Morning herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1837-1840, 1837-05-31

The HIeHLANDERs. the hills are poor, the peo-
pie who live among them also poor. They are lg-
remove from the most besot'ed barbarsm. | have
travelled hundred miles in one line, and a hundred
IN another among the hills of Scotland, and every
where is TO be the miserable hove, and that the
principal and most frequent tenement OF man,
mere sod wall and sod root, cut up from the earth by
the spade-without floor, without chimney with
out partition, the fire in the CENTRE and the smoke,
after rolling about this confined and damp den, esca-
ping by little hole left in the top and may often be
seen pouring out its columns by the apology for
door / entered one of these huts, more than 80
feet by Is, where the family occupied one end and
the cow pigs, and poultry the other, with no other
partition wall than of low rail fence-all appa
'rently contened and happy-the children singing,
crying-a little of beth-and the mother busy in keep
ing order. 1t is true that some of these sod houses
better than ohers-bu the best Of them may we'll
be supposed cheap enough They are supported by
ribs of unhewn mountain birch, the only tree indigo
nous to the soil, and when flashed exactly in the
form of new made grave, as was most behttng the
tenants being literally buried alive.
One would imagine that the Highland race must
have greatly degeneraed, when found in such condl-
items as scores of thousands not to say hundreds of
tho ands, may be found, planted and scattered along
the lower regions of these mountain glens The ira
weller would scarcely discern these huts, as he APP
proaches them, even when grouped in small villages,
as they sometimes are except by the smoke which
they emit from the hole in the top-so much like
mole hills are they. With the shepherd race among the
Grampians, do not remember to have seen the small
est agricultural, even horticultural improvement.
What wild beings verify they must be and how few
heir wants. Here and there some better houses APP
pear, with some marks Of civilization and occa-
sionay in the vicinity Of some strah, interval
ground upon river may be found village Of decent
cottages. But there the ground is ordinarily the
floor, and other things equal.
Yet from these very regions, and from these very
hus, ppers will go out into the plains and towns be-
low struttng in their CATERS, dangling in their kits,
with their PLAID frock sashed tightly about the lons,
their bonnets bristlng with feathers from pheasans
tail, and walking SO lightly, that their feet seem
scarcely to touch the ground-the peculiar, the inim
table air of those who have been accustomed TO bound
over the rocks of the mountains, making such music
as almost arrest the current of the rver and bend
the trees listen from the tops of the hills. As sat
at my breakfast one morning at Dunkeld heard the
music of the bagpipe entering the village, with unu-
sua power and sweetness. jumped, as every one
would-as no one could hep-and ran to the window
and by that time every window and every door in the
street were full of heads; every body in the street,
horses and all, stopped and Others came pouring
from adjoining streets. The music passed. There
were two pipes. had often heard the bagplpes be-
fore, but never-never with power to be compared
with this instance And who and what were they?
Il was q pleasant Monday morning and two one
rise carts, loaded with reapers, females OF course)
Nth the fs Of their white caps flying IN the WIND
each horse led by the hand of a man, all passing
through the village of Dunked, on their way to the
harvest field The pipers were two men, sitting IN
front of the first cart as troed over the pavement
their company appa" emily unconscious OF the power
they exercised the villagers. And tins IS the
mrsc which they carry with them to the hed OF labo-
ous toll TO entertain the vacant hourfhs the music
with which the shepherd of the Grampan hills enrap-
lures his wife and BARNS, when his feecy tribe are
asleep around him for the nght-he same with which
e entertains the rocks in the day time, and makes
the reposng hour of noon sweet and welcome to his
focks. There a subduing planuveness IN the bag
pipes skifully played which few hearts can easily
resist That these untutored Hghlanders should be
man may be in any thing TO which he devotes all his
skill, and how rude in every thing else. There IS
world Of poetry and 1.-THE deepest soul OF song IN the
best music of the bagpipes They tell you story all
along, challengir your every sympathy-a story mat
YOU cannot help but iceland yet story the deep
mysteries Of which need Interpretation. You would
fam ask the wanderer what strong passions agltate
his inmost soul and while he secures and enchains
your interest, he passes by without gratifying your
curiosity You give him your whole heart, but he
renders not in return the secret of his charm lie
passes from the scene enveloped IN all the strange
ness of his dubious emotions He has displayed TO
Won the very wldness of Ossian and all the lofty in
dependence of Ossians heroes, while bis light foot
seemed bounding over the rocks and Skipping on the
tops of tae mountains-and anon he Is Tar away
Certainly there is charactcr-and not little OF char
acter in the rude people, inhabitng such rugged re-
pion Of the globe 1t is not difficult TO believe that
thew have done such exploits ascrlbed TO them
in the historical legends of that classic ground Yet
no native ofother ana ksdred clmes would covet the
place Of their abode the circumstances OF their
earthly existence. TO them II Is home, and much
loved home, for they know no o,her.-Coitons Fosr
Years in Europe.