Each important clan had some
of those Helots attached to them: thus, the MacCouls, 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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