Yet at all these attractions we did not much more than glance, despite the importunities of local guides, who sounded their praises unremittingly. The reason for which we stopped for a day or two in this mountain stronghold was not to study military fortification, or to see the town, which, apart from its summer life, has little allurement for the tourist who values time. We were there to see the Highland games, for this day in August was the date set for “the gathering of the clans” of the shire. They came not for battle as in the old times, but for the Lochaber Highland games, such as the hammer-throwing, putting the stone, pole-vaulting, leaping, and jumping; besides the various Scottish dances, such as prancing and stepping over swords and the Highland fling. Heavy rain came down in the early part of the morning, and during the whole day there was a drizzle, making the air heavy with dampness and the ground meadows miry. We supposed of course that there would be no exhibition. Vain thought! What does a Highlander care about moisture? To him rain is but an old friend, whom he would no more think of speaking against than of reviling his mother. Indeed, it is his native element. So in the afternoon, our lady, donning her mackintosh, which she had just purchased at Oban, and I with umbrella and overcoat splashed over the fields to the hillside and meadows, where thousands of people were gathered together. There may have been other umbrellas in use, but they were not conspicuous, and certainly not numerous. Some of the athletic performances were admirable and the achievements of manly strength were worthy of the applause which they so generously received. Yet an alien, one not of the heather, cannot be rapturous in honest praise of the dances, at least those which were prolonged to the full and apparently appropriate time, and which the spectators seemed greatly to enjoy. It was something, no doubt, to behold an able-bodied man in a dress that quite equalled that of the peacock, jumping about among the crossed lines of naked steel without getting his toes cut off. There was undoubtedly some grace also in the way he curved his arms above his head. Doubtless the very swish of his kilts and the sight of his bare and hairy legs filled some bosoms with emotions of envy, accompanied, as they were, with what seemed blood-curdling cries, the relics of old savagery. Probably my education had been neglected, for I should not wish to attend these exhibitions too frequently, unless paid handsomely for the labor incurred.