The _Highlanders_, who inhabit the West part of the Country, in their Language Habit and Manners agree much with the Customs of the Wild _Irish_, and their chief City is _Elgin_, in the County of _Murray_, seated upon the Water of _Lossy_, formerly the Bishop of _Murray’s_ Seat, with a Church sumptuously built, but now gone to decay. They go habited in Mantles striped, or streaked with divers colours about their Shoulders, which they call _Plodden_, with a Coat girt close to their Bodies, and commonly are naked upon their Legs, but wear Sandals upon the Soles of their Feet, and their Women go clad much after the same Fashion: They get their Living mostly by Hunting, Fishing, and Fowling; and when they go to War, the Armour wherewith they cover their Bodies, is a Morion or Bonnet of Iron, and an Habergeon, which comes down almost to their very Heels; their Weapons against their Enemies are Bows and Arrows, and they are generally reputed good Marks-Men upon all occasions; their Arrows for the most part are barbed or crooked, which once entred within the Body cannot well be drawn out again, unless the Wound be made wider; some of them fight with broad Swords and Axes, and in the room of a Drum make use of a Bag-pipe. They delight much in Musick, but chiefly in Harps and Clarishoes of their own Fashion, the strings of which are made of Brass-Wire, and the strings of their Harps with Sinews, which strings they strike either with their Nails growing long, or else with an Instrument appointed for that use.[42] Thomas Kirk, of Cookridge, Yorkshire, who made an extensive tour in Scotland in 1677, kept a journal of his observations, and, thanks to his minute description, it becomes possible to demonstrate that the story of the modern invention of the feilebeg or kilt as a separate article of dress is a fabrication. For not only does he describe the kilt precisely, but he notes with great exactness the manner of wearing the plaid, which corresponds in every particular with its use at the present time. Writing at Inverness, he says:—