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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Burns Suppers
David Hunter, President of the Scottish Studies Foundation of Toronto, sent me in a contribution to our Burns feature. He produced an Immortal Memory for Robert Burns which he gave at the Oor Club last week. He sent me in a copy of his talk and also an audio version of it. So this means you can read his talk and listen to it at the same time.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/talk.htm
Now here are stories from the Scottish Press this week...
Scottish politicians outline views on EU referendum
Scottish politicians have been outlining their views on the EU
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...lands-35276306
Currency union SNP’s greatest weakness
The SNP has been advised to rethink its support for a currency union in any further bids to present a case for Scottish independence
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/currenc...says-1-3996547
Scots to set sail for world’s remotest settlement
And it’s called Edinburgh!
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/cu...urgh-1-3996218
Archaeologists solve the Royal Mile riddle of James VI’s feast
Riddle's Court between Victoria Terrace and the Royal Mile which is undergoing a major restoration
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh/ar...east-1-3996568
American business tycoon leaves £2 million to Scottish charities in his will
THE software engineer, who died from a heart attack last year, had amassed a £20 million fortune which he has shared with a selection of Scottish charities.
Read more at:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...aves-2-7175121
Rosslyn Chapel: Da Vinci Code’s Holy Grail theory debunked
ROSSLYN Chapel could be home to hidden treasures in the form of precious books rescued from a fire more than 500 years ago
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/rosslyn...nked-1-3999653
Nicola Sturgeon shows no sympathy to councils pondering ditching tax freeze
She had been challenged by Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie who asked if she intended to hit Moray Council with a £1m penalty if it dropped the policy.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-35315609
How has the oil price fall hit Scotland's north east?
You can tell that the economy in Aberdeen is in trouble before you even get there.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-35300495
EU disastrous for UK, says cabinet minister Chris Grayling
It is being seen as the first sign of a minister preparing to campaign to leave the EU in the UK's referendum.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-...endum-35308763
History of Scottish surnames from the Isle of Skye
The remote Isle of Skye has seen its fair share of clan wars
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...skye-1-3999895
How the Scots built New York
SCOTS have made New York their home for centuries - dating back to the time when it was still called New Amsterdam and was under Dutch rule.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...york-1-4001221
Electric Canadian
A York Pioneer's Recollection of Youthful Days in the Emerald Isles
His Emigration and first impressions of Canada, Especially Toronto, (late York), and its Inhabitants when the City was only ONE YEAR OLD, and its Population 9,000.
A most enjoyable read which you can download at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...rkpioneers.pdf
Knights Templar of England, Wales and Scotland
As I store copies of newsletters on this site I added the December issue of their newsletter which you can get to from our page on the Knghts Templar in Canada at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/religion/kt.htm
I might add that Scotland has only recently been brought into the England & Wales Grand Priory and you can read about this development in the newsletter.
Electric Scotland
Bulletin of the Scottish Centre for Social Subjects
December 1973
This is the third issue of the Bulletin of the Scottish Centre for Social Subjects. Education Authorities have been invited to order copies of this issue (price 25p per copy) for distribution to schools within their areas; individual copies are being sent to teachers and others who have requested them. Additional copies of the Bulletin can be obtained at the same price (including postage) from the Secretary of the Centre. Cheques/postal orders should be made payable to Jordanhill College of Education.
The Editorial Committee wishes to thank the authors of the leading articles in this issue. It should be noted that the opinions expressed are not to be regarded as the official views of the Scottish Education Department, the Consulative Committee on the Curriculum or the Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board. We would value comment on the issues raised in these articles.
In future issues of the Bulletin we hope to discuss many other aspects of curriculum development in the Social Subjects at both national and local levels. Anyone who wishes to make a personal contribution in the form of an article of a general nature or concerned with a particular teaching project is invited to contact the Director of the Centre.
In addition to an annual Bulletin, we intend to publish a short Newletter of national and local activities twice a year and a copy of this will be sent direct to every secondary school in Scotland. Any material for the first issue of the Newsletter should be sent to the Centre not later than 28th February, 1974.
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/education/bulletin.pdf
Reconstruction in North Carolina
By J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, M.A. (1906) which takes us through the civil war period. Added this to the foot of the page of our North Carolina page.
As you likely know lots of Scots and Scots-Irish settled in this state and so when you read its history you also read of the many folk that came from Scotland and Northern Ireland and their descendants.
You can get to this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/nc/ where you can also read some other publications.
Farm Boys & Girls
A book about how to bring up your wee ones which I've added to our Baby Shower page.
