AND ANGLING SONGS. 85 



groans and skirls, of ear-torturing and brain-confusing sounds, 

 which, had my attention not been drawn to the effect they had 

 upon the chieftain himself, would have led me to judge of High- 

 land music as an outrage upon taste and common sense. There 

 is something, certainly, which it is not easy to account for, in the 

 accommodation given by the ear, when brought into contact with 

 them, to the tones of the bagpipe. I can understand how in the 

 distance they exercise a fascinating influence over the High- 

 lander, and where the connexion holds good betwixt Gaelic 

 music and the voices which pervade the glens and mountains 

 the wail of the blast, the rush and roar of the waterfall, the 

 thunder echo, the plaintive cry of the curlew, the scream of the 

 eagle, the bellowing of the stag, and the many sounds familiar 

 to the ear in the land of flood and heath. I can appreciate its 

 power in the battle-field as an animating medium, and can recog- 

 nise something even of a martial spirit in its shrill and discord- 

 ant strains ; but how, when pent up within the walls of a small 

 apartment, it should not only become tolerated, but made use of 

 as a source of stirring pleasure, is past comprehension. 



The rapt regard accorded by Abercairney and his friends to 

 this portion of the evening's repast, coincided with the effect I 

 have often seen produced by the power of the Gaelic language 

 from the pulpit. Great force of expression, exercising a strong 

 sway over the feelings, and many happy renderings of thought 

 and idea, pervade what we Sassenachs are apt to think a string 

 of uncouth and semi-nasal sounds. The effects wrought on the 

 audience by the Highland preacher are truly in their way 

 miraculous. I have witnessed, on the occasion of a popular 

 minister officiating at a sacrament, such a gathering of the clans 

 as might lead one, were it not for the predominating presence of 

 the gentler sex, to suppose that the war- slogan had been 

 sounded, and the beacon-fires lighted up. Not from this glen 

 or that alone, or even from the great Strath itself, had the 



