CHAPTER IV. 



WHEN the Norwegian contingent from the Outer 

 Hebrides joined Hakon s expedition, the Celtic inhabitants, 

 according to tradition, planned a general massacre of those 

 who were left. The Lewis Celts, so the tradition runs, 

 invited the Norwegians to a great feast, the guests being so 

 arranged that at a given signal, the Celts were able to dirk 

 them where they sat without resistance. And in Barra, a 

 heap of bones was in modern times unearthed, which were 

 said to be the remains of the last "Danes" (Norwegians) 

 murdered there after Largs. 



Whatever truth there may be in this tradition, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that after the cession of the Isles, 

 the preponderance of Norsemen in the Long Island disap- 

 peared, and that they were replaced to a large extent by an 

 influx of Scottish settlers from the mainland. These Celtic 

 immigrants, coalescing with whatever kindred elements, if 

 any, had preceded the advent of the Norsemen, or filtered 

 into the islands during the Norse occupation, acquired an 

 ascendancy over the Norwegians who remained which they 

 have retained to the present day. No trace of the Norse 

 language, except in place-names and in certain Gaelic 

 words, now remains to tell of the race that possessed the 

 Outer Hebrides for centuries. In course of time, a partial 

 fusion of the two races was consummated. That the blend 

 was not universal is proved by concrete examples to the. 

 contrary. The people at the Butt of Lewis, for instance, 

 were until comparatively recent times, regarded as a foreign 

 colony by the rest of the islanders ; and at the present 

 day, the Norse characteristics of the people in the parish of 

 Ness are peculiarly conspicuous. The language of the 



