CHAPTER III. 



HEBRIDEAN genealogy is a useful handmaiden to Hebri- 

 dean history : what is wanting in the highways of history, 

 is sometimes found in the byways of genealogy. The pride 

 of pedigree had a tendency to become a fetish in the 

 Hebrides ; he whose family tree did not attain a certain 

 standard of luxuriance and age was a pariah among the 

 elect. Precedence at table was regulated by purity of 

 blood ; the seats of honour were reserved for the men 

 whose pedigrees were as long as their swords. The 

 seanachies, endowed with the gift of a fertile imagination, 

 found no difficulty in supplying links in the genealogical 

 chain, where these were missing ; and the bards seconded 

 their efforts by feeding the chiefs upon the same pabulum 

 of family pride. Unhappy was he who had no ancestors. 



A striking proof of the pride of pedigree is contained in 

 a story told by Hugh Macdonald, the Sleat seanachie. In 

 the fifteenth century, a great feast was given by John of the 

 Isles, Earl of Ross, to his vassals, among whom were 

 Macleocl of Lewis and Macleod of Harris. The guests 

 were arranged in order of precedence by Macdonald of 

 Moidart, who concluded his duties by declaring that he 

 would now sit down, as his was the best and the oldest cf 

 the surnames represented at the feast. Turning to the 

 Macleods, the Macleans, and the Macneills, whom he had 

 left standing, he added : " As for these fellows who have 

 raised up their heads of late, and are upstarts ; whose 

 pedigrees we know not, nor even they themselves, let them 

 sit as they please." The insult cost the speaker dear, for 

 his lands were ravaged by Macleod of Harris on his way 

 home. Reprisals followed, and thus a question of genea- 

 logy became a casus belli between two clans. 