I was reading a years worth of issues of the Uplift newspaper and saw reference to this book so did a search for it and found a copy. I found it very interesting so decided to make it available for you to read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_23.htm
A Short History of the Scottish People
By Donald MacMillan, M.A., D.D. (pdf)
THE recent revival of interest in Scottish history has produced two classes of works: first, large productions, extending to three or four volumes, chiefly meant for men of ample leisure; second, small volumes, written in a simple and popular style, and intended mainly for schools. No work based on recent research has, so far, appeared to fill the gap between these two classes. The present volume is an attempt to supply this desideratum. The ever-growing number of intelligent readers who have neither the time nor the inclination to peruse the large histories, and whose minds are too matured to be satisfied with mere schoolbooks, has been kept steadily in view by the author. He has striven to record every fact of importance, and yet not to overload his narrative with too many distracting details. As the title indicates, it is the History of the People that he has endeavoured to portray. Special attention accordingly has been devoted to their struggles to secure those free institutions through which in the end they were able to express their will. The social conditions that prevailed at different times, by which the life of the people is chiefly illustrated, are dealt with in successive chapters with fulness and in detail. The author's aim all through has been, after tracing the way by which the different races that originally inhabited Scotland gradually amalgamated, to show how the people thus formed into a nation developed those features, of a religious, political, and personal nature, which have given them a character all their own. The evolution of the nation, in short, is the theme of the book.
Full use has been made of the large, and especially the more recent, histories, such as those of Mr. Hume Brown and Mr. Andrew Lang, and of the works of such acknowledged experts as Dr. D. Hay Fleming, Mr. John Mackintosh, and Mr. William Law Mathieson; but the original sources available have also been independently consulted, and every effort made to keep the work abreast of the most recent
research.
The author has to express his great indebtedness to the Rev. James H. Mackay, M.A., Hastie Lecturer in the University of Glasgow, and the Rev. A. J. Campbell, B.A. (Cantab.), minister of St John's Parish, Glasgow, for their careful revision of proofs, and to the latter also for a very full and complete Index.
You can download this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ofscotland.pdf
Snippets from the Glasgow Herald Archives
Kilmarnock's Interest in the Handling Game which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...y/19730929.htm
A July 6th 1812 letter from Lord Byron to Sir Walter Scott which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/18300122.htm
Byron's Letters and Journals which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/19730929.htm
Sound Poetry which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/19780330.htm
Some Account of the Family of Dennistoun
Of Dennistoun and Colgrain
You can get to this from our Dennistoun page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...ennistoun.html
Scottish Stories
From The Family Treasure (1869)
You can download this book at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/bibl...ishstories.pdf
Ma Freen Andy
A new song from John Henderson which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel602.htm
Covenanters
I decided to dig deeper into the History of the Covenanters in Scotland and so have now linked to other books on the topic from our Lays of the Covenanters page which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/covenanters/
I might add it was reading the above "Scottish Stories" book that decided me I should do more work on them.
The Wallace Book
In two volumes which I've added to our Clan Wallace History page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc.../wallace2.html
THE STORY
This is actually a very long story so I have only given you part of it but have provided a link to the rest of it and when you go to the page scroll down to An Duin'-uasal and read on from there.
The Gaelic Concept of Life and Death
By H. Cameron Gillies M.D.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Dr Cameron Gillies, the Secretary of the Scottish Gaelic Academy, is a native of Sunart, Argyleshire. He studied in Glasgow University, where he graduated M.B., M.Ch., in 1882. In 1893 he took his M.D., being top graduate. In 1877 he compiled a collection of Gaelic Songs for the use of schools. In the preface of that work he said— "I believe that in the Gaelic song lies the means of the Gaelic redemption," a prophecy which is being verified every day. In 1881 he edited a collection of the Gaelic Songs of Dr John MacLachlan, Rahoy. In 1885 he issued "Gaelic Texts for Schools," and in 1896 a Gaelic Grammar, as well as "A Class Book of the Gaelic Language." In 1899 he published "The Gaelic Names of Disease and Diseased States." In 1906 he gained the prize offered by the Caledonian Medical Society by an essay on "A Gaelic Medical MS. of 1563," and the same year he published "The Place Names of Argyll." In 1911 he gave the world "Regimen Sanitatis—the Rule of Health," a Gaelic medical MS. of the early 16th Century. He is at present engaged on the "Dunolly Manuscript of 1611." He has contributed numerous articles to the various medical magazines and journals, and was President of the Caledonian Medical Society in 1903.
The following pages are an extension of a lecture delivered by Dr Gillies to the members of the Dundee Highland Society on January 20th last, and form the first of a proposed series of pamphlets for the furtherance of the objects of the Society.
Dundee, April 4th, 1913.
The Language
Let us think of this for a moment. What is language? Where does it come from? How does it grow? How does it live and remain? I have just now said a strange thing. I have said that language is the only truth, and I wish you to keep your mind's eye upon the expression to see if I am right or wrong. Language has grown from the beginning exactly as it is growing now, and in no other way. To the mind comes an idea or a concept as I prefer to call it. No one knows where it comes from. It comes out of the unknown. Our infinite environment of land and sea and sky generates it in us. We are growing. This thought when it comes is a step in our evolution. We need a word for it. The word comes or is made, and it starts out on its travel in the history of the world—perhaps for all time. The human concept is embodied in that word, and you can easily understand that so long as that word exists in the world you can, if you understand the word, find within it the elemental thought which brought it into being—and that is the only truth worth entertaining.
