The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

196 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
the expedition into England, in which he lost his life, who
resigned to Magnus all the Western Isles round which he
could sail in a boat of a particular size, but Magnus causing
his boat to be dragged across the isthmus which unites Kintyre
and Knapdale, asserted that the former district came within
the description of those which were resigned to him, and thus
was Kintyre separated from Argyll, ^ and united to the kingdom
of the Isles, of which it ever afterwards formed a part. This
great district of Argyll was inhabited by a number of powerful
clans, of which the most potent were the Macdonalds and
other clans of the same race, who exercised for a long period
an almost regal sway in these regions, and who were anciently
included under the general designation of the Siol Cuinn, or
race of Conn, a remote ancestor of the tribe.
Siol Cjiimi.
This tribe was one far too distinguished to escape the
grasping claims of the Irish Sennachies, and accordingly it
appears to have been among the very
first to whom an Irish
origin was imputed ; but later antiquaries, misled by the close
connection which at all times subsisted between the Macdonalds
and the Norwegians of the Isles, have been inclined rather
to consider them as of Norwegian origin. Neither of these
theories, however, admit of being borne out either by argument
or authority. The followers of the Irish system can only
produce a vague tradition in its support against the manifest
improbability of the supposition that a tribe possessing such
extensive territories in Scotland should have been of foreign
origin, while history is altogether silent as to the arrival of
any such people in the country. Besides this, it has been
formerly shewn that there is reason to regard the Irish traditions
in Scotland as of but late origin. As to the Norwegian
theory, it has principally arisen from its supporters having
overlooked the fact, that when the Danish and Norwegian
pirates ravaged the shores of Scotland, and brought its inhabitants
under their subjection, the conquered Gael adopted in
'
Magnus Barefoot's Saga.