I wanted to tell everyone about a wonderful and enlightening story I just received from one of our listeners.
Not sure if many of you have noticed any of the Afghan children, men who appear to have red hair and blue eyes! When I first saw some of these people, particular the children, I was struck by certain features that reminded me very much of Scots/Irish descendents.
Well, as it turns out, a number of Afghans are descedents from a group of Macrae's that were disbanded in India after a mutiny! Seems a good number of these Scots took up residence in the Highlands of Afghanistan, feeling very much at home with the Clan way of life! This all occurred in the 1770's. A number of these mutineers even walked all the way back to France, crossed the english channel, then walked home to Kintailm Scotland. Amazing story!
I am going to ask this listener if we can post the whole account in its entirity here on the message board!
I hope this listener will let you post the whole stroy it sounds very interesting. Looking forward to reading it if they do.
--------------------
"They That Wait Upon The LORD, Shall Renew Their Strength, They Shall Mount Up With Wings As Eagels, They Shall Run, And Not Be Werry; They Shall Walk, And Not Faint." ISAIAH 40:31
From the history of the Vikings it is known that during the time of their raids they even reached faraway places in what is Russia today. It is fact that they even travelled on the river Volga and and also reached the place which is the city of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea today. If you look on the map you will see that, having come that far, it won't be too difficult to reach Afghanistan from there. Between the shores of the Caspian See and Afghanistan is only the area left which we know as Turkmenistan today.
I won't challenge the theory about the Macrae's, but isn't it worth a thought that also the Vikings might have left their genes down there?
Well, the information comes to me through the email, however, the credibility of the writer I hold in the highest regard. I did try to do some research on the internet and came up with nothing about this Macrae story. So, in respect to historical accuracy – I can not verify it. Your theory is just as plausable. The Vikings had an amazing culture and family system. They also were very good at over running and looting various villages that they came across during their travels. I would definitely agree with you that it is just as likely that they could be descendents of Vikings. In any event, it does make one wonder.
After consulting with the source of my information, he agreed to release the contents of his research on this topic. Here it is!
Regarding the Celtic diaspora - during the Afghanistan fighting, on TV I've been noticing the odd Afghan child with red hair and blue eyes. (The adult redheads are harder to pick out because they all wear turbans or head scarves.)
These red-haired kids are very likely descended from a group of MacRaes from Kintail who staged a small mutiny against the British Army in the 1770s, when they occupied Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh until promises made to them about overseas service were kept.
Finally they ended up in India and did a tour of duty. However, when their tour came to an end, a senior officer decided to punish them for the original mutiny, and they were discharged locally, without pay, weapons or a ship to take them home to Scotland.
One of their sergeants, Christopher MacRae, organized them into a group and they set off to walk back home.
In Afghanistan, it is believed that they ran into trouble with the Pashtoon/Pathan tribe, the group which provided today's Taliban. By this time they had acquired weapons from somewhere and - being Highlanders (he said with arrogant pride! - they beat the crap out of the Afghans.
A local warlord offered to hire them as his bodyguard and it is believed that most of them took up the offer. As Highlanders and Afghans must have been remarkably similar culturally, being mountain warriors organized in clans, etc. as happened in North America with the native Americans, the Highlanders who stayed must have felt comfortable joining a tribal society which was so like their own.
(Many North American Indians have Highland ancestors, and even today several tribes have chiefs who proudly point to their Highland ancestry, in particular the Cherokee - their chiefs are descended from John Ross of Wester Ross - and the Creek Indians of Georgia - Dode MacIntosh, their most famous chief who died a few years ago was a distant cousin of Macintosh of Moy Hall, chief of Clan Chattan and visited Moy with his daughter, where The Macintosh welcomed them as family.
I personally have Indian friends whose hair is red and whose ancestors included Highlanders. I have also met an Apache family whose little daughter was so Scottish-looking that I initially thought she had been adopted. A Highland great-great-grandfather - she had blue eyes, red hair, apple cheeks and a pale skin, lighter than mine - both her parents looked like Geronimo! Talk about a throwback!
Sgt. MacRae led the rest of his men across Iran and Turkey towards Europe. They were involved in several local wars on their way and distinguished themselves with honour, being still remembered in local tales, I am told. (Who could forget warriors dressed in kilts!
