Each important clan had some
of those Helots attached to them;--thus, the Mac-Couls, though tracing
their descent from Comhal, the father of Finn or Fingal, were a sort
of Gibeonites, or hereditary servants to the Stewarts of Appin; the
Macbeths, descended from the unhappy monarch of that name, were subjects
to the Morays, and clan Donnochy, or Robertsons of Athole; and many
other examples might be given, were it not for the risk of hurting any
pride of clanship which may yet be left, and thereby drawing a Highland
tempest into the shop of my publisher. Now these same Helots, though
forced into the field by the arbitrary authority of the chieftains under
whom they hewed wood and drew water, were, in general, very sparingly
fed, ill dressed, and worse armed. The latter circumstance was indeed
owing chiefly to the general disarming act, which had been carried into
effect ostensibly through the whole Highlands, although most of the
chieftains contrived to elude-its influence, by retaining the weapons
of their own immediate clansmen, and delivering up those of less value,
which they collected from these inferior satellites. It followed, as a
matter of course, that, as we have already hinted, many of these poor
fellows were brought to the field in a very wretched condition.
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