CHAPTER XVI. 



THE early historians of Scotland obviously knew very 

 little about the Outer Hebrides, and their information is 

 consequently the reverse of illuminating. John of Fordun 

 (circa 1380) merely mentions Lewis by name. Uist, he 

 tells us, is thirty miles long, and is an island where "whales 

 and other sea-monsters " abound. He mentions the castle 

 of " Benwewyl " (Benbecula), and says that " Hirth " (St. 

 Kilda) was the best stronghold of all the islands. He 

 states that the Highlanders and Hebrideans were a savage 

 and untamed nation, rude and independent, given to rapine, 

 ease-loving, of a docile and warm disposition, comely in 

 person but unsightly in dress, hostile to the English people 

 and language (and, owing to diversity of speech, even to 

 their own nation), and exceeding cruel. 



Andrew Wyntoun (1426) merely makes a passing refer- 

 ence to " the owt ylys in the se." 



John Major (1521) has nothing to say about the Long- 

 Island, except that Lewis has a length of thirty leagues. 

 One half of Scotland, he tells us, spoke Irish (Gaelic) in 

 his day, and all these, as well as the Islanders, were 

 reckoned to belong to the " wild Scots." He makes a 

 distinction between those of them who followed agricul- 

 tural and pastoral pursuits, and those who were addicted 

 to the chase and war, whom he criticises severely for their 

 indolence. War, he asserts, was their normal condition. 

 Their weapons were bows and arrows, broadswords, and a 

 small halbert, with a small dagger in their belts. Their 

 ordinary dress consisted of a plaid and a saffron-dyed 

 shirt ; and in war, coats of mail made of iron rings were 

 worn by all save the common people, who wore a linen 



