[132] “_Toisich_,” says Dr Macpherson, “was another title of honour which obtained among the Scots of the middle ages. Spelman imagined that this dignity was the same with that of Thane. But the Highlanders, among whose predecessors the word was once common, distinguished carefully in their language the _toisich_ from the _tanistair_ or the _tierna_. When they enumerate the different classes of their great men, agreeably to the language of former times, they make use of these three titles, in the same sentence, with a disjunctive particle between them.” “In Gaelic,” he adds, “_tus_, _tos_, and _tosich_ signify the _beginning_ or _first part_ of anything, and sometimes the _front_ of an army or battle.” Hence perhaps the name _toisich_, implying the post of honour which the oldest cadet always occupied as his peculiar privilege and distinction. Mr Robertson, however, thinks _toshach_ is derived from the same root as the Latin _dux_. (_Early Kings_, i. 26.) [133] Skene’s _Highlanders_, vol. ii. pp. 177, 178. That the captains of clans were originally the oldest cadets, is placed beyond all doubt by an instance which Mr Skene has mentioned in the part of his work here referred to. “The title of captain occurs but once in the family of the Macdonalds of Slate, and the single occurrence of this peculiar title is when the clan Houston was led by the uncle of their chief, then in minority. In 1545, we find Archibald Maconnill, captain of the clan Houston; and thus, on the only occasion when this clan followed as a chief a person who had not the right of blood to that station, he styles himself captain of the clan.” [134] Logan’s _Gael_, i. 173. [135] “All who are acquainted with the events of the unhappy insurrection of 1745, must have heard of a gentleman of the name of M’Kenzie, who had so remarkable a resemblance to Prince Charles Stuart, as to give rise to the mistake to which he cheerfully sacrificed his life, continuing the heroic deception to the last, and exclaiming with his expiring breath, ‘Villains, you have killed your Prince.’” (Stewart’s _Sketches_, &c., vol. i. p. 59). CHAPTER II.