136 THE GLENKENS IN THE OLDEN TIMES. 
resembling a bull but much larger —deer, swine, wolves, and foxes, 
besides numerous smaller animals. The wild fowls which are still 
to be found on the hills, bemge then undisturbed, weve more 
numerous and more daring than now. Hagles and ptarmigan are 
now extinct. 
The rivers and streams abounded with various kinds of fishes ; 
but few were caught and eaten by the natives. Many reptiles, 
now exterminated, infested the morasses and woods, and prodigi- 
ous swarms of insects were yearly generated. 
The original inhabitants of the Glenkens were a tribe called 
the Selgovae. Their language was Gaelic, which is said to have 
been spoken by some of the inhabitants so late as 1688. The 
great majority of the place-names are Gaelic—Irish Gaelic— 
which was probably the language spoken by the Scots who came 
from the north of Ireland and conquered and settled in Galloway 
about A.D. 410. The original inhabitants were large, robust, and 
well formed. They excelled in running, wrestling, and swimming, 
and were very courageous. They wore little or no clothing, but 
dyed their skins so as to represent figures of beasts. They some- 
times smeared their bodies with clay, probably as a defence against 
the bites of insects. Those were fortunate who had the skin 
of an animal totie round their shoulders in winter. They retreated 
in winter into caves and thickets of wood, and in summer they 
lived in round houses constructed by a circle of stakes being 
driven into the ground and interwoven with brushwood. The fire 
was in the middle of the floor, and fires continued to be made on 
the floor in very many houses until within the last hundred years. 
The last one was allowed to fall into decay only two years ago, 
but a beautiful representation of it was painted by your townsman, 
Mr M‘Lellan Arnott. In common with the ancient inhabitants of 
Britain, their religion was Druidism. Their sacred places were 
either in recesses of the woods or at circles of stones, and after 
the introduction of Christianity churches were in many instances 
erected at those sacred places. The word cell or kell in Gaelic 
signifies a retreat or recess, hence the name Kells; and Clauchan 
(Dalry), a collection or circle of stones. 
In connection with the Druids, there is still to be seen on the 
farm of Lochrenny, in the parish of Dalry, a stone five inches in 
diameter, with a hole through it, which was used in their marriage 
