Maclean Undoubtedly Owed His Preservation
To Maclonich; For The Treaty Between The Two Families Has Been
Strictly Observed:
It did not sink into disuse and oblivion, but
continued in its full force while the chieftains retained their
power.
I have read a demand of protection, made not more than
thirty-seven years ago, for one of the Maclonichs, named Ewen
Cameron, who had been accessory to the death of Macmartin, and had
been banished by Lochiel, his lord, for a certain term; at the
expiration of which he returned married from France, but the
Macmartins, not satisfied with the punishment, when he attempted to
settle, still threatened him with vengeance. He therefore asked,
and obtained shelter in the Isle of Col.
The power of protection subsists no longer, but what the law
permits is yet continued, and Maclean of Col now educates the heir
of Maclonich.
There still remains in the Islands, though it is passing fast away,
the custom of fosterage. A Laird, a man of wealth and eminence,
sends his child, either male or female, to a tacksman, or tenant,
to be fostered. It is not always his own tenant, but some distant
friend that obtains this honour; for an honour such a trust is very
reasonably thought. The terms of fosterage seem to vary in
different islands. In Mull, the father sends with his child a
certain number of cows, to which the same number is added by the
fosterer. The father appropriates a proportionable extent of
ground, without rent, for their pasturage. If every cow brings a
calf, half belongs to the fosterer, and half to the child; but if
there be only one calf between two cows, it is the child's, and
when the child returns to the parent, it is accompanied by all the
cows given, both by the father and by the fosterer, with half of
the increase of the stock by propagation. These beasts are
considered as a portion, and called Macalive cattle, of which the
father has the produce, but is supposed not to have the full
property, but to owe the same number to the child, as a portion to
the daughter, or a stock for the son.
Children continue with the fosterer perhaps six years, and cannot,
where this is the practice, be considered as burdensome. The
fosterer, if he gives four cows, receives likewise four, and has,
while the child continues with him, grass for eight without rent,
with half the calves, and all the milk, for which he pays only four
cows when he dismisses his Dalt, for that is the name for a foster
child.
Fosterage is, I believe, sometimes performed upon more liberal
terms. Our friend, the young Laird of Col, was fostered by
Macsweyn of Grissipol. Macsweyn then lived a tenant to Sir James
Macdonald in the Isle of Sky; and therefore Col, whether he sent
him cattle or not, could grant him no land. The Dalt, however, at
his return, brought back a considerable number of Macalive cattle,
and of the friendship so formed there have been good effects.
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