How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
This I found to be another catechist, but of a different order from the blind man of Mull: being indeed one of those sent out by the Edinburgh Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, to evangelise the more savage places of the Highlands. His name was Henderland; he spoke with the broad south-country tongue, which I was beginning to weary for the sound of. (16.17)
As a Lowland boy, no matter how attractive Davie finds certain parts of the Highlands (the Heugh of Corrynakiegh springs to mind), he'll always think of the south as home. In this case, the south is embodied in a person, an Anglican missionary who speaks with a "broad south-country tongue." But this makes us wonder: does Davie's preference for the lush countryside of the south bias his observations of the Highlands?
Quote #5
This frightened me a little, I confess, and would have frightened me more if I had known how nearly exact were Alan's predictions; indeed it was but in one point that he exaggerated, there being but eleven Campbells on the jury; though as the other four were equally in the Duke's dependence, it mattered less than might appear. Still, I cried out that he was unjust to the Duke of Argyle, who (for all he was a Whig) was yet a wise and honest nobleman.
"Hoot!" said Alan, "the man's a Whig, nae doubt; but I would never deny he was a good chieftain to his clan. And what would the clan think if there was a Campbell shot, and naebody hanged, and their own chief the Justice General? But I have often observed," says Alan, "that you Low-country bodies have no clear idea of what's right and wrong." (18.35-36)
This passage represents a nice comparison between the Lowland and Highland legal systems. Davie initially assumes that if he and Alan appear in front of a jury, they'll be acquitted of the murder of Colin Roy (since they are, in fact, innocent). Alan points out that this is the Highlands – it doesn't work that way. If the Duke of Argyle (the head of the Campbell clan) can't get a conviction for the murder of his kinsman in his own court, well, "what would the clan think?" Highland justice appears to be more about family loyalty than truth.
Quote #6
Then I saw why we had come there; for the two rocks, being both somewhat hollow on the top and sloping one to the other, made a kind of dish or saucer, where as many as three or four men might have lain hidden. (20.9-10)
Beginning with Davie's marooning in Earraid and continuing through Alan and Davie's stay at the Heugh of Corrynakiegh, we often get images of the Highlands like this one, in which the apparently barren countryside is full of nooks and crannies for men to hide in. The land itself has a secret geography, much as the people are being forced to hide their clan affiliations by English law. But there appears to be a stubbornness to both the land and the clans that continues to shelter Highland culture against the edicts of the English state.