1884-85.] EdinburgJi Naturalists' Field Club. 231 



race, the exact number of years between events, or similar things, 

 they may well be donbted ; and it is only when we have evidence 

 of a confirmatory nature to bring to bear from independent sources, 

 that we should be prepared to accept their assertions. 



It is somewhat remarkable that the extraordinary story told us 

 of the Hebrideans by Solinus is so far borne out by an equally 

 reliable author, Julius Caesar, who ascribes to the inhabitants of 

 the interior of Britain the same habits and customs as Solinus, 

 living some three centuries later, does to the inhabitants of the 

 Hebrides. These primitive people, driven westwards, would most 

 probably, three hundred years after Cesar's time, be found only in 

 those remote parts of Britain to which they had retired. And the 

 legends told us by the Irish authority lead us to suppose they may 

 be one of those tribes who came, as stated, from the east, or, in 

 other words, Britain, to Ireland, and thence withdrew to the Western 

 Isles of Scotland. That they were the Firbolg, the first-mentioned 

 of these immigrations to the Innisgall, is not probable, as the race 

 mentioned by Solinus had cattle ; and we have already given our 

 reasons for believing that the people who lived on Caisteal-nan- 

 Gillean had none — if we except sheep during the later period of 

 its occupation. We are therefore led to the conