Volume II. Guth na Bliadhna ' leabhar II.]

Gr. H]
the oldest scottish ms. SOME NOTES ON THE BOOK OF DEER

Opportunity makes the traveller as well as the thief! What a number of historical places in Ireland have I resolved to visit—and have not visited! I suppose other people make this kind of resolution, and break it just as easily (and frequently) as, alas! I do. When one reads an interesting book—or even a book that is not inter­estingly written—about interesting places, one feels inclined to rise up there and then, and, staff in hand and scrip at side, to go out and set one's pious curiosity at rest. Ireland is peculiarly rich in these places—historic places, I mean—which every Gael ought to visit, though more frequently than not he knoweth them not. I could name, off-hand, at least a score of such places to which I am pledged to go, and to which, I hope, some time or other, I shall indeed travel. Doubtless many of the Gaels of Ireland are of the same mind regarding interesting places in this country. They would like to see Iona, Kintyre (so rich in Celtic remains), Skye, Mull, or some other country in Scotland rendered familiar to them by our common history. It is, surely, sheer laziness which prevents us from carrying out these pious resolutions. The spirit is all agog to go; but the laggard flesh eagerly lays hold on any and every excuse to postpone the useful day. However, these being times in which conditional offers are popular, I herewith and hereby promise to dis­charge all my arrears in the matter of historical pilgrimages to Ireland, provided that there can


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be found a Gael in Erin who is prepared to do the same thing in respect of his projected pilgrim­ages to Alba. I venture to think that if the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland were simultaneously to take to discharging one another's obligations and engagements in this manner and in this respect, it would be an excellent thing for the cause we both have at heart—to say nothing of the railway and steam-boat companies, and the commercial side of our common movement.

There is a place of places to which I would direct the attention and footsteps of the Irish historical pilgrim; and the name which is on it is "Deer," in Aberdeenshire. To Deer came once upon a time my dear little Columba—the saint of saints in the common calendar of the Gaels of Erin and Alba. "Columcille and Drostan, son of Cosgrach, his pupil, came from Hi, as God had shewn to them, unto Aberdour (a small sea-port on the north coast of Buchan), and Bede the Pict was Mormaer (Righ) of Buchan before them; and it is he that bestowed on them that town in free­dom for ever from Mormaer and from Tòisech. They came after that to the other town; and it was pleasing to Columcille, for it was full of the grace of God, and he asked of the Mormaer, viz., Bede, that he should give it him, and he did not give it, and a son of his took illness after the re­fusal of the clerics, and he was dead but a very little. Thereafter, the Mormaer went to entreat of the clerics that they should make prayer by the son that health should come to him. . . . They made the prayer and there came health to him. Thereafter Columcille gave to Drostan that town, and blessed it and left the saying, ' whoever should come against it, let him not be many-yeared, vic­torious'. Drostan's tears (De'ara) came on parting with Columcille. Columcille said, ' Be Dear (dear) its name from henceforth'." So runs the simple story in the famous Book of Deer, the only early Gaelic national MS. which the Gael of Scotland can boast of, owing to the barbarous book-burnings of the unspeakable Lochlannach.

What is called the " Legend of Deer" is re­garded in some quarters rather as a picturesque summary of the views which were popular in Scot­land in the eleventh and twelfth centuries respecting the foundation of the Abbey, than as an historical representation of the actual facts relating to its foundation. It does not appear, according to this view, that St. Drostan, the companion of Columba in the narrative quoted above, was ever connected with that saint; but although the naming of the town from the circumstance of Drostan's tears coming from him on his parting with St. Columba may be regarded as apocryphal, the founding of the monastery by Colum Cille is probably true enough. We know from St. Eunan (Adamnan) that the labours of that Saint were by no means confined to Iona; and that he travelled over a large part of northern Scotland preaching the Holy Scrip­tures, baptising converts, and founding monasteries. St. Drostan was certainly a contemporary of St. Columba; and though the former may not be found actually mentioned in connexion with the latter, there is nothing inherently improbable in the theory that they knew each other, and even laboured to­gether for the salvation of souls. Names do not occur so frequently in those early times, nor are our existing records so numerous and so complete that we can afford to affirm that because individuals who we well know to have been contemporaries

and engaged in similar tasks are not actually as­sociated together in those tasks in the annals that have come down to us, that, therefore, they did not know each other and could not possibly have acted as the writers of a later age, who must necessarily have known more than we know, posi­tively asserted they did indeed act.

The Book of Deer affords us, alas! but little information regarding the daily life of the pious inmates of that ancient monastery; but it is in­tensely interesting to the Scottish Gael for a three­fold reason. In the first place, it is our earliest national MS.; in the second place, it contains the earliest specimens extant of Scots Gaelic; and in the third place, it gives us a glimpse of the social and political conditions under which our far-off-ancestors lived.