I have said that the Gaelic language has crystallized from the filtrate of the ages. Now I mean by this that the thought originally embodied in the word and the word-form itself was not only acceptable and valuable to the generations, but that they treasured them and bequeathed them as gems of rarest value to us of even the present day. Now if you find a highly thoughtful people transmitting crystallized thought through many hundreds of generations down to our day and time, from the very dawn of human knowledge I must ask you where can you expect to find truth if it is not there. There is no standard fixed truth—not even in pure mathematics— but when you find thoughts lasting through long centuries of intelligence and coming into our - lives of this day they are surely worthy of consideration.
Again and finally upon this prefatory aspect of the matter you will at once see that from a language you can easily judge and measure with precision the thought and the character of the people who made it. You can have no more difficulty in distinguishing between the filthy billingsgate of a low people and the language of high manliness than you can have between the squeak of a mouse and the roar of a lion.
Now let us see what the Gaelic language says, but I would like first of all to paint in the background as it was according to English historians, who, by the way are the most ignorant and prejudiced people I ever made acquaintance with. I cannot devote any time to this, but if you doubt me or want to understand me read first Lord Macaulay's chapter upon Highland civilisation in his "History of England," where the Highland people are described as filthy, cut-throat savages of the vilest imaginable kind. Read it and read it often. There is nothing in English literature more entertaining. It has given me hearty laughter for many years. There are other lords and supposed historians of the present day who would like to say the same or similar things, but they dare not. They have not the courage. Our active awakening in these later days to the realisation of the worth and worthiness of our own people and to our own true history is too much for them, and they fall back into the very secondary place which is theirs by every natural intention. Let us appeal away from them and from all such to our own people and our own language on the solid and unquestionable basis I have just laid down. I am not going to begin where Prof. Schafer left off with the vital energies of an oil globule or when synthetic babies can be bought at the chemist's shop or at the .grocers. I begin where man reveals himself by his intelligence as expressed in his language.
There are one or two ways or perhaps three by which we can follow the concepts of my text. There is first the testimony in the essential language itself which cannot err or be mistaken, as I think I have already shown. Then there is our very long tradition, "Lord knows how long," for tradition has a long memory. Then there is the written word, although in our case it must be rightly esteemed as a chapter of our tradition.
Circumstances of the People
I would like here just to point out the circumstances of our Gaelic people. Let us say that they could neither read or write, and that is very near the truth. I am most thankful that they could not. They simply lived and grew and thought in their great and glorious surroundings. They became of necessity wise. They could not help it. They got saturated with the influence of their natural environment, and so as to conserve and economise their life observations they concentrated them into something like Algebraic formulae. In this way they left us incomparably the finest body of Proverbs upon the face of the earth. If we had nothing but these Proverbs to our Gaelic name we are an extremely rich people. I will give you one or two of these, and leave you to search the whole history of mankind to find anything which surpassed them; aye, or even equals them. Here is one: Is i an dias is truime is isle chromas ccann. It is the heaviest ear of corn that bends the head lowest. You will tell me when you find anything to surpass the fine humanity in that expression, So richly laden with the humility that always goes with true greatness. Then there is the old Ossianic conundrum, Ciod e is dcirge na an teine? What is redder than the fire? The answer was and is: A generous hospitable man's face when a guest comes and he has nothing worthy to put before him. I make no comment on that. Take it with you. I know it is in the heart and blood of you all, but remember where it came from—from the savages, our ancestors! One more—"A man should shake hands with a clean hand." If comparison is possible this is the greatest of the beautiful three. It goes to the back and to the bed-rock bottom of all cleanliness in all life conduct — in manner, in honour, in. honesty, and in truth.
These are only three out of the almost equally beautiful thousands I could give you. What do you think of these things? Do such things as these come from thoughtless savages? Are such concepts as these worth knowing, worth having, worth cherishing, worth treasuring? I think so. Our ancestors thought so, and surely that man is not to be envied who does not think so now. It is quite possible that there may be some who are not quite clear why you have a Highland Society in Dundee, although I know well that some of you do know, and that is the explanation of your vigorous and very purposeful existence. Cleanliness and manliness are no mean elements in a human life; in fact, that is all the religion I want, and our people have sent down to us, their children, these fine concepts in brimful measure. We must hold these great things fast and sacred, and we must pass them on. If we do not then certainly we are unworthy of the names we bear, and that assuredly will not be good for us. One of our oldest and greatest proverbs is: Follow close, adhere intensely to the fame of your fathers. Lean gu dliith ri cliu do shtnn-sir. May it be so. So may it be.
Some of the Men
I will now bring before you in brief review some of the men who grew within the old Gaelic language, and I shall leave it largely to your own judgment to estimate the concept of life which they reveal. The first man I wish to bring before you is the Gaelic Duine Coir. Now who is he? What is your concept of him? Those of you who know Gaelic. and have the Gaelic instinct will at once say that he is the kind man, the generous man, the altogether good man—and you are right. But who really is he? He is simply the just man—and none but he Coir means justice and to be just; and justice implied to the Gaelic concept all that was best and highest in the nature of man. There is not upon the whole earth, and there is not possible to the human imagination a finer character or a finer type of man—so far as he reaches—than the Duine Coir of the Gaelic language.
