, which I

* The expression of "from time to time," when it occurs in ancient documents, always signifies from time immemorial.

shall bring forward, is contained in a letter dated 1542, and addressed to King Henry VIII. of England by a person designating himself 'John Elder, Clerk, a Reddshanks.' It will be necessary to premise that the author uses the word 'Yrische' in the same sense in which the word Erse was applied to the Highlanders, his word for Irish being differently spelt. In that letter he mentions the Yrische lords of Scotland commonly callit REDD SCHANKES, and by historiagraphouris PICTIS.' He then proceeds to give an account of the Highlanders; he describes them as inhabiting Scotland befor the incummynge of Albanactus Brutus second sonne,' and as having been 'gyauntes and wylde people without ordour, civilitie, or maners, and spake none other language but Yrische;' that they were civilized by Albanactus, from whom they were callit Albonyghe.' And after this account of their origin he adds, which derivacion the papistical curside spiritualitie of Scotland will not heir in no maner of wyse nor confesse that ever such a kynge, namede Albanactus reagned ther, the which derivacion all the Yrische men of Scotland, which be the auncient stoke, cannot, nor will not denye. But our said bussheps drywithe Scotland and theme selfes from a certain lady namede Scota (as they alledge) came out of Egipte, a maraculous hote cuntretti, to secreate hirself emonges theame in the cold ayre of Scotland, which they can not afferme by no probable auncient author.' From the extracts which have been made from this curious author, continues Skene, it will at once be seen that there was at that time in Scotland two conflicting traditions regarding the origin of the Reddschankes or Highlanders, the one supported by the Highlanders of the more auncient stoke, the other by the 'curside spiritualitie of Scotland;' and from the indignation and irritation which he displays against the bussheps,' it is plain that the latter tradition was gaining ground, and must indeed have generally prevailed. The last tradition is easily identified with that contained in the MS. of 1450 and consequently there must have existed among the purer Highlanders a still older tradition by which their origin was derived from the 'Pictis.' The existence of such a tradition in Scotland at the time is still further proved by Stapleton's translation of the venerable Bede, which was written in 1550. In that translation he renders the following passage of Bede, 'Cugus monasterium in cunctis pene sept entrionalium Scottorum et omnium Pictorum monasteriis non parvo tempore arcem tenebat,' as follows:- The house of his religion was no small time the head house of all the monasteries of the northern Scottes, and of the Abbyes of all the REDDSCHANKES.' It would be needless to multiply quotations to show that the Highlanders were at that time universally known by the term Reddshankes."

Our author says that in regard to this, the oldest tradition which can be traced in the country, that it accords with the conclusions at which he had arrived otherwise by a strict and critical examination of all the ancient authorities on the subject, and forms a body of evidence regarding the true origin of the Highlanders of Scotland to which the history of no other nation can exhibit a parallel; and he points out that while the authority of John Elder proves that the tradition of the descent of the Highlanders existed before the Irish or Dalriadic system was introduced, we can at the same time learn from him the origin of the later system and the cause of its obtaining such universal belief. The first trace of the Dalriadic system is to be found in the famous letter addressed

to the Pope in 1320 by the party who stood out for the independence of Scotland against the claims of Edward I. To this party the clergy belonged, while those who supported Edward I. believed in the more ancient tradition on which he founded his claim, and which included a belief in their descent from the Picts. The question of the independence of Scotland was thus to a considerable extent, most unfortunately, placed by the two parties, on the truth of their respective traditions, and "it is plain that as the one party fell, so would the tradition which they asserted; and the final supremacy of the independent party in the Highlands, as well as in the rest of Scotland, and the total ruin of their adversaries, must have established the absolute belief in the descent of the Highlanders, as well as the kings and clergy of Scotland, from the Scots of Dalriada." But in spite of all this, John Elder's letter proves that, notwithstanding the succession of false traditions which prevailed in the Highlands at different periods, traces of the ancient and probably correct one were to be found as late as the middle of the sixteenth century.

What is true of the Highlanders generally must be more or less true of individual clans, and of none more so than of the Macdonalds, to whom we must now return. From all these authorities, though a little conflicting in some of their opinions, there seems to be no difficulty in coming to the conclusion, that whether Somerled, at a remote period, descended from some of the Scoto-Irish immigrants to the Western Isles, or not, the date of such descent is so far back, and his ancestors, if not of them, were so mixed up with the original Celtic Picts who, in those remote ages, inhabited the Isles and North-west Highlands that the Macdonalds and their immediate progenitor, Somerled of the Isles, may be fairly described as of native Highland origin; and that with at least as much accuracy as Her Majesty of the United Kingdom when she is, notwithstanding her continental connections, justly described as of native British descent.

(To be Continued.)

THE Hon. Mrs Murray Aust, in her "Guide to the Beauties of Scotland," written in 1799, relates the following:-"A lady of fashion, having ascended Ben Nevis, purposely left a bottle of whisky on the summit. When she returned to Fort-William, she laughingly mentioned that circumstance before some Highlanders, as a piece of carelessness, one of whom slipped away, and mounted to the pinnacle of 4370 feet above the level of the fort, to gain the prize of the bottle of whisky, and brought it down in triumph."

