[42] "Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis," p. 115.
[43] In a letter to the Privy Council of Scotland, of 15th July, 1632, Charles refers to this Association as "of new erected by us."
[44] See Blackwood's Magazine, 1818, p. 674, whence the above paragraph is taken.
[45] Others of the same tribe were "as comely as Sappho;" and the inference is that, ethnologically regarded, these were totally different from the others. It must be remembered that the mere surname, borne by all the members of a Highland clan, did not imply kinship. The word "clan" was originally used to denote only the blood-relations of the chief; but latterly it was applied to the whole community. And that the commonalty was frequently composed of men of a wholly different stock from their chiefs may be seen from the fact that the former are specially distinguished as "the native men" (i.e., aborigines) in several clan documents.
[46] See Armstrong's "Gaelic Dictionary," s.v. Biorlinn; also "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland," 1880-81, pp. 179-80.
[47] Anderson's "Scottish Nation," vol. iii. p. 49.
[48] Dr. Daniel Wilson's "Old Edinburgh," vol. i. p. 29.
[49] See pp. 59, 378, and 485 of "The Orkneys and Shetland," by J. R. Tudor; London, 1883.
[50] The ballad of "The Great Silkie [i.e., Seal] of Sule Skerry" is given by the late Captain Thomas, on pp. 88-89 of the "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland," vol. i. (First series). This "great seal" figures in the song as the father of a Shetland woman's child. It may be added that this islet lies about thirty-five miles in a northerly direction from the Strath Navar referred to on a previous page.
[51] In the Ethnological Society's Journal, vol. ii. No. 4.