The next man I am to introduce, or rather to reveal to you, is the Gaelic Duine-foghainteach. Now who is he? He is the hero you say, the brave man, the warrior. Yes, I will take all that. The Duine-foghainteach is all this, and more, in one. But who really is he in Gaelic. He is just and simply the sufficient man—no more and not less. He is the man that the great American Waldo Emerson described as "the man at home" within himself —the self-contained man, the sufficient man, the man waiting for the occasion, and ready at all times for the occasion, come what may. He is the strong man—in reserve. We have no word in Gaelic for a bully, as we have no word for a coward. The sufficient man was good enough for our people. May I express the sincere hope that we, their perhaps weaker descendants, may keep a place of high esteem for this very fine strong man— the duine-foghainteach.
An Duine-cothromach
The next man in my review is the Duine-cothromach, a very near relative of the duine-foghainteach. Who is he? You know him well, I hope. He is the man who harbours not hate nor declares his love to excess. He is not a slave to anger nor to timidity. He boasts not of his strength, and he shows no weakness. He suffers neither from poverty nor from riches. He is the equally-balanced man, for that is what the name means literally. Cothromach means equally balanced by the rigid beam in character, conduct, and estate. You will, I am sure, agree with me that he was and is a fine equable, stable solid citizen. We could always do with a great many of him, because to quote Emerson again, "Your civilisation is not indicated by your census or the size of your cities, but by the breed of the people it produces." Lord Bacon said the same thing, and we all know that it is quite true. It will be a very bad day for us and for our country when the duine-foghainteach and the duine-cothromach gets rare.
An Duine-beairteach. We have two men, two Gaelic men. who are supposed to be rich in the English sense. If I ask you the Gaelic for a rich man you will at once say Duine-beairteach, and those of you who know your Bible may say Diiinc-saibhir. The duine-beairteach is in every day use; the duine-saibhir is not in so common use. He is more Scriptural, and he is perhaps more classical than the other, but they are both perversions. They are both splendid Gaelic men, but they cannot be, or be made Englishmen. Who are they? The duine-beairteach, who is he? What is the meaning of the word bcairt? It means an act. a work done, something worthily attained and accomplished, and our great Gaelic duine-beairteach is the man who has a rich sheaf of duty done in his right hand. In the 145th Psalm we have Do bhearta iongantach and Do bhearta-uamhasach—Thy wonderful and Thy terrible deeds, and in our everyday speech we say droch-bheairt and dbbheirt for an evil deed. Now we see quite clearly that beairt is a good deed or a good work done, and that the Gaelic duine-beairteach was a man of deeds, a man of action, a man, say like Lord Kelvin or Lord Ulster, and that the money-bag's man had nothing to do with the case or the concept. The moneybag's man had another place in the Gaelic estimate to which I may presently refer.
An Duine-saibhir. The other one, the duine-saibhir is the rich man the Dives of the New Testament, who went to Hell and did not like the place (Luke, 16). I have always protested against this degraded use of a splendid word, and I do so again now, and stronger than ever if that is possible. The Saoi of Gaelic was and is a brave man, a hero, even if he never had a copper in the world, and his degradation to an English guinea pig is to me hurtful and hateful. In one of our Sean Dana I came across a very fine statement of the Saoi: Esan a thuiteas le buaidh Tha e 'faotainn caochladh nuadh A' mealtuinn ionmhas nan saoi Xach ionmhuinn a chaoidh a chomhnuidh.—"He who falls with victory, he gets a new change, he enjoys the riches of the brave, how blessed for ever his habitation." There is very much in this quotation that I wish you to remember for a few minutes, and as long as you can. Not so very long ago I had a letter from an evidently accomplished Highlander whom I do not know, and he finished the letter with the words, "Is mise a shaoi do eharaid." I have no suspicion that I merit the term, and I only mention it because of my friend's correct use of the word from his point of view and estimate.
The omnivorous English language has for long tried to swallow and digest these two great men of ours, but they have disagreed with its stomach. They have proved to be indigestible. They cannot be assimilated in English. They remain our own. Our own two fine fellows—the duine-heairteach and the duine-saibhir—our man of deeds and our hero, and we do not want to part with them. This is not good physiology, but you must excuse it. There is some truth in it, even if it is crudely stated.
You can get to the rest of this article at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...life_death.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Burns Suppers
David Hunter, President of the Scottish Studies Foundation of Toronto, sent me in a contribution to our Burns feature. He produced an Immortal Memory for Robert Burns which he gave at the Oor Club last week. He sent me in a copy of his talk and also an audio version of it. So this means you can read his talk and listen to it at the same time.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/talk.htm
Now here are stories from the Scottish Press this week...
Scottish politicians outline views on EU referendum
Scottish politicians have been outlining their views on the EU
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...lands-35276306
Currency union SNP’s greatest weakness
The SNP has been advised to rethink its support for a currency union in any further bids to present a case for Scottish independence
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/currenc...says-1-3996547
Scots to set sail for world’s remotest settlement
And it’s called Edinburgh!
