149. The desert gave him, etc. Scott says here: "In adopting the legend
concerning the birth of the Founder of the Church of Kilmallie, the
author has endeavored to trace the effects which such a belief was
likely to produce, in a barbarous age, on the person to whom it related.
It seems likely that he must have become a fanatic or an impostor, or
that mixture of both which forms a more frequent character than either
of them, as existing separately. In truth, mad persons are frequently
more anxious to impress upon others a faith in their visions, than they
are themselves confirmed in their reality; as, on the other hand, it
is difficult for the most cool-headed impostor long to personate an
enthusiast, without in some degree believing what he is so eager to have
believed. It was a natural attribute of such a character as the supposed
hermit, that he should credit the numerous superstitions with which the
minds of ordinary Highlanders are almost always imbued. A few of these
are slightly alluded to in this stanza. The River Demon, or River-horse,
for it is that form which he commonly assumes, is the Kelpy of the
Lowlands, an evil and malicious spirit, delighting to forebode and to
witness calamity. He frequents most Highland lakes and rivers; and one
of his most memorable exploits was performed upon the banks of Loch
Vennachar, in the very district which forms the scene of our action:
it consisted in the destruction of a funeral procession, with all its
attendants. The 'noontide hag,' called in Gaelic Glas-lich, a tall,
emaciated, gigantic female figure, is supposed in particular to haunt
the district of Knoidart. A goblin dressed in antique armor, and having
one hand covered with blood, called, from that circumstance, Lham-dearg,
or Red-hand, is a tenant of the forests of Glenmore and Rothiemurcus.
Other spirits of the desert, all frightful in shape and malignant in
disposition, are believed to frequent different mountains and glens of
the Highlands, where any unusual appearance, produced by mist, or the
strange lights that are sometimes thrown upon particular objects, never
fails to present an apparition to the imagination of the solitary and
melancholy mountaineer."
161. Mankind. Accented on the first syllable; as it is almost invariably
in Shakespeare, except in Timon of Athens, where the modern accent
prevails. Milton uses either accent, as suits the measure. We find both
in P. L. viii. 358: "Above mankind, or aught than mankind higher."
166. Alpine's. Some eds. misprint "Alpine;" also "horsemen" in 172
below.