544 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



of Scotland. It is a subject which, to do it justice, requires 

 a volume for itself. 



The scattered references by contemporary writers enable 

 us to form a more or less accurate idea of the social structure 

 of the Isles, during and after the clan period. While 

 charters and covenants played an important part in the 

 division of land, the real basis of tenure was that of Celtic 

 feudalism. And Celtic feudalism was an essentially 

 different thing from the primitive tribal system, which had 

 its roots in the vague and shadowy past. The sturdy inde- 

 pendence of the Norse democracy in the Long Island must 

 have left its impression ; but that impression was gradually 

 obliterated by the feudalism which was engrafted upon the 

 patriarchal system of the Celtic tribes. The fruit of this 

 grafting process was the clan system, which differed in its 

 operations both from Anglo-Norman feudalism, and from 

 the primitive conditions which governed the tribal com- 

 munities. Certain of its elements had neither the sanction 

 of Law, as in the one case, nor the sanction of Custom, as 

 in the other. Partaking of the character of both, it gradu- 

 ally evolved distinctive features, which it possessed in 

 common with the Border polity. The tendency of its 

 development was in the direction of absolutism, which was 

 not only opposed to the spirit of the patriarchal system, 

 but was a source of danger to the State. The clansmen 

 gradually lost their cohesion, and with their cohesion, the 

 rights of the community in the land ; with the era of Crown 

 charters, the supreme power passed into the hands of the 

 chiefs. And how they used that power, the history of the 

 Highlands and the Hebrides testifies. 



In the Long Island, as in the Hebrides generally, there 

 were two distinct castes, the military class, and the labourers 

 of the ground. Celtic feudalism drove a wedge between the 

 two, and there is clear evidence of the thoroughness of the 

 cleavage. The whole power of the community was vested 

 in an oligarchy, composed of the chiefs and their relatives ; 

 while the proletariat were reduced to a condition not far 

 removed from that of the thralls during the Norse occupa- 