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/cu...urgh-1-3996218
Archaeologists solve the Royal Mile riddle of James VI’s feast
Riddle's Court between Victoria Terrace and the Royal Mile which is undergoing a major restoration
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh/ar...east-1-3996568
American business tycoon leaves £2 million to Scottish charities in his will
THE software engineer, who died from a heart attack last year, had amassed a £20 million fortune which he has shared with a selection of Scottish charities.
Read more at:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...aves-2-7175121
Rosslyn Chapel: Da Vinci Code’s Holy Grail theory debunked
ROSSLYN Chapel could be home to hidden treasures in the form of precious books rescued from a fire more than 500 years ago
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/rosslyn...nked-1-3999653
Nicola Sturgeon shows no sympathy to councils pondering ditching tax freeze
She had been challenged by Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie who asked if she intended to hit Moray Council with a £1m penalty if it dropped the policy.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-35315609
How has the oil price fall hit Scotland's north east?
You can tell that the economy in Aberdeen is in trouble before you even get there.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-35300495
EU disastrous for UK, says cabinet minister Chris Grayling
It is being seen as the first sign of a minister preparing to campaign to leave the EU in the UK's referendum.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-...endum-35308763
History of Scottish surnames from the Isle of Skye
The remote Isle of Skye has seen its fair share of clan wars
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...skye-1-3999895
How the Scots built New York
SCOTS have made New York their home for centuries - dating back to the time when it was still called New Amsterdam and was under Dutch rule.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...york-1-4001221
Electric Canadian
A York Pioneer's Recollection of Youthful Days in the Emerald Isles
His Emigration and first impressions of Canada, Especially Toronto, (late York), and its Inhabitants when the City was only ONE YEAR OLD, and its Population 9,000.
A most enjoyable read which you can download at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...rkpioneers.pdf
Knights Templar of England, Wales and Scotland
As I store copies of newsletters on this site I added the December issue of their newsletter which you can get to from our page on the Knghts Templar in Canada at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/religion/kt.htm
I might add that Scotland has only recently been brought into the England & Wales Grand Priory and you can read about this development in the newsletter.
Electric Scotland
Bulletin of the Scottish Centre for Social Subjects
December 1973
This is the third issue of the Bulletin of the Scottish Centre for Social Subjects. Education Authorities have been invited to order copies of this issue (price 25p per copy) for distribution to schools within their areas; individual copies are being sent to teachers and others who have requested them. Additional copies of the Bulletin can be obtained at the same price (including postage) from the Secretary of the Centre. Cheques/postal orders should be made payable to Jordanhill College of Education.
The Editorial Committee wishes to thank the authors of the leading articles in this issue. It should be noted that the opinions expressed are not to be regarded as the official views of the Scottish Education Department, the Consulative Committee on the Curriculum or the Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board. We would value comment on the issues raised in these articles.
In future issues of the Bulletin we hope to discuss many other aspects of curriculum development in the Social Subjects at both national and local levels. Anyone who wishes to make a personal contribution in the form of an article of a general nature or concerned with a particular teaching project is invited to contact the Director of the Centre.
In addition to an annual Bulletin, we intend to publish a short Newletter of national and local activities twice a year and a copy of this will be sent direct to every secondary school in Scotland. Any material for the first issue of the Newsletter should be sent to the Centre not later than 28th February, 1974.
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/education/bulletin.pdf
Reconstruction in North Carolina
By J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, M.A. (1906) which takes us through the civil war period. Added this to the foot of the page of our North Carolina page.
As you likely know lots of Scots and Scots-Irish settled in this state and so when you read its history you also read of the many folk that came from Scotland and Northern Ireland and their descendants.
You can get to this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/nc/ where you can also read some other publications.
Farm Boys & Girls
A book about how to bring up your wee ones which I've added to our Baby Shower page.
I was reading a years worth of issues of the Uplift newspaper and saw reference to this book so did a search for it and found a copy. I found it very interesting so decided to make it available for you to read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_23.htm
A Short History of the Scottish People
By Donald MacMillan, M.A., D.D. (pdf)
THE recent revival of interest in Scottish history has produced two classes of works: first, large productions, extending to three or four volumes, chiefly meant for men of ample leisure; second, small volumes, written in a simple and popular style, and intended mainly for schools. No work based on recent research has, so far, appeared to fill the gap between these two classes. The present volume is an attempt to supply this desideratum. The ever-growing number of intelligent readers who have neither the time nor the inclination to peruse the large histories, and whose minds are too matured to be satisfied with mere schoolbooks, has been kept steadily in view by the author. He has striven to record every fact of importance, and yet not to overload his narrative with too many distracting details. As the title indicates, it is the History of the People that he has endeavoured to portray. Special attention accordingly has been devoted to their struggles to secure those free institutions through which in the end they were able to express their will. The social conditions that prevailed at different times, by which the life of the people is chiefly illustrated, are dealt with in successive chapters with fulness and in detail. The author's aim all through has been, after tracing the way by which the different races that originally inhabited Scotland gradually amalgamated, to show how the people thus formed into a nation developed those features, of a religious, political, and personal nature, which have given them a character all their own. The evolution of the nation, in short, is the theme of the book.