Finally they reached Europe and when they got to the English Channel, Sgt. MacRae managed to persuade a ship to transport them free to Dover. From there they walked across Britain, back to Kintail. What is additionally astonishing about this is that the only language they knew was Gaelic, yet they managed to feed themselves and look after themselves through a dozen countries.
The entire journey took them about two years and they covered approximately 10,000 miles. The only record left today, apart from fragments of stories about it, is a poem which Sgt. MacRae wrote to commemorate what has to be one of the great epic stories of the Highland warrior!
It's a great story, isn't it? I related this to a policewoman in Washington State, a MacRae, whom I met when she gave me a ticket for speeding and I saw her name on the ticket and got talking to her. She stood by my car listening, and when I finished, she was in tears! She cancelled the ticket; we've been friends ever since, and in fact I just got an email from her about 20 minutes ago!
Another man once wrote to me about the MacRaes' adventure and here's his version:
-------------------------------------------------------------- My father took a Company of Royal Scots Fusiliers into the mountains/Highlands of Afghanistan in the 1920's. He said often in the remotest of places one would come across tribesmen with red beards and blue eyes of a distinctly Scottish appearance (but no tartan). Not sure what they were shouting to his men, could have been "Daddy, Daddy"!
This could be one explanation of what happened to Seaforth's 78th Highlanders and the Macraes, MacKenzie's (of Kintail of the Cows) Coat of Shining mail, his personal bodyguard. Abandoned in India, ten thousand miles from home, (after six years service) at the behest of Lord Amherst and James Oughton in punishment for the Edinburgh mutiny 1778, having been promised disbandment in Ross-shire.
To quote Sgt Christopher Macrae:
When we got the order from the Consul we were not pleased. Our discharge put in our hands, free to go where we wished but without a bounty. And told everywhere that there was no ship, no boat nor sail.
It could well be that on the way home they fetched up the Highlands of Afghanistan, because hardly any got back to the Scottish Highlands and Loch Duich, barring Sgt Chris Macrae and those few who marched with him.
Sgt Christopher Macrae's regiment was disbanded in India, he brought the remainder home. More than 10000 miles by sea and land, without money and speaking only Gaelic. This poem was his only complaint.
'S truagh nach robh mi cho aotrom ris an t-seabhaig theid caol anns á speur...
It is a pity that I am not as light as the hawk, slim flying in the sky. I would take the desert road and I would not rest in the tree-tops. In spite of the violence of Turkey I would pass it by like a lark in the sun. And I would make a complaint in London that would bring us all home. --------------------------------------------------------------
I love this story! The fact that it is a true story makes it even better !!!!
I guess someone should tell this tale to CNN and set them straight - they were reporting that the red hair was an indication of "malnutrition!" The reporter was at an aid station of Afghan refugees several weeks ago, and some children were there - yes they were clearly malnourished - but the reporter pointed to their "normally black hair, which was now turned red" as a symptom of severe malnutrition.
Just tell them that is the result of the MacRae Mutiny!
This is quite a bit delayed from the last posting in this group, but it reminded me of what I saw on the Discovery channel several months ago. Archeologists were digging up the silk road to China because they believed they could find European artifacts buried. Not only did they find European artifacts, they found mummies! When they pulled out these mummies, they were dated several thousands of years old. These were not the typically thought travelers of the silk road, but were in excess of 6 feet tall, reminents of red hair still clung to their arms and head. The type of burial these mummies had were in stone santuaries below the desert. because the weather is so dry, that is why they preserved so well. They traced these mummies back to the Vikings AND the Celts.. notably Scottish travelers. The one particular grave they found they learned were actually living in the desert. They were outcasts of the culture they were so trying to be a part of. No one is sure if that was due to theft, or just because they were so much taller than the eastern Asian culture. The bodies they found were of the oldest in the world. Which, this of course, they had to go and rethink the ways of the Viking tavels and Celt travels throughout the world. The one that in particular interested me was the blonde woman that stood almost 6 feet tall. She was in a grave of all taller men with red hair.
--------------------
Dance Life to the Fullest.
0 User(s) are reading this topic (0 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)