I '
m
154 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CEAP. V.
Ammianus that in the middle of the fom-th century the Piots were divided into two nations,
the Diealedonians and Vectnriones, and that in aU liJselihood the former were an indigenous and
Cymric-speaking people: if so, the other can only hare been these intrusive Cruithnians from
Ireland, and their name Vecturiones, " which cannot he shown to he other than Latin," must
refer to their transmarine origin and conveyance in ships *. In the Welsh Triads, moreover,
they are spoken of as the Gioydchjl FicliU, the Gaelic Picts or painted Gael, iu Albany f . Their
language can have been no other than Irish, whence it is easy to explain the extensive diffusion of
the Gaelic in Britain,—the Scotch Highlanders, or Albanaich, being thus the lineal descendants
of the Irish Picts, excepting only certain clans descended from the enemies of the latter, the
Scots of Dalriada.
Bede enumerates four languages as spoken in Britain in the eighth century, viz. those of the
Britons, Picts, Scots, and Angles J. It is clear that the Pictish here referred to was distinct
from the Scottish of DaMada, as weU as from the British of Strathclyde. All seem agreed that
it was a Celtic language, but differ as to whether it was a dialect of the Cymric or GaeUc §.
There must at an early period have been two distinct Pictish languages; the one a GaeKc dialect,
spoken by the northern, the other Cymric, by the southern Picts. After the conversion of the
latter by Ninian, early in the fifth century, their language was probably merged in the Strathclyde
British, fi'om which it woiUd scarcely differ, except in its greater freedom from admixtm-e
with Latin. The language enimierated by Bede as Pictish, must have been that of the northern
Picts, whose powerful kings, Bruide and Naiton, are elsewhere named by him ||. If the
historical evidence we have presented be accepted, it can hardly fail to have been a dialect of
Irish, modified by time and by admixture with the Caledonian British. The question, however,
is not imattended by rlifficnity. The Irishman, Columba, by whom the northern Picts were
converted, did not imderstand their language, as spoken by a certain chief in Skye^f, and by a
reign of Severus, A.D. 208. Iu his earlier work (Britannia after
Romans, pp. Ixi, Ixii, 10-11), he admits the statement in the
Brut (Galf. Mon. Ub. T. C. 3), that the settlement of the Picts in
Britain was faToured by Carausius, c. 293 A.D. Altogether it is
¡irobable that the 3rd century was the epoch of a great riigration
of the Gael to North Britain. This (in Ireland) was also the
date of Finn, Oscar, Oisin, and the other heroes and bards of
the Fenian epos. It will not surprise ns that, with the free
communication between the two countries, the legends of these
heroes, who were certainly historical, should be still current in
the Highlands, no less than in the mother country—Ireland :
thev are in fact traditions common to the Gael—the Albaunach
no less than the Eirionnach. Comp. O'Donovan, Trans.
Ossianic Soc. Tol. iv. p. 283. O'Curry, " MS. Materials,"
pp. 296-319. CampbeU," Popular Tales of Highlands," 1860,
p. xxsii-xli. Lord Neaves, " Ossianic Controversy," Arch,
•lourn. Tol. xiv. p. 25.
* Irish Nenn. p. xxxviii. " As opposed to the indigenrB.
' Britanniam qui mortales initio coluerint, indigense an advecti.'
" Tacit. Vit. Agric. c. xi. Fecturion from vectura, as
centurion from centuria. Brit, after Homans, p. Ixi.
t The Welsh Triads (7, 11, 14) distinguish the Gwyddyl
Fichti, with their painted cheeks, from the Gwyddyl Coeh, the
rosy-cheeked Gael, or Dalriads, who did not paint themselves.
:i; Lib. iii. c. 6. He names the written languages of Britain
as five in number—" Anglorum, Brittonum, Scottoram, Pictorum,
et Latinomm," lib. i. c. 1. It is to he observed that he
does not mention iu his enumeration the language of the
Cornish Britons. Those he does name were all current in or
near his own country of Northumbria. Comp. lib. v. c. 23.
