RAN'NOOR, Moon AND Locn. The moor, in the n.w. extremity of Perthshire, with a mean elevation of about 1000 ft. above sea-level, is a wild waste, 28 m. long, and 10 In. broad, and is one of the largest and most desolate and dreary moors in Scotland. Its surface is for the most part a broad, silent, and featureless tract of bog, heath, and rock, girdled by distant and gloomy mountains. In its western part is loch Lydoch, which winds amid flat and dismal scenery. Stretching eastward from the moor is loch Hall 'loch, about 9 m. long by from 1 to 2 m. broad. It is surrounded by mountains, contains two islands, and is drained of its surplus waters by the 'Pummel, a tributary of the Tay.
RANSOM—corrupted from the Latin redemptio—is the price paid by a prisoner-of war, or paid on his behalf, in consideration of his being granted liberty to return to his own country. In early times, when armies received little or no regular pay, the soldier looked for his reward in the booty he might capture, and this booty included the bodies as well as the chattels of the vanquished. The-conqueror had the option of his prisoner; but for his profit, he would make him his slave, or sell him into slavery. slaying
transition would be natural to accepting compensation from the prisoner himself, and setting him at liberty. In feudal warfare, the ransoms formed a large portion of a soldier's gains; those for persons of belonging to the individual captors; but those for princes or great nobles, to"the king. Ransoms were sometimes of large amount, more than the immediate filthily of the captive could pay. His retainers were then required by feudal usage to contribute; as in the case of redeeming king Richard I. for £100,000, when twenty shillings was assessed on every knight's fee, and the clergy subscribed liberally. David Bruce of Scotland was ransomed knight's 100,000 marks, and king John of France for £500,000, payable in installments.—In modern warfare, where the is performed by professional soldiers, pecuniary ransoms are scarcely ever resorted to, freedom being granted to prisoners in exchange for others of corresponding rank captured on the opposite side.