ich had then for at least
a century superseded the Pictish tongue. The result was a mixed race
of Gall-gaels or Gaelic strangers, far more Celtic than Norse, who
soon spoke chiefly Gaelic, save in north-east Ness. Their Gaelic, too,
like the English of Shetland at the present time, would not only be
full of old Norse words, especially for things relating to the sea,
but be spoken with a slight foreign accent. How numerous those foreign
words still are in Sutherland Gaelic, the late Mr. George Henderson
has ably and elaborately proved in his scholarly book on "Norse
Influence on Celtic Scotland." We find traces of Norse words and the
Norse accent and inflexions also on the Moray seaboard, on which
the Norse gained a hold. The same would be true of the people on the
western lands and islands of the Hebrides.

As time went on, the Gaelic strain predominated more and more,
especially on the mainland of Scotland, over the Gall, or foreign,
strain, which was not maintained. Mr. A.W. Johnston, in his "_Orkney
and Shetland Folk--850 to 1350_,"[14] has worked out the quarterings
of the Norse jarls, of whom only the first three were pure Norsemen,
and he has thus shown conclusively how very Celtic they had become
long before their male line failed. The same process was at work,
probably to a greater extent, among those of lower rank, who could
not find or import Norse wives, if they would, as the jarls frequently
did.

One or two other introductory points remain to be noted and borne in
mind throughout.

We must beware of thinking that all the land in an earldom such as Cat
was the absolute property of the chief, as in the nineteenth century,
or the latter half of it, was practically true in the modern county
of Sutherland. The fact was very much otherwise. The Maormor and
afterwards the earl doubtless had demesne lands, but he was in early
times, _ex officio_, mainly a superior and receiver of dues for his
king;[15] and this possibly shows why very early Scottish earldoms, as
for instance that of Sutherland, in the absence of male heirs, often
descended to females, unless the grant or custom excluded them. It
was quite different with later feudal baronies or tenancies, where
military service, which only males could render, was due, and which
with rare exceptions it was, after about 1130, the policy of the
Scottish kings to create; and in the case of baronies or lordships the
land itself was often described and given to the g