Full use has been made of the large, and especially the more recent, histories, such as those of Mr. Hume Brown and Mr. Andrew Lang, and of the works of such acknowledged experts as Dr. D. Hay Fleming, Mr. John Mackintosh, and Mr. William Law Mathieson; but the original sources available have also been independently consulted, and every effort made to keep the work abreast of the most recent
research.
The author has to express his great indebtedness to the Rev. James H. Mackay, M.A., Hastie Lecturer in the University of Glasgow, and the Rev. A. J. Campbell, B.A. (Cantab.), minister of St John's Parish, Glasgow, for their careful revision of proofs, and to the latter also for a very full and complete Index.
You can download this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ofscotland.pdf
Snippets from the Glasgow Herald Archives
Kilmarnock's Interest in the Handling Game which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...y/19730929.htm
A July 6th 1812 letter from Lord Byron to Sir Walter Scott which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/18300122.htm
Byron's Letters and Journals which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/19730929.htm
Sound Poetry which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/19780330.htm
Some Account of the Family of Dennistoun
Of Dennistoun and Colgrain
You can get to this from our Dennistoun page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...ennistoun.html
Scottish Stories
From The Family Treasure (1869)
You can download this book at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/bibl...ishstories.pdf
Ma Freen Andy
A new song from John Henderson which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel602.htm
Covenanters
I decided to dig deeper into the History of the Covenanters in Scotland and so have now linked to other books on the topic from our Lays of the Covenanters page which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/covenanters/
I might add it was reading the above "Scottish Stories" book that decided me I should do more work on them.
The Wallace Book
In two volumes which I've added to our Clan Wallace History page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc.../wallace2.html
THE STORY
This is actually a very long story so I have only given you part of it but have provided a link to the rest of it and when you go to the page scroll down to An Duin'-uasal and read on from there.
The Gaelic Concept of Life and Death
By H. Cameron Gillies M.D.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Dr Cameron Gillies, the Secretary of the Scottish Gaelic Academy, is a native of Sunart, Argyleshire. He studied in Glasgow University, where he graduated M.B., M.Ch., in 1882. In 1893 he took his M.D., being top graduate. In 1877 he compiled a collection of Gaelic Songs for the use of schools. In the preface of that work he said— "I believe that in the Gaelic song lies the means of the Gaelic redemption," a prophecy which is being verified every day. In 1881 he edited a collection of the Gaelic Songs of Dr John MacLachlan, Rahoy. In 1885 he issued "Gaelic Texts for Schools," and in 1896 a Gaelic Grammar, as well as "A Class Book of the Gaelic Language." In 1899 he published "The Gaelic Names of Disease and Diseased States." In 1906 he gained the prize offered by the Caledonian Medical Society by an essay on "A Gaelic Medical MS. of 1563," and the same year he published "The Place Names of Argyll." In 1911 he gave the world "Regimen Sanitatis—the Rule of Health," a Gaelic medical MS. of the early 16th Century. He is at present engaged on the "Dunolly Manuscript of 1611." He has contributed numerous articles to the various medical magazines and journals, and was President of the Caledonian Medical Society in 1903.
The following pages are an extension of a lecture delivered by Dr Gillies to the members of the Dundee Highland Society on January 20th last, and form the first of a proposed series of pamphlets for the furtherance of the objects of the Society.
Dundee, April 4th, 1913.
THE GAELIC CONCEPTS OF LIFE AND OF DEATH.
By H. CAMERON GILLIES, M.D.
I would ask your attention to the form of words in my text: I have not said the Highland concept, but the Gaelic concept. There is nothing in our Highland story so far as I know it, that we need be ashamed of, but very much indeed that we may be proud of; if in the light of our Providence we think we ought to be proud of anything at all, but always thankful for all good and beautiful things. The Gaelic concept is a very much bigger matter than the Highland concept however admirable. The Gaelic language, and the concepts within it, not alone in this aspect which I am about to bring before you, But in many others also is one of the deepest if not even the very deepest factor in European civilisation, and we should be immensely thankful that our Highland people have conserved and have transmitted to us this Gaelic language and the old elemental healthy concepts with which it is so richly and so abundantly stored. Long before Julius Ceaesar landed upon our shores with the hosts of Rome, and long before Christianity came into being, the Gaelic language was very old, indeed extremely aged. It was then and long before then falling to pieces because of old age. It had broken into permanent dialects long ages before. We are apt to let expressions regarding time slip off the tongue and through the ear without any clear apprehension. Let as put it in this way. We have all of us, say, that we know, or have known our parents, and I am sure not all of us our grand-parents, and very few indeed our great-grand-parents—although I am greatly thankful that I have on one side both of them, and one on the other for some years. Beyond that all is blank, so far as the human realisation of living feeling is concerned. This only means a hundred years, or a hundred and fifty at the outside, but the language of our people speaks to us out of the utter darkness of thousands of years beyond — and it speaks infallible truth. It is the only truth. It is the crystallized life essence of millenniums, after being filtered through the ages.By H. CAMERON GILLIES, M.D.
