" DUNCRAGGAN>S MILK-WHITE BULL." 125 



The Taghairm call'd ; by which, afar, 

 Our sires foresaw the events of war. 

 Duncraggan's milk-white bull they slew." 



The wizard was wrapped in the reeking hide, and being 

 laid on the verge of the foaming cataract, there awaited 

 the prophetic inspiration, as his Pagan ancestors would 

 have done hundreds of years before. The poet, it must 

 be remembered, describes a ceremony which actually 

 existed among the Highlanders ; and one which, among 

 many others, shows us how strongly their minds were 

 impressed with the remembrance of the past. 



To a great extent the traditions of the Scotch gene- 

 rally, and of the Highlanders especially, were eminently 

 historical; encumbered, it may be, with many myths 

 and fables, as the early histories of all nations are, yet 

 founded upon fact. Upon no circumstance is Scottish 

 tradition everywhere more uniform in its testimony, 

 than with regard to the great antiquity and prolonged 

 continuance of its wild mountain bull, on which it so 

 justly prided itself; while Scott, in his writings, may be 

 said to have embodied these traditions. But now we 

 approach the period of authentic history, and that verifies 

 and confirms them. A barbarous and savage country 

 like Scotland, engaged in perpetual wars, had, of course, 

 few early historians ; its bards and scalds, as among all 

 northern nations, chronicled its records in their memory 

 and recited them in their effusions. Of its recognised 

 historians, Hector Boethius was one of the earliest, and 

 he gives a graphic description of the wild bull, which 

 confirms the traditional accounts. His " Scotorum 

 Historise, a prima Grentis Origine," was first published 



* " The Lady of the Lake," canto iv., stanza 4. 



