63. The Taghairm. Scott says here: "The Highlanders, like all rude
people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One
of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text. A person was
wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain bullock, and deposited beside
a waterfall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange,
wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested
nothing but objects of horror. In this situation, he revolved in his
mind the question proposed; and whatever was impressed upon him by
his exalted imagination, passed for the inspiration of the disembodied
spirits, who haunt these desolate recesses. In some of the Hebrides
they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by
the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities, and
considered the first fancy which came into their own minds, after they
did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone,
and, as such, to be, if possible, punctually complied with."
68. Gallangad. We do not find this name elsewhere, but it probably
belongs to some part of the district referred to in Scott's note
inserted here: "I know not if it be worth observing that this passage
is taken almost literally from the mouth of an old Highland kern, or
Ketteran, as they were called. He used to narrate the merry doings
of the good old time when he was follower of Rob Roy MacGregor. This
leader, on one occasion, thought proper to make a descent upon the lower
part of the Loch Lomond district, and summoned all the heritors and
farmers to meet at the Kirk of Drymen, to pay him black-mail; i.e.,
tribute for forbearance and protection. As this invitation was supported
by a band of thirty or forty stout fellows, only one gentleman, an
ancestor, if I mistake not, of the present Mr. Grahame of Gartmore,
ventured to decline compliance. Rob Roy instantly swept his land of all
he could drive away, and among the spoil was a bull of the old Scottish
wild breed, whose ferocity occasioned great plague to the Ketterans.
'But ere we had reached the Row of Dennan,' said the old man, 'a child
might have scratched his ears.' The circumstance is a minute one, but it
paints the time when the poor beeve was compelled
'To hoof it o'er as many weary miles,
With goading pikemen hollowing at his heels,
As e'er the bravest antler of the woods' (Ethwald)."
73. Kerns. The Gaelic and Irish light-armed soldiers, the heavy-armed
being known as gallowglasses. The names are often associated; as in
Macbeth, i. 2. 13: "kerns and gallowglasses;" 2 Hen. VI. iv. 9. 26:
"gallowglasses and stout kerns;" Drayton, Heroical Epist.: "the Kerne
and Irish Galliglasse," etc.
74. Beal'maha. "The pass of the plain," on the east of Loch Lomond,
opposite Inch-Cailliach. In the olden time it was one of the established
roads for making raids into the Lowlands.
77. Dennan's Row. The modern Rowardennan, on Loch Lomond at the foot
of Ben Lomond, and a favorite starting=point for the ascent of that
mountain.