The Language
Let us think of this for a moment. What is language? Where does it come from? How does it grow? How does it live and remain? I have just now said a strange thing. I have said that language is the only truth, and I wish you to keep your mind's eye upon the expression to see if I am right or wrong. Language has grown from the beginning exactly as it is growing now, and in no other way. To the mind comes an idea or a concept as I prefer to call it. No one knows where it comes from. It comes out of the unknown. Our infinite environment of land and sea and sky generates it in us. We are growing. This thought when it comes is a step in our evolution. We need a word for it. The word comes or is made, and it starts out on its travel in the history of the world—perhaps for all time. The human concept is embodied in that word, and you can easily understand that so long as that word exists in the world you can, if you understand the word, find within it the elemental thought which brought it into being—and that is the only truth worth entertaining.
I have said that the Gaelic language has crystallized from the filtrate of the ages. Now I mean by this that the thought originally embodied in the word and the word-form itself was not only acceptable and valuable to the generations, but that they treasured them and bequeathed them as gems of rarest value to us of even the present day. Now if you find a highly thoughtful people transmitting crystallized thought through many hundreds of generations down to our day and time, from the very dawn of human knowledge I must ask you where can you expect to find truth if it is not there. There is no standard fixed truth—not even in pure mathematics— but when you find thoughts lasting through long centuries of intelligence and coming into our - lives of this day they are surely worthy of consideration.
Again and finally upon this prefatory aspect of the matter you will at once see that from a language you can easily judge and measure with precision the thought and the character of the people who made it. You can have no more difficulty in distinguishing between the filthy billingsgate of a low people and the language of high manliness than you can have between the squeak of a mouse and the roar of a lion.
Now let us see what the Gaelic language says, but I would like first of all to paint in the background as it was according to English historians, who, by the way are the most ignorant and prejudiced people I ever made acquaintance with. I cannot devote any time to this, but if you doubt me or want to understand me read first Lord Macaulay's chapter upon Highland civilisation in his "History of England," where the Highland people are described as filthy, cut-throat savages of the vilest imaginable kind. Read it and read it often. There is nothing in English literature more entertaining. It has given me hearty laughter for many years. There are other lords and supposed historians of the present day who would like to say the same or similar things, but they dare not. They have not the courage. Our active awakening in these later days to the realisation of the worth and worthiness of our own people and to our own true history is too much for them, and they fall back into the very secondary place which is theirs by every natural intention. Let us appeal away from them and from all such to our own people and our own language on the solid and unquestionable basis I have just laid down. I am not going to begin where Prof. Schafer left off with the vital energies of an oil globule or when synthetic babies can be bought at the chemist's shop or at the .grocers. I begin where man reveals himself by his intelligence as expressed in his language.
There are one or two ways or perhaps three by which we can follow the concepts of my text. There is first the testimony in the essential language itself which cannot err or be mistaken, as I think I have already shown. Then there is our very long tradition, "Lord knows how long," for tradition has a long memory. Then there is the written word, although in our case it must be rightly esteemed as a chapter of our tradition.
Circumstances of the People
I would like here just to point out the circumstances of our Gaelic people. Let us say that they could neither read or write, and that is very near the truth. I am most thankful that they could not. They simply lived and grew and thought in their great and glorious surroundings. They became of necessity wise. They could not help it. They got saturated with the influence of their natural environment, and so as to conserve and economise their life observations they concentrated them into something like Algebraic formulae. In this way they left us incomparably the finest body of Proverbs upon the face of the earth. If we had nothing but these Proverbs to our Gaelic name we are an extremely rich people. I will give you one or two of these, and leave you to search the whole history of mankind to find anything which surpassed them; aye, or even equals them. Here is one: Is i an dias is truime is isle chromas ccann. It is the heaviest ear of corn that bends the head lowest. You will tell me when you find anything to surpass the fine humanity in that expression, So richly laden with the humility that always goes with true greatness. Then there is the old Ossianic conundrum, Ciod e is dcirge na an teine? What is redder than the fire? The answer was and is: A generous hospitable man's face when a guest comes and he has nothing worthy to put before him. I make no comment on that. Take it with you. I know it is in the heart and blood of you all, but remember where it came from—from the savages, our ancestors! One more—"A man should shake hands with a clean hand." If comparison is possible this is the greatest of the beautiful three. It goes to the back and to the bed-rock bottom of all cleanliness in all life conduct — in manner, in honour, in. honesty, and in truth.
These are only three out of the almost equally beautiful thousands I could give you. What do you think of these things? Do such things as these come from thoughtless savages? Are such concepts as these worth knowing, worth having, worth cherishing, worth treasuring? I think so. Our ancestors thought so, and surely that man is not to be envied who does not think so now. It is quite possible that there may be some who are not quite clear why you have a Highland Society in Dundee, although I know well that some of you do know, and that is the explanation of your vigorous and very purposeful existence. Cleanliness and manliness are no mean elements in a human life; in fact, that is all the religion I want, and our people have sent down to us, their children, these fine concepts in brimful measure. We must hold these great things fast and sacred, and we must pass them on. If we do not then certainly we are unworthy of the names we bear, and that assuredly will not be good for us. One of our oldest and greatest proverbs is: Follow close, adhere intensely to the fame of your fathers. Lean gu dliith ri cliu do shtnn-sir. May it be so. So may it be.
