HEATHER ALE. 



'Had heather bells been corn o' the best 

 Buccleuch had had a noble grist.' 



And thus to utilize a natural product seemed to the 

 conquerors of the Picts a consummation worth a little 

 pains." 



The story of the old man and his two sons, simi- 

 lar to that before given, is there recounted, and the 

 writer goes on to say : "It has been whispered, indeed, 

 that the secret of the wonderful drink of the Picts was 

 not altogether lost, and its survival may be thus ac- 

 counted for. The Picts when they first landed in 

 Scotland consisted of men only ; their womenkind they 

 had been obliged to abandon to their conquerors. In 

 this hard case they applied to the Britons as well as to 

 the Scots to provide them with wives, but neither race 

 would ally itself with the hated intruders. The 

 Gaels, however, were not so particular, and bestowed 

 their daughters on the strangers ill-favored ones for 

 choice, like mickle-mouthed Meg, for instance. In this 

 way, the secret leaked out among the relatives of the 

 Picts' wives, and thus the race became possessed of the 

 art of making that ambrosial drink called usquebaugh, 

 or, in modern language, whiskey. And it is a curious 

 fact, when you come to think of it, that among no other 

 races than the Gaels of Ireland, or of the Scotch High- 

 lands, is this liquor made 'in perfection.' " 



Neil Munro, in "The Lost Pibroch," introduces 

 "The Secret of the Heather Ale" as one of his stories, 

 when "Down Glenaora three score and ten of Diar- 

 maid's stout fellows took the road on a fine day. 

 They were men from Carnus, with more of Clan 

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