Sinopsis

O the make of a piper go seven years of his own learning and seven generations before. If it is in, it will out, as the Gaelic old-word says; if not, let him take to the net or sword. At the end of his seven years one born to it wiU stand at the start of knowledge, and leaning a fond ear to the drone, he may have parley with old folks of old affairs. Playing the tune of the **Fairy Harp," he can hear his forefolks, plaided in skins, towsy-headed and terrible, grunting at the oars and snoring in the i The Lost Pibroch. caves; he has his whittle and club in the ** Desperate Battle " (my own tune, my dar- ling!), where the white-haired sea-rovers are on the shore, and a stain*s on the edge ot the tide; or, trying his art on Laments, he can stand by the cairn of kings, ken the colour of Fingal's hair, and see the moon- glint on the hook of the Druids ! To-day there are but three pipers in the wide world, from the Sound of Sleat to the Wall of . Who they are, and what their tartan, it is not for one to tell who has no heed for a thousand dirks in his doublet, but they may te known by the lucky ones wh...