The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

EXCURSUS AND NOTES.
By the Editor.
EXCURSUS ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF CELTIC
SCOTLAND.
The ethnology of the British Isles is still, despite the intelligent
researches of the last fifty years, in an unsettled state. This
is greatly due to the fact that the subject draws its materials
from various subordinate or kindred sciences, and no one man
has yet appeared who has been able to grasp with equal power
the reins of all these sciences. The archaeologist deals with the
monuments and other physical remains of man's past, helped
by the anatomist in deciding upon " skins and skulls," a subject
also dealt with by the anthropologist, whose sphere of science
is man—his race, physique, and beliefs. The historian depends
on his written or printed documents ; while the latest to lend
his aid, as a real, not an empirical, scientist, is the philologist.
Much was done in former times in using language to decide
racial points ; but it is since Grimm and Zeuss some sixty
years ago put philology on scientific lines that any good has
accrued from this subject. It is still a science known
thoroughly, especially for purposes of ethnology, only by a few.
Without going back to the cave-men, and others of paleolithic
times, when Britain and its isles formed a continuous
part of Europe, we come to neolithic we have man of the New Stone Age.
times, when unmistakably
These neolithic men were
comparatively small of stature, long-headed, and dark-haired.
They buried in long barrows. The Bronze Age begins with
the intrusion of a race tall in stature, broad-headed, and fair-
haired, with beetling brows—a splendid race physically and
mentally. They buried in round barrows. Some— indeed,