s, all splashed with brine, contains very few figures of speech: it
is a poem, but not markedly poetical; it is solid and impressive, but
not beautiful. Now, no one can read Celtic poetry, even in translation,
without being powerfully struck by its refined beauty and mystic
romance. The metaphors and similes are somewhat too abundant. The
typical Anglo-Saxon has a firm grip of the world, but is not poetical
enough; the Celt, on the other hand, is probably too much of a dreamer
and a poet--he sits on the hill-side (forgetting sometimes to till it)
and muses on fairies, second-sight, and enchantments. St. Paul used the
right word in speaking to the old world Gaels, _i.e._, Galatians: "O
foolish Galatians, who hath _bewitched_ you?" ([Greek: tis humas
ebaskane?])

Combine these two races in the right proportion, and you get an
admirable blend. It is not for me to say where the just man made perfect
is to be found, the man in whom the elements--practical and
poetical--are mixed in such exquisite proportion, that Nature might
stand up and say, "_There is a man_." What is certain, is that there is
a very pronounced strain of Celtic blood coursing through the veins of
the average Scotch Lowlander. Few Scots have to rummage far among their
ancestry before they find a piece of tartan: such mixture of genealogy
probably accounts for much that is best in their composition.

The supposition that the Scotch race-combination is Celt and Saxon, and
only that, is of course erroneous. There is a very marked Scandinavian
element both in the east and the west of the country. In the year 1600
A.D., the Norse tongue was spoken all over the Long Island from the Butt
of Lewis to Barra. Certainly, in Lewis and Skye, an enormous number of
the place-names are Scandinavian, and date from a time when the
sea-kings had dominion over the islands of the West. Many fascinating
problems of ethnology continue to occupy the attention of investigators,
and are not likely to be settled for a long time to come. One thing is
abundantly clear, viz., that purity of race and speech does not exist in
any county of Scotland: everywhere there is a mixture of blood and
language.[16]

[16] Mr. Tocher, a Peterhead gentleman, has adopted a special
line of investigation. He has sent out schedules to every school
in Scotland asking for detailed information as to the colour of
the eyes and hair of the boys and girls. His desire is to
connect _pigme