4 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



Macpherson points out,* an author who, like Solinus, wrote 

 about men and women whose feet were like hoofs and 

 whose ears were big enough to cover their whole bodies, is 

 hardly entitled to unquestioning belief. 



After the time of Solinus, there is a long gap in the 

 history of the Hebrides which there is no possibility of 

 filling in ; records of any description are non-existent. 

 An active imagination can readily enough supply the 

 missing data, and probably the ancient historians of Ire- 

 land would have experienced little difficulty in supplying 

 a list of kings and a chronology of events which would 

 have enriched our fancy, if they did not enlarge our know- 

 ledge ; but modern history does not permit of such 

 excursions into the realms of the fabulous. 



One event of surpassing importance took place in the 

 Hebrides during the sixth and seventh centuries, and that 

 was the conversion to Christianity of the Northern Picts. In 

 the year 563, St. Columba (Colum Cille) came from Ireland 

 to minister to the spiritual wants of his fellow Scots who 

 were settled in Dalriada. But the great apostle had also a 

 higher end in view : he determined to be the missionary of 

 the Northern Picts, as St. Ninian had been of those in the 

 South. He was not content to be merely the instructor 

 and the ecclesiastical Superior of Christians ; he aimed at 

 proselytising Pagans. In the monastery which he set up 

 in lona, he gathered around him a band of devoted 

 missionaries, who were destined to plant the banner of the 

 Cross throughout the length and breadth of the Pictish 

 territories in the North. 



The monastic order which he instituted was better fitted 

 for that object than the diocesan authority which ultimately 

 superseded it. The Columbans were simple, earnest men, 

 whose aims were not shackled by ecclesiastical fetters, and 

 whose missions were not marred by priestly pretensions. 

 Abbas and Presbyter such were the titles of St. Columba 

 and his successors. Disclaiming equality with episcopal 

 rank, the Abbot of lona nevertheless exercised an influence 



* Dissertation on the Ancient Caledonians. 



