In days gone by our forefathers were called the Celts. The Celtic folk followed no leader yet conquered the continent called in these times Europe. There they ruled and raised their children near a thousand years. They hung the heads of their enemies from the manes of their horses.
When the Romans came the Celts were driven back to the isles in the West. Tales are still told of the blood the Romans spilled when their Caesar faced the Celt ‘Vercingetorix’ and was almost felled by his hand. Still the Roman tide came and drove the people back. Aye, but they charged the Caesar for every inch in Roman blood! When the cost became too great and the Romans grew weary of the fight, they built there their wee wall still called Hadrians.
Those what wore the kilt remained undefeated in their Highland homeland! O’er time they became one people with the naked, wild, blue-faced Picts who had also spilled the blood of the Romans. For near a thousand years there they grew and raised their children a law and a people unto themselves.
From the East again came another people with eyes to conquer…the Normans with their fleur-de-lis. These too could not conquer those what wear the kilt! With a respect earned the Normans blended their strength with those Celtic folk. The two became one people. The Fleur-de-lis still frames the flag and Lion Rampant of that people. Celts from the Emerald Isle in the West poured into the Highlands in the North to settle among their kinsmen. What had been called ‘Caledonia’ became the Land of the Scots!
The Scots remained undefeated by enemies without. In time the Anglos of the flatland in the South put their boots on the neck of the Scots folk. But it was not by a stand up fight that that sorry state of affairs came to be. Aye, it was the treachery of our own lairds who knew naught but greed for Anglish gold! In those times the noble kilt was banned on pain of death! So too the highland pipes that had struck fear in the hearts of their enemies for a thousand years!
The Laird of the Heavens out of His favor for the Scots folk sent them Wallace and the Bruce for their deliverance. With kilts about their knees and the sound of the War Pipes in their ears they threw out those treacherous lairds and the filthy Anglish that murdered Scotland’s sons and raped her daughters for nigh a hundred years!
In time peace was struck with the Anglish and the Scots grew to be respected as warriors and scholars among their former enemies. Together they built the greatest empire in the history of the world and showed many an enemy the gates of hell!
The sight of the kilt and the sound of the Highland pipes became known in every corner of the world. In the Great War called the First that near consumed the whole world the Scots faced an old foe on the continent. The Teutonic peoples, in these times called German, were an ancient enemy of the Celts. When the Scots faced them on the field of battle dressed in kilts and led once more by the War Pipes that had taken so many a Scot home, they struck fear in the hearts of the German folk. The pipes sounded in their Teutonic bones of their ancient enemy! So great was that fear that they called the Scots the ‘Ladies from Hell’ with a respect earned for the kilts about their knees!
What this story would have you to remember is that those folk, the Scots, have been cast down but Never defeated!! So when you gather around the hearth or camp fire raise a pint or a dram o Scotch and say ye a toast to the Celts! Bring to mind Hadrian’s wall and those that bled with Wallace and the Bruce…Remember ye the Ladies from Hell and their noble kilts! And when you tell their tales give ’em the respect they’re due!
Terrell Perkins of the Clan Gunn (Aut Pax, Aut Bellum!)
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