§ Since Pinkerton, scarcely any one has maintained the
Teutonic character of the Pictish. Skene and Herbert make
it Gaelic, the former including, contrary to all evidence, the
language of the southern Picts. Gamett (Joe. cit. p. 197)
and Reeves {loe. cit. p. 63) agree in making it " more nearly
allied to the British or "Welsh than the Gaelic;" but the southern
Pictish appears to be that which they chiefly consider.
II Lib. iii. c. 4; V. c. 21. Bruide's fortress was near Inverness.
Adamnan, Vit. Columb. lib. i. c. 33. The stream or
spring in which this chief (Artbranan) was baptized was, in
the seventh century, known as Bohur {Tobar ?) Arthranani.
Both names seem better explained from the Gaelic than the
Cymric. (Reeves, St. Columb. pp. 62-3. Skene, p. 71.
Zeuss, pp. 156, 281.) In Cormac's Glossary (9th or 10th
century), is a single Pictish word, clearly Gaelic. This is
Cartit or Cartait, a brooch or pin, which Cormac derives from
the Irish cm-tar (cuir or car, to fix or put). See Cormac, «. v.
Another word recorded as Pictish, ScoUofthes, signifying
scholars (" clerici qui Pictorura lingua cognominantur "), was
current in Galloway (Kirkcudbright) in the 12th century (Reg.
Dun. Virt. Cuthbert. Surtees. Soc. c. Ixxxv. Misc. Spald.
Club. vol. V. p. 56 : Scofoc= scholar). This word seems
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OE BRITAIN. 155
plebeian family near Loch Ness, both of whom he addi-essed through an interpreter; but there
is no record of his requiring such aid in conversing with the king, Bruide, or the Druid,
Broichan, who may have used a purer Gaelic All admit that some of the names of the Pictish
kings, as Cinedh and DomnaU, are Gaelic ; but some regard the entii-e list as more nearly related
to a British dialect. This, however, was not the opinion of Herbert, who, after a full examination
of their names, concludes that those who bore them must have been a GaeUc peoplet-
Here the writer concludes his sketch of the Historical Ethnology of the British Islands,
as regards the Celtic period. This division of British ethnology has not, hitherto, been
treated of in its combined historical, antiquarian, and phUological aspects; and it is hoped that
this chapter may in some measure supply the deficiency. English writers have too commonly
ignored or neglected the Celtic elements of our history, forgetting to how great an extent, even
i^ England itself, these enter into our institutions, speech, and lineage, and that, in each division
of the United Kingdom, the Celtic-speaking populations are stDl to be counted by myriads. It
has been well said that a great nation was never formed but by the union of different peoples;
and it would iU become the representatives of the Saxon to disparage the part played by the
Celt in the constitution of their common country.
equally explicable from the Gaelic affoil, and from the British
ysffol, a school; but perhaps is directly derived from the former.
Galloway was for several centuries known as Terra Fictorum ;
but whether these Picts were a remnant of the old Caledonians,
or were Gaelic Picts (Cruithne) from the Highlands or from
Ireland, who migrated thither in the 9th century, is by no
means certain. (Comp. Chalmers, vol. i. p. 357. J. H. Hinde,
Hist. Northnmb. [Hodgson] 1858, pp. 107-8; Trans. Hist.
Soc. Lanes, and Chesh. vol. viii. 1855, p. I. Beddoe, Proc. Soc.
Ant. Scot. vol. i. pp. 247, 253.) The name of GaUoway is
sometimes traced to the word Gaidheal, sometimes to Gall,
a stranger, both Irish. The last trace of the Picts, as the name
(J. T.)
of an actual people, is in Galloway. The Galwegians in the savage
army of David, at the battle of the Standard, are called Picts
by John of Hexham;—" Picti qui vulgo Galweienses dicuntur."
(Palgrave, Commonwealth, p. 418. See also Florence,
and Henry of Huntmgdon, A.D. 1138.)
* Vit. Columb. lib. ii. c. 32-35 ; lib. iii. c. 14 ; with Dr.
Reeves's notes.
t Camb. Evers. vol. ii. p. 91. Garnett, loe. cit. p. 197.
Irish Nenn. pp. xxxix-xh, xlv. This essay on the Picts, by
Herbert, though defective in method, is remarkable for Icarnmg
and acuteness. It is free from the wild theories found in the
other works of this learned writer.