The Highlands of Scotland is the only country of Europe that has never been distracted by religious controversy, or suffered from religious persecution. This possibly may have been due to their patriarchal form of government. The principles of the Christian religion were warmly accepted by the people, and cherished with a strong feeling. In their religious convictions they were peaceable and unobtrusive, never arming themselves with Scriptural texts in order to carry on offensive operations. Never being perplexed by doubt, they desired no one to corroborate their faith, and no inducement could persuade them to strut about in the garb of piety in order to attract respect. The reverence for the Creator was in the heart, rather than upon the lips. In that land papists and protestants lived together in charity and brotherhood, earnest and devoted in their churches, and in contact with the world, humane and charitable. The pulpit administrations were clear and simple, and blended with an impressive and captivating spirit. All ranks were influenced by the belief that cruelty, oppression, or other misconduct, descended to the children, even to the third and fourth generations. To a certain extent the religion of the Highlander was blended with a belief in ghosts, dreams and visions. The superstitions of the Gael were distinctly marked, and entirely too important to be overlooked. These beliefs may have been largely due to an uncultivated imagination and the narrow sphere in which he moved. His tales were adorned with the miraculous and his poetry contained as many shadowy as substantial personages. Innumerable were the stories of fairies, kelpies, urisks, witches and prophets or seers. Over him watched the Daoine Shi', or men of peace. In the glens and corries were heard the eerie sounds during the watches of the night. Strange emotions were aroused in the hearts of those who heard the raging of the tempest, the roaring of the swollen rivers and dashing of the water-fall, the thunder peals echoing from crag to crag, and the lightning rending rocks and shivering to pieces the trees. When a reasonable cause could not be assigned for a calamity it was ascribed to the operations of evil spirits. The evil one had power to make compacts, but against these was the virtue of the charmed circle. One of the most dangerous and malignant of beings was the Water-kelpie, which allured women and children into its element, where they were drowned, and then became its prey. It could skim along the surface of the water, and browse by its side, or even suddenly swell a river or loch, which it inhabited, until an unwary traveller might be engulfed. The Urisks were half-men, half-spirits, who, by kind treatment, could be induced to do a good turn, even to the drudgeries of a farm. Although scattered over the whole Highlands, they assembled in the celebrated cave--_Coire-nan-Uriskin_--situated near the base of Ben Venue, in Aberfoyle. [Illustration: COIRE-NAN-URISKIN.]