272 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



the three industries statistically — the Americans. Although there had 

 been little actual whaling tradition in Scotland, a certain group in 

 that country were an ancient maritime race of fishermen with count- 

 less centuries of experience in this field behind them. These are a dis- 

 tinct race and they are not Scots, though this is seldom realized even 

 by the nationals of that country. This has a very important bearing on 

 our subject, and we must therefore digress a little in order to try 

 to unravel this most tangled skein of history. 



Just as the English are basically a mongrel people, so, to a lesser 

 extent, are the inhabitants of Scotland. In England there are two 

 main strains that have kept surprisingly distinct in culture, habits, 

 physical structure, and even, to some extent, in language in the purer 

 sense; one is the continental, land-loving Anglo-Saxon; the other is 

 the restless, sea-roving Norman, or Norseman. The latter people 

 started subduing the former in 750 a.d., completed the job in 1066 

 A.D., and then goaded them into founding an overseas empire by all 

 manner of maritime activities, which they have always loathed. In 

 Scotland also, there are two quite distinct peoples who have kept 

 somewhat apart for more than two thousand years. One, the Scots, 

 were tribalized, wore kilts, played bagpipes, were primarily sheep- 

 herders, and were originally continental landsmen not too distantly 

 related to the Saxons. They came to Scotland from Ireland! The 

 other group, fewer in number, for long submerged, and often not 

 recognized at all, are entirely different. Until quite recently, speak- 

 ing from a purely historical point of view, they had neither a collec- 

 tive name nor even individual tribal or family names. They are the 

 dark-haired, sallow-skinned, narrow-faced people of the lochs and 

 isles of the west coast, the same stock, basically, as the Black Irish, 

 the Cornishmen, the Bretons, the original stock of Portugal, and 

 also those ancient neolithic peoples of Scandinavia who left us rec- 

 ords of their whaling exploits engraved upon the faces of rocks in 

 Norway eight thousand years ago. Among these strange and won- 

 derful people were numbered the dreaded Picts who, clothed in 

 nothing but a wash of blue dye known as woad, so scared the Ro- 

 mans that they built their famous walls from sea to sea across the 

 northern borders to keep them out of England. 



Since the so-called Norsemen of history were really preponder- 

 antly of this same race— only the jarls and other rulers being de- 



