The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. IX] OF SCOTLAND 147
spear. Another very remarkable figure is found on the sculptured
stone at Nigg, apparently of a still older date, in which
the resemblance to the Highland dress is very striking, present-
ing also considerable indication of the sporran or purse. But it
would be needless to detail all the sculptured monuments which
bear evidence of the existence of the Highland garb ; suffice it
to say, that they afford complete proof of its having been the
ordinary dress of a considerable part of the northern population
from the earliest period of their history.
There is thus distinct evidence for the remote antiquity of
this dress ; but a very remarkable attestation to its use in the
eleventh century still remains to be adduced.
Magnus Barefoot, it is well known, conquered
the Western
Isles, and a great part of the Highlands, in the year 1093.
Various of the oldest Sagas, in mentioning that expedition, add
the following sentence— " It is said, when king Magnus returned
from his expedition to the west, that he adopted the costume
in use in the western lands, and likewise many of his followers ;
that they went about bare-legged, having short tunics and also
upper garments ; and so, many men called him Barelegged, or
Barefoot." The tunic and the upper garments are clearly the
shirt and mantle of the Scottish writers. This dress, which was
worn, as we have seen, from the earliest period, appears to have
been peculiar to the gentry of the Highlands ;— thus in a MS.
history of the Gordons, by W. R., preserved in the Advocates'
Library (Jac. V. 7, 11), the following anecdote is given, as occurring
about the year 1591 or 1592 : "Angus, the son of Lauchlan
Mackintosh, chiefe of the clan Chattan, with a great party,
attempts to surprise the castle of Ruthven in Badenoch, belonging
to Huntly, in which there was but a small garrison ; but
finding this attempt could neither by
force -nor fraude have
successe, he retires a little to consult how to compass his intent.
In the meanetime one creeps out under the shelter of some
old ruins, and levels with his piece at one of the clan Chattan,
cloathed in a yellow warr coat (which amongst them is the badge
of the chief tables or heads of clans), and piercing his body with a
bullet, strikes him to the ground, and retires with gladness into
the castle. The man killed was Angus himself, whom his
people carry away, and conceills his death for many yeir.^-.