I mentioned that I had heard Dr. Solander say he was a Swedish Laplander[883].  JOHNSON.  ’Sir, I don’t believe he is a Laplander.  The Laplanders are not much above four feet high.  He is as tall as you; and he has not the copper colour of a Laplander.’  BOSWELL.  ’But what motive could he have to make himself a Laplander?’ JOHNSON.  ’Why, Sir, he must either mean the word Laplander in a very extensive sense, or may mean a voluntary degradation of himself.  “For all my being the great man that you see me now, I was originally a Barbarian;” as if Burke should say, “I came over a wild Irishman.”  Which he might say in his present state of exaltation.’

Having expressed a desire to have an island like Inchkenneth, Dr. Johnson set himself to think what would be necessary for a man in such a situation.  ’Sir, I should build me a fortification, if I came to live here; for, if you have it not, what should hinder a parcel of ruffians to land in the night, and carry off every thing you have in the house, which, in a remote country, would be more valuable than cows and sheep? add to all this the danger of having your throat cut.’  BOSWELL.  ’I would have a large dog.’  JOHNSON.  ’So you may, Sir; but a large dog is of no use but to alarm.’  He, however, I apprehend, thinks too lightly of the power of that animal.  I have heard him say, that he is afraid of no dog.  ’He would take him up by the hinder legs, which would render him quite helpless,—­and then knock his head against a stone, and beat out his brains.’  Topham Beauclerk told me, that at his house in the country, two large ferocious dogs were fighting.  Dr. Johnson looked steadily at them for a little while; and then, as one would separate two little boys, who were foolishly hurting each other, he ran up to them, and cuffed their heads till he drove them asunder[884].  But few men have his intrepidity, Herculean strength, or presence of mind.  Most thieves or robbers would be afraid to encounter a mastiff.

I observed, that, when young Col talked of the lands belonging to his family, he always said, ‘my lands[885].’  For this he had a plausible pretence; for he told me, there has been a custom in this family, that the laird resigns the estate to the eldest son when he comes of age, reserving to himself only a certain life-rent.  He said, it was a voluntary custom; but I think I found an instance in the charter-room, that there was such an obligation in a contract of marriage.  If the custom was voluntary, it was only curious; but if founded on obligation, it might be dangerous; for I have been told, that in Otaheite, whenever a child is born, (a son, I think,) the father loses his right to the estate and honours, and that this unnatural, or rather absurd custom, occasions the murder of many children.