The Gaelic of the Book of Deer is written in what is called the Irish character, which, as every one knows, is a modification of the signs of the Latin alphabet. But as this department of my subject belongs strictly to the etymologist, I appre­hend I cannot do better than here quote the opinions of Dr. MacBain of Inverness (author of the standard etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language) as to the etymological character of these Gaelic entries. " The Gaelic of the Book of Deer" says he, "differs in spirit and even in form from the Irish Gaelic of the same period. The two Gaelics—Irish and Scotch—could not have been very different at that time in any case, at least as spoken languages. Irish had been a literary language for some centuries previous to this, and as such we cannot trust that it exactly represents the popular language of the date at which it was written. The Scotch Gaelic, whilst keeping to the general style of spelling and writing which the Irish had, was not weighted by precedent and literary forms of bygone times. It consequently adapted itself to the time and locality in which it was produced. Hence it is that the Gaelic of the Book of Deer, as compared with the Gaelic of Lebor na h-Uidri, the oldest Irish literary MS., composed about 1100, and, therefore, of nearly the same age, has the appearance of a descendant which is two or three centuries later. In fact, the Gaelic is well advanced in what is called ' Middle Irish'. . . . But the most marked Scottish tend­ency is the way in which the n of the preposition 'in' is dealt with. Whilst n disappears in early Irish before s and p, we have in the Book of Deer the thoroughly (Scotch) Gaelic method of keeping it, . . . and certain tendencies are displayed which nowadays characterise Scotch Gaelic only, as com­pared with the Irish; so that we are quite war­ranted in accepting the book as containing genuine Scotch Gaelic of the time." In conclusion of this head it may be observed that Stokes and Windisch are both of opinion that the oldest source extant for Scotch Gaelic is the Book of Deer.

But there is a "human" as well as an anti­quarian and purely etymological interest attaching to the Book of Deer; for in it we are treated to a brief and all too insufficient glimpse of the social and political conditions under which our ancestors lived. Enough is told us, however, to justify the belief that the social and political systems of Ireland and Scotland were in those early days identical. To students of the Gaelic history of both countries this will seem natural enough ; but it is satisfactory, nevertheless, to find our historical beliefs confirmed in so striking and authentic a manner, more especi-

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ally as there have been attempts of late to set aside the lessons of history in favour of the Pictish heresy, whose twofold aim is the minimising of the importance of the Scottish conquest of Alba, and the separation of the Picts from the Gaelic branch of the great Celtic family. The Gaelic entries in the Book of Deer consist, for the most part, of brief records of grants of lands on the part of local rulers. In later times, these formal entries would, doubtless, appear in the familiar form of charters. The names and designations of these benefactors and their witnesses, coupled with the character of the grants themselves, and the manner in which they were made, suffice to import us into an atmosphere which will be familiar to every student of early Irish history. For the information of the Irish reader, I append the translation (Stokes's) of a typical entry in the Book of Deer.

" Gartnait, son of Cannech and Ete, daughter of Gille-Michel gave Pet-mec-Cobrig for the con­secration of a Church of Christ, and Peter (the) Apostle, and to Colum Cille and to Drostan, free from all exactions with the gift of them to Cormac, Bishop of Dunkeld, in the eighth year of David's reign. Testibus istis, Nectan, Bishop of Aberdeen, and Leot, Abbot of Brechin, and Maledonni, son of Mac Bead, and Algune, son of Arcill and Ruadri Mormaer of Mar and Matadin, Judge, and Gille-christ, son of Cormac and Malpeter, son of Domnall, and Domongart, Reader of Turriff, and Gille-colaim, son of Muredach and Dabui, son of Mal-colain."

It will be observed by the reader that most, if not all, of these names are to be encountered in Irish history. Gartnait, Cainnech and Ete are frequently met with in early Irish MSS. The same remark applies to Ruadri and Muredach; whilst such names as Malpeter, Mal-colain Mac-Bead, Maledonni, Gille-Michel, Gille-Colain, etc., are too obviously Gaelic (Irish as well as Scotch) to offer the slightest encouragement to the most reckless " Pict". Moreover, the dignities and offices named are either such as were common to the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland, or such as had their equi­valents on both sides of the water. The " Righ," mentioned in a previous grant, obviously corre­sponds to the Irish Ard-Righ or High-king. The Mormaer is the Scottish equivalent of the familiar Irish provincial Righ or sub-King. The office of Toiseach (Chief)—also mentioned in a previous grant—is, doubtless, the same as the Irish Toiseach. The "Brithem" or Judge was an important Gaelic functionary in both countries ; and the ecclesiastical systems of Alba and Erin being the same, it is not surprising to find mention made in the Book of Deer of the office of " Ferleginn" or ecclesiastical " Reader ".

Moreover, the grants of land are just such as we should expect to find in a Gaelic community, and serve to complete the picture, so far as it goes, from the purely Gaelic point of view. Dr. MacBain has been ready enough to discover traces of " Pictish influence" in the " somewhat bewildering succes­sion of names " in the ^Gaelic entries in the Book of Deer. He says, " Sons do not often succeed fathers, and brothers are preferred to children," i.e., to heirs of dignitaries. "This points to surviving Pictish influence in the succession, where succession was in the female line." But setting aside, for a moment, consideration of the character of this succession, which I by no means admit was " Pictish," or influenced by Pictish customs, it is surely very remarkable that the landed system


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outlined in the grants bears no traces of " Pictish " influence. It is certainly true that we know little or nothing touching that system. Indeed, the Pict in Scottish, as in Irish, history is little more than a name. But one would naturally expect to find some traces of that alleged system surviving in the grants of lands, if traces of such a thing were anywhere to be found. That the landed system outlined by the Book of Beer should be distinctively Gaelic—such as was common at that time to the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland—is a circumstance that cannot be regarded otherwise than as exceed­ingly damaging to the Pictish theory.According to MacBain, Pictish influences are plainly observable in the way in which succession occurs in the Book of Beer. " Sons do not often succeed fathers," and uncles rule in the place of heirs. " The mentioning of the daughter along with her husband as granting lands conjointly, shows the husband's right rested on the female alliance "—a " Pictish " custom. Now, what was Pictish succession? According to tradition—for we have nothing better to guide us—Pictish suc­cession consisted in succession through the female. Marriage was uncertain (at least amongst the Picts, apparently), so to secure succession of blood, they adopted the simple device of limiting it to the female. This custom, assuming that it really ob­tained, shows that the Picts were barbarians; for it discovers plainly that the sanctity of the marriage

iMuch has been made of the supposed Pictish word Pet, meaning a portion of land. In Professor Ehys's recently pub­lished Celtae and Galli he states that the word occurs in the recently found Coligny calendar. The language of this calendar bears strong affinities to ancient Irish—a fact which should surely prove somewhat discouraging to our Pictish protagonists.

tie was not recognised, even supposing that it was understood, by them. What, on the other hand, was Gaelic succession ? Oddly enough, its essential principles could scarcely be better summarised than they are by the very description given by Dr. Mac­Bain of what he believes to be " Pictish succes­sion " ! Sons did not often succeed to fathers, and brothers were preferred to children. I make bold to state that the succession outlined by the Book of Deer is typically Gaelic succession; and that it is as true to affirm that that succession was in­fluenced by the barbarous Pictish custom referred to above, as it would be to maintain that the Koran is a Christian work, because it recognises the ex­istence of the Deity! There are many examples of what is called "alternate succession"—a device much resorted to by the Gaels, whose leading maxim in public affairs was " divided responsibility " —in the Gaelic entries of the Book of Deer, and these examples, taken into consideration with the peculiar Gaelic custom by virtue of which the uncle was frequently, though not necessarily, pre­ferred to the nephew—a custom several instances of which are also recorded in the Book of Deer— renders it certain that the principles of succession therein laid down or rather outlined are not as MacBain and others suppose Pictish principles, or principles emanating from or influenced by Pictish sources, but are indeed what their face-value, as it were, plainly declares them to be, namely, Gaelic principles.

From the circumstance that a Mormaer (Righ) of Buchan became so in right of his wife, and gave grants of lands on that footing, Dr. MacBain argues that here, also, we have an instance of Pictish influence. I beg leave to differ, however. In the long list of more or less suppositious "Pictish" kings given by our historians, the name of no woman occurs; and if no woman was allowed to occupy the Pictish throne, their exclusion from that of the provincial Righ follows almost as a matter of course. Again, if the tradition concern­ing Pictish succession, referred to above, is true, it is obvious that the social and political status of women under the Pictish regime was exceedingly low ; and that such a thing as a woman exercising regal or semi-regal functions amongst these people would not have been tolerated for a moment. On the other hand, we know that the social and politi­cal status of women under the Gaelic system was not at all unfavourable to the sex. Our Gaelic laws expressly sanctioned the holding by a woman of landed property, and of the offices associated with landed property, provided that she could command the following necessary to support her authority in the exercise of those offices. In the case of Maebh, Queen of Connacht, we have a remarkable instance of a woman's being invested with and exercising the princely power, apparently without the slightest opposition on the part of her subjects on the ground of her sex. We know noth­ing, apart from the discreditable tradition above mentioned, of Pictish women, or of the part they played in history; whilst, on the other hand, it would be easy to multiply the names of Gaelic women of noble blood, as of humble parentage, who rose to great eminence under the Gaelic system, and who enjoyed all those prerogatives and privi­leges which it was the aim of the later feudal system to reserve exclusively for men. I contend, therefore, that so far from supporting the Pictish ■case, the entries in the Book of Deer, so far as they concern women, do precisely the reverse; and I feel sure that were he not in a manner pledged to the theory that the Picts, though Celts, were not Gaels, Dr. MacBain would be the first to subscribe to this opinion.

A few words may be written, in conclusion, touching the later history of the famous monastery of Deer. When the monastic system in Scotland everywhere gave place to the parochial, the Abbey passed, with many others, under that dispensation, being refounded in the year 1209 by William Cumyn, Earl of Buchan (the first of that great Anglo-Norman family to hold the ancient Gaelic honour). It preserved its character of a Cistercian monastery until the so-called Reformation, when it fell upon evil days and subsequently, being totally neglected, became a ruin, which it remains to this day ; and so waits the coming of that true Reforma­tion when the Catholic religion will again be .the religion of the entire Scottish nation, and when the Gaelic language will again be the everyday speech of Buchan and the Gaelic plains of Scotland.

F. S. A.
"education" in the west of ireland

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