The lough at last ended in a river broad and shallow like the rest, but
that it may be passed when it is deeper, there is a bridge over it.
Beyond it is a valley called Glensheals, inhabited by the clan of Macrae.
Here we found a village called Auknasheals, consisting of many huts,
perhaps twenty, built all of dry-stone, that is, stones piled up without
mortar.
We had, by the direction of the officers at Fort Augustus, taken bread
for ourselves, and tobacco for those Highlanders who might show us any
kindness. We were now at a place where we could obtain milk, but we must
have wanted bread if we had not brought it. The people of this valley
did not appear to know any English, and our guides now became doubly
necessary as interpreters. A woman, whose hut was distinguished by
greater spaciousness and better architecture, brought out some pails of
milk. The villagers gathered about us in considerable numbers, I believe
without any evil intention, but with a very savage wildness of aspect and
manner. When our meal was over, Mr. Boswell sliced the bread, and
divided it amongst them, as he supposed them never to have tasted a
wheaten loaf before. He then gave them little pieces of twisted tobacco,
and among the children we distributed a small handful of halfpence, which
they received with great eagerness. Yet I have been since told, that the
people of that valley are not indigent; and when we mentioned them
afterwards as needy and pitiable, a Highland lady let us know, that we
might spare our commiseration; for the dame whose milk we drank had
probably more than a dozen milk-cows. She seemed unwilling to take any
price, but being pressed to make a demand, at last named a shilling.
Honesty is not greater where elegance is less. One of the bystanders, as
we were told afterwards, advised her to ask for more, but she said a
shilling was enough. We gave her half a crown, and I hope got some
credit for our behaviour; for the company said, if our interpreters did
not flatter us, that they had not seen such a day since the old laird of
Macleod passed through their country.
The Macraes, as we heard afterwards in the Hebrides, were originally an
indigent and subordinate clan, and having no farms nor stock, were in
great numbers servants to the Maclellans, who, in the war of Charles the
First, took arms at the call of the heroic Montrose, and were, in one of
his battles, almost all destroyed. The women that were left at home,
being thus deprived of their husbands, like the Scythian ladies of old,
married their servants, and the Macraes became a considerable race.