Some of the Men
I will now bring before you in brief review some of the men who grew within the old Gaelic language, and I shall leave it largely to your own judgment to estimate the concept of life which they reveal. The first man I wish to bring before you is the Gaelic Duine Coir. Now who is he? What is your concept of him? Those of you who know Gaelic. and have the Gaelic instinct will at once say that he is the kind man, the generous man, the altogether good man—and you are right. But who really is he? He is simply the just man—and none but he Coir means justice and to be just; and justice implied to the Gaelic concept all that was best and highest in the nature of man. There is not upon the whole earth, and there is not possible to the human imagination a finer character or a finer type of man—so far as he reaches—than the Duine Coir of the Gaelic language.
The next man I am to introduce, or rather to reveal to you, is the Gaelic Duine-foghainteach. Now who is he? He is the hero you say, the brave man, the warrior. Yes, I will take all that. The Duine-foghainteach is all this, and more, in one. But who really is he in Gaelic. He is just and simply the sufficient man—no more and not less. He is the man that the great American Waldo Emerson described as "the man at home" within himself —the self-contained man, the sufficient man, the man waiting for the occasion, and ready at all times for the occasion, come what may. He is the strong man—in reserve. We have no word in Gaelic for a bully, as we have no word for a coward. The sufficient man was good enough for our people. May I express the sincere hope that we, their perhaps weaker descendants, may keep a place of high esteem for this very fine strong man— the duine-foghainteach.
An Duine-cothromach
The next man in my review is the Duine-cothromach, a very near relative of the duine-foghainteach. Who is he? You know him well, I hope. He is the man who harbours not hate nor declares his love to excess. He is not a slave to anger nor to timidity. He boasts not of his strength, and he shows no weakness. He suffers neither from poverty nor from riches. He is the equally-balanced man, for that is what the name means literally. Cothromach means equally balanced by the rigid beam in character, conduct, and estate. You will, I am sure, agree with me that he was and is a fine equable, stable solid citizen. We could always do with a great many of him, because to quote Emerson again, "Your civilisation is not indicated by your census or the size of your cities, but by the breed of the people it produces." Lord Bacon said the same thing, and we all know that it is quite true. It will be a very bad day for us and for our country when the duine-foghainteach and the duine-cothromach gets rare.
An Duine-beairteach. We have two men, two Gaelic men. who are supposed to be rich in the English sense. If I ask you the Gaelic for a rich man you will at once say Duine-beairteach, and those of you who know your Bible may say Diiinc-saibhir. The duine-beairteach is in every day use; the duine-saibhir is not in so common use. He is more Scriptural, and he is perhaps more classical than the other, but they are both perversions. They are both splendid Gaelic men, but they cannot be, or be made Englishmen. Who are they? The duine-beairteach, who is he? What is the meaning of the word bcairt? It means an act. a work done, something worthily attained and accomplished, and our great Gaelic duine-beairteach is the man who has a rich sheaf of duty done in his right hand. In the 145th Psalm we have Do bhearta iongantach and Do bhearta-uamhasach—Thy wonderful and Thy terrible deeds, and in our everyday speech we say droch-bheairt and dbbheirt for an evil deed. Now we see quite clearly that beairt is a good deed or a good work done, and that the Gaelic duine-beairteach was a man of deeds, a man of action, a man, say like Lord Kelvin or Lord Ulster, and that the money-bag's man had nothing to do with the case or the concept. The moneybag's man had another place in the Gaelic estimate to which I may presently refer.
An Duine-saibhir. The other one, the duine-saibhir is the rich man the Dives of the New Testament, who went to Hell and did not like the place (Luke, 16). I have always protested against this degraded use of a splendid word, and I do so again now, and stronger than ever if that is possible. The Saoi of Gaelic was and is a brave man, a hero, even if he never had a copper in the world, and his degradation to an English guinea pig is to me hurtful and hateful. In one of our Sean Dana I came across a very fine statement of the Saoi: Esan a thuiteas le buaidh Tha e 'faotainn caochladh nuadh A' mealtuinn ionmhas nan saoi Xach ionmhuinn a chaoidh a chomhnuidh.—"He who falls with victory, he gets a new change, he enjoys the riches of the brave, how blessed for ever his habitation." There is very much in this quotation that I wish you to remember for a few minutes, and as long as you can. Not so very long ago I had a letter from an evidently accomplished Highlander whom I do not know, and he finished the letter with the words, "Is mise a shaoi do eharaid." I have no suspicion that I merit the term, and I only mention it because of my friend's correct use of the word from his point of view and estimate.
The omnivorous English language has for long tried to swallow and digest these two great men of ours, but they have disagreed with its stomach. They have proved to be indigestible. They cannot be assimilated in English. They remain our own. Our own two fine fellows—the duine-heairteach and the duine-saibhir—our man of deeds and our hero, and we do not want to part with them. This is not good physiology, but you must excuse it. There is some truth in it, even if it is crudely stated.
You can get to the rest of this article at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...life_death.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair