102 ADAM A HIGHLANDER. 



in their ain hair, an' here we stand shame-faced and 

 nakit aweel, fan the two raes heard that, they lap 

 oute o' their skins, for very love to their sufferin' maister, 

 as any true clansman wad do to this day. Fan the 

 gudeman saw this, he drew ae flag's skin on her nainsel,' 

 an' the tither o'er the gudewife : noo, let me tell ye, thae 

 ware the first kilts in the world." 



" By this account, Mac, our first parents spoke 

 Gaelic." 



" An' fat ither had they to spake, tell me ? Our 

 minister says they spoke Hebrew ; and fat's Hebrew 

 but Gaelic, the warst o' Gaelic, let alane Welsh Gaelic?" 



" Well done, Mac ; success to you and your Gaelic ! " 



" Success to me an' my Gaelic ! I tell ye that the 

 Hieland Society, or Gaelic Society, or a' the societies in 

 the world, canna ca' again my Gaelic! nor the name or 

 origin o' the first dress worn by man, for 



4 Ere the laird cardit, or the lady span, 

 In flags' skins their hale race ran.' " 



" We would require proof for this, Mac." 

 " Proof, mon ! disna your Bible say, 6 cursed is the 

 ground for Adam's sake ?' an' that curse lies on Badenoch an' 

 Lochaber to this day ; for if there be in all Scotland a 

 mair blastit poverty-stricken part than aither o' the twa, 

 may Shemus Mac-na-Toishach's auld een never see it ! an' 

 for the truth o' fat I'm saying, its joost as true as any 

 story of the kind that's been tauld this mony a day : Itt 

 them contradic me fa can." 



Thus the Gown-cromb's wit at length fairly got the 

 better of his patriotism. 



