296 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



quickly ; nor are they worth killing for the larder until they 

 have fed for some time in the stubble-fields, for till then 

 their flesh is as muddy and soft as that of a coot or moorhen. 



HIGHLAND SHEEP. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



Introduction of Sheep into the Highlands Aversion of Highlanders to Sheep; 

 disliked by Deer also Prophecy Activity of black-faced Sheep ; instincts 

 of Mountain Sheep in enclosures The Plaid ; uses of ; various ways of 

 wearing ; manufactures of ; invisible colours Shepherds Burning of 

 Heather Natural enemies of Sheep Shepherds' Dogs Origin of Dogs. 



UNTIL within the last few years the Highlanders had a 

 strong prejudice against the introduction of sheep on their 

 mountains. Their dislike to this useful animal was founded 

 on several causes. In the first place, the Celt dislikes any 

 innovation or change in his old customs ; in the next, he had 

 a dread of clearances, i.e., of small holdings being done away 

 with, and merged in large farms ; and he feared also that the 

 black cattle, the former staple produce of the Scotch moun- 

 tains, would be again forced to give way before these in- 

 truders ; and I firmly believe that one of his greatest ob- 

 jections to the sheep was that the red deer have a strong 

 dislike to the company and smell of the woolly strangers. I 

 do not, however, conceive that this antipathy on the part of 

 the deer arises from any aversion to the sheep themselves, 

 but from a dread of their accompaniments the shepherds, 

 shepherds' dogs, and the tar, the odour of which appears to 

 be most distasteful to all wild animals. 



I remember, too, being gravely told by an ancient white- 

 headed Celt that there was an old and undoubted prophecy 

 to the purport, that the Highlands would be overrun and 

 ruined by a race of " white dwarfs," and that this had now 

 been fulfilled by the introduction of sheep. 



When the Cheviot sheep first came into the North, the 

 sheep-farmers brought with them for the most part their 

 own shepherds from the lowlands, or rather from the borders; 

 a fine stalwart race of men, Armstrongs, Elliots, Scotts, and 

 others, whose names have long been famous among the wild 

 and dreary hills which rise between Scotland and England : 



