The Durham daily globe., 1893-01-27
A SCOTCH TRADITION
MeRCILESS WARFARE OF ONE OF
THE OLD SCOTTISH CLANS


A friend Of mine made a prolonged
tour of Scotland last year to indulge in
his favorite pastime-fshing- which
there is none better in the whole world
than among the highlands and contigu-
Gus islands of that country. He brought
Dack with him vast storehouse of the
strange tales of the primitive people
among whom he sojourned, for he avoid
ed the usual lines of travel, confning
his wanderlngs to the remote villages
and out OF the way places which the or
binary tourist never visits. He lived for
months with the peasant and fisherman
class, with whom, ingratiating himself
into their good graces, he learned much
of the traditions current in the region,
which have only been kept alive by
being handed down from father to son
through the generations.
At one time residing with a simple
fisherman on one Of the Hebrides, that
group made famous by the celebrated
tour Of DR.. johnson and Boswell, he was
told strange story pertaining to cave
on one Of the islands, which he after
ward visited with his host, making the
weird tradition doubly interesting. 1t
was this:
More than three centuries ago there
existed two clans between which there
had waged the most bitter and relent-
less warfare for generations. OF course
the people of both factions were but lit
tie more civilized than the North Amer
ican Indians when Columbus gave a
new world to Spain. Both clans lived
by stealing from their neighbors, de-
cidedly preferring this mode of life to an
honest endeavor of raising anything for
themselves. Their tenure Of the dark
glens which they claimed was held by
the prowess of their primitive bows and
arrows, their rude claymOres and ruder
dirks. Ignorant, cruel and vindictive,
the several clans hated each other with
a hatred unknown but to dense igno-
rance; they hated simply because their
names differed, because they had been
taught that differences between names
meant feuds between races.
One of these two contending clans
lived on one of the little islands Of the
Hebridean group, a barren, rocky, desc
late spot, surrounded only by the eternal
surf. One mild winter day came the
boats of their hated enemy The inten-
ton of the invaders was of course to
kill, plunder and destroy. They did
plumber and burn the huts they found
on the shore, but not human being
was found that they could massacre
The whole island appeared to have been
abandoned. The invaders ransacked it
we'll; traversed every glen and every
ravine and wondered where their invet-
crate enemies had gone. Failing in the
principal part of their bloody mission,
they prepared to leave. They took up
their oars, but hardly had they cleared
the little creek by which they had en-
tered from the sea when a man, with an
apparently extraordinary vision, spied a
figure in the uncertain light Of win
ter's dawn cautiously moving over the
rocks.
A shout announced the discovery, and
the islander disappeared. But the secret
had been betrayed. The inhabitants
| had hidden themselves, not deserted.
In half an hour their &ssailants had re-
landed and set themselves with awak-
ened hope to the search. Snow had
fallen during the night, and the foot
steps of the imprudent islander betrayed
the whereabouts of his clan. The high
landers exultingly followed he trail of
the enemy, and they soon tracked him
to the hiding place of his people, curl
Gus cavern, its entrance through the
mazes of rock, overgrown with thick
shrubs, a place easily missed by any one
not familiar with the locality. In this
cave were gathered all the families OF
the tribe, the women and little children
and a few of the old men, the main pOr-
ton of the young warriors having gone
off on an excursion-a marauding one Of
course-to the neighboring islands.
With shouts of triumph and exulting
wrath comparable to the cruel nature Of
invaders they collected seaweed, drift
wood and the dried heath, in which the
rocks abounded, and piled around the
one entrance to the cavern, its inmates,
now cognizant of what their enemies
were doing, maintaining the silence OF
despair. A few words of muttered Gae-
| lie alone passed-and in a short time
the material which the savages had
gathered was set on fire, the scorching
heat from which and the dense smoke
rolled III upon the unfortunate occu
pants of the cavern, when suddenly
there arose wall of agony. Over the
cracking and roaring Of the huge fire
the diving wretches attempted to get ont,
only to be killed at the mouth Of the
fierce hell or thrust back with pixies
into the scorching flames. At last all
sounds ceased-the blaze sunk and died
away completely; the fiends had done
their work; not a living creature re-
mained within the almost red hot cav
ern. The clan had been extinguished-
clan less in the highlands OF Scotia
The triumphant murderers took to their
boats and sailed away again, leaving
their dead unburied as they lay.
They never were buried through all
the long years. The little island where