There still remains in the Hebrides, though it is passing fast away,
the custom of fosterage. A laird, a man of wealth and eminence,
sends his child, either male or female, to a tacksman or tenant to
be fostered. It is not always his own tenant, but some distant
friend that obtains this honour; for an honour such a trust is very
reasonably thought. The terms of fosterage seem to vary in different
islands. In Mull, the father sends with his child a certain number
of cows, to which the same number is added by the fosterer. The
father appropriates a proportionable extent of ground, without rent,
for their pasturage. If every cow bring a calf, half belongs to the
fosterer, and half to the child; but if there be only one calf
between two cows, it is the child's; and when the child returns to
the parents, it is accompanied with all the cows given, both by the
father and by the fosterer, with half of the increase of the stock
by propagation. These beasts are considered as a portion, and called
_Macalive_ cattle, &c.
Children continue with the fosterer perhaps six years; and cannot,
where this is the practice, be considered as burdensome. The
fosterer, if he gives four cows, receives likewise four, and has,
while the child continues with him, grass for eight without rent,
with half the calves, and all the milk, for which he pays only four
cows, when he dismisses his _dalt_, for that is the name for a
fostered child.--_Johnson's Journey_.
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