dices of barbarous times, could have made but a very flow progrefs
in the Iiles: though, as iflands, they muft be fuppofed to have
yielded to the arts of peace and good order earlier than their neigh-
bours upon the continent. Iflands, on account of the goodnefs of
the foil, and the additional fubfiftence they draw from the lea are
generally clofer inhabited : crimes could not then He fo long concealed
among them as in.diftant unhofpitable glens and mountains,
They are alfo more frequented by ftrangers ; and therefore by
a fort of collifion the men would polifh one another into good
manners. They had a Sheriff of the Iiles under the Norwegiati\
dynafty ; but when the lands were parcelled out afterwards by
the Lords of the Iiles, the deicendants of Somerlade, among barons I
of different ranks and fizes, each of thefe barons, affifted by the
chief men of the community, held his'court on the top of a hill
called Cnock an Eric, i. e. the hill, of pleas, where . the difputes
they had among themfelves were determined, where the encroach- ]
ments of their neighbours were confidered, and the manner of repelling
force by force, or the neceflhry alliances they were to
enter into, refolved on. In this period, when agriculture, trade,]
and manufailures were at a very low pitch,, the laws were few j
and general ; their little contrails were authenticated by being
tranfailed in the prefence of witneffes the marches of the dif-1
ferent barons were fixed before a croud by two or more faga- :
cious men, and two or more young lads were feourged with ;
thongs of leather, that they might the better remember the tranf-
ailion. The laft who was thus uied is now an old man, and a
penfioner to the family of Mac Donald. Nor were the people in
their purchafes fo diffident o f one another, as to infill upon a
cautioner,
a p p e n d i x .
cautioner, that the beaft or fubjeil expofed to open fale was fairly
leome by or would not be reclaimed by another, which was: once a
common prailice over the kingdom called in plain Gaulic, Ra-dif-
ttab. The penal laws were more numerous, fevere, and particular
for when reilraints are put upon natural liberty, and the cuf-
totns to which men were habituated in a ftate of barbarity were to-
be reduced or abolilhed, men mull have very alarming examples
painted before their eyes. The laws of the firft legiilators in alL
countries are very fevere, and are foftened and moderated according
to the progyefs of civilization. The legifiator of the Jews,.
though a very meek man, punilhes feveral crimes with the moil
cruel kinds of death, Honing and burning. Of Draco’s laws, one of
the firft Athenian legiilators, it is faid that they were written with
blood; and it is well known, that the laws of the twelve tables
were very fevere. Traitors were put to death in the Iiles, being,
according to a cuftom that prevailed among the Norwegians, firft
gelded and both their eyes pulled out.. Inceftuous perfons were
buried in marihes alive, and bankrupts, without entering into a
confideration of the nature of their misfortunes, were ftripped of
their all, clad in a party-coloured clouted garment, with ftockings
of different fets, and had their hips daihed againft a ftone in prefence
a thigh. This puniihment they called 1‘on Cruaigh i and cowardice,
of the people by four men, each taking hold of an arm or
when not capitally puniihed, was accompanied with perpetual
infamy. The prifons were dark vaults,, without beds, or
the fmallelt crevice to introduce light, where no friend was permitted
to comfort the criminal, who, after a long fail, was often-
killed with, a furfeit. This was the cafe of Heitchen, the fon of
Archibald