]3() The (Ilenkens in the Oldex Times. 



resembling a bull but much larger — deer, swine, wolves, and foxes, 

 besides numerous smaller animals. The wild fowls which are still 

 to be found on the hills, being then undisturbed, weve more 

 numerous and more daring than now. Eagles and ptarmigan are 

 now extinct. 



The rivers and streams abounded with various kinds of fishes : 

 but few were caught and eaten by the natives. Many reptiles, 

 now extei'minated, infested the morasses and woods, and prodigi- 

 ous swarms of insects Avere yearly generated. 



The ox'iginal inhabitants of the Glenkeus were a tribe called 

 the Selgovae. Their language was Gaelic, which is said to have 

 been spoken by some of the inhabitants so late as 1G88. The 

 great majority of the place-names are Gaelic — Irish Gaelic — 

 which was probably the language spoken by the Scots who came 

 from the north of Ireland and conquered and settled in Galloway 

 about A.D. 410. The original inhabitants were large, robust, and 

 well formed. They excelled in running-, wrestling, and swimming-, 

 and were very courageous. They wore little or no clothing-, but 

 dyed their skins so as to represent figures of beasts. They some- 

 times smeared their bodies with clay, probably as a defence against 

 the bites of insects. Those Avere fortunate who had the skin 

 of an animal to tie round their shoulders in winter. They retreated 

 in winter into caves and thickets of wood, and m summer they 

 lived in round houses constructed by a circle of stakes being 

 driven into the ground and interwoven with brushwood. The fire 

 was in the middle of the floor, and fires continued to be made on 

 the floor in very many houses until within the last hundred years. 

 The last one was allowed to fall into decay only two years ago, 

 but a beautiful representation of it was painted by your townsman, 

 Mr M'Lellan Arnott. In common with the ancient inhabitants of 

 Britain, their religion was Druidism. Their sacred places svere 

 either in recesses of the woods or at circles of stones, and after 

 the introduction of Christianity churches were in many instances 

 erected at those sacred places. The word cell or kell in Gaelic 

 sio-nifies a retreat or recess, hence the name Kells ; and Clauchan 

 (Dairy), a collection or circle of stones. 



In connection with the Druids, there is still to be seen on the 

 farm of Lochrenny, in the parish of Dairy, a stone five inches in 

 diametei', with a hole through it, which was used in their marriage 