QUERY.-Can you, or any of your correspondents versed in Highland patronymics and aliases, kindly inform me what is the origin of the name "MacKeddie," which has been used as an alias by some families of Camerons, and to what branch of the main stock those belong who have used it? J. MACDONALD CAMERON.

DERMON D.

A TALE OF KNIGHTLY DEEDS DONE IN OLD DAYS.

-Tennyson.

BOOK I.-" AMONG THE ISLES OF THE WESTERN SEA."

CHAPTER I.

There is a cliff whose high and bending head
Looks fearfully on the confined deep.

-King Lear.

THE wild and picturesque features of our Western Coast are well known. For ages the Atlantic has surged along the sea shores, washing away the softer soil, ploughing up the buried rocks, and splintering them into a thousand shapes, hollowing out great caverns, and separating numerous tracks of rock and mountain from the mainland. Everywhere the coast line is torn and shattered, with myriads of little islands clustering around. it, and a strong current sweeps rapidly through the narrow channels, rendering navigation dangerous to the unwary mariner or even to the experienced rovers who, in ancient times, infested the Northern Seas.

Most of the little islands barely maintain a few sheep on their mountain slopes, and the only fertile part is invariably found on the lee side. Sometimes, however, a small strip of well-cultivated pasture land, nestling under the shelter of a mountainous headland, blooms gem-like amidst the surrounding desolation. Different from many islands similarly situated that of Kerrera, with all its elevated surroundings, is not allowed to bask in sunny splendours on the southern shores of Mull. The farsounding Atlantic forces its way through the passage of Colonsay, after skirting the triple barrier Islay, Jura, and Öronsay, on the one side, and the high cliffs of Mull on the other, and rushes impetuously in the full swell of its tide against the jutting rocks of Dunkerlyne. The whole island is but one mass of rude confusion. It slopes upwards from north to south in broken, indented outlines, till the high cliff's skirting a little bay, one mighty arm of black, unequal masses rushes far out into the sea as if to clutch the waves as they rear in sheets of fleecy foam and thunder along the beach.

Crowning the outward rock the lines of a tower and ruinous heaps are distinctly dark against the leaden sky, and as the sea-mews dash, whirl, and shriek around them, the whole is rendered more savage and solitary.

Such is the opening scene of our story-the keep of Dunkerlyne-as it appeared on an April morning in the early part of the fourteenth century.

Yet, desolate as it might appear, the tower was not without its inhabitants, and to-day there was a stir about the castle.

A galley was labouring among the breakers.

The hoarse shouts of the men were borne by the winds above the noise of the waters. They sounded faint, then deep.

"What shall the vessel strike?" some one was heard to cry.

"Ha ha!" laughed the men.

They weathered with confidence-yea, with the assurance of gods. Blood in their thoughts; curses on their lips; ale in their flagons; they lived under the very darkness of death's shadow.

A sail, half-hoisted, struggled with the warring winds.

The men leaped to and fro with the dexterity of demons-their eyes flashing, their massy locks shaggy to the breeze, and their scaly armour glittering and reflecting the crested breakers.

The galley sunk from sight-above her the waters broke in snowy foam-yet she rose and leapt among the seething and hissing billows.

The oars struggled and splashed-some struck, others broke.

At length the sail became swollen and the mast creakingly bent to the breeze.

"Hold, ye useless jackanapes! Taut with these hallyards! Aid that fingerless loon! Leap Gylen !-carefully now, or the mast may go !"

Thus the weather-worn warrior commanded at the helm. Firmly he held against the tide as it made the rudder creak, and threatened in its strength to pitch him overboard.

As the vessel caught the wind and bore out to sea ploughing and plunging, the song of the bravoes burst forth :

"Tis death to our foes

Who meet with our blows,
On the stormy seas

Where borne by the breeze
Rules the Viking.

"Tis a swelling sail,

A brimmer of ale
And a gusty gale

For the Viking.

Soon the galley became a speck in the distance-now hidden, now visible-till lost in the mazy mists beyond.

From the old tower there were two who gazed anxiously across the waters watching the disappearance of the vessel.

Jarloff the minstrel was sad, and spoke of the evil that would result from such a voyage.

Dermond, the son of the pirate, was also sad at heart, but from the natural exuberance of his spirits, and his strong belief in the prowess of his father, who had just carried his ship so successfully through the breakers, he replied with laughter.

The old harper merely shook his head in answer.

Soon both relapsed into silence.

Dermond paced to and fro apparently absorbed with his own thoughts, while the harper still sat looking out upon the sea watching the progress of the storm.

At length the old man lifted his harp, ran along the wires to test their faithfulness, and then burst forth into a rhapsody of song, the only intelligible lines which appeared to Dermond being the Scandinavian chorus: