Having,
however, quoted Skene's earlier views on the general claim by
the Highland chiefs for alien progenitors it may be well to give
here his more mature conclusions from his later and greater work,
especially as some people, who have not taken the trouble to read
what he writes, have been saying that the great Celtic historian
had seen cause to change his views on these important points in
Highland genealogy since he wrote his 'Highlands and Highlanders'
in 1839. After examining them all very closely and exhaustively
in a long and learned chapter of some forty pages, he says -
"The conclusion, then, to which this analysis of the clan pedigrees
which have been popularly accepted at different times has brought
us, is that, so far as they profess to show the origin of the
different clans, they are entirely artificial and untrustworthy,
but that the older genealogies may be accepted as showing the descent
of the clan from its eponymus or founder, and within reasonable
limits for some generations beyond him, while the later spurious
pedigrees must be rejected altogether. It may seem surprising that
such spurious and fabulous origins should be so readily credited
by the clan families as genuine traditions, and receive such prompt
acceptance as the true fount from which they sprung; but we must
recollect that the fabulous history of Hector Boece was as rapidly
and universally adopted as the genuine annals of the national
history, and became rooted in those parts of the country to
which its fictitious events related as local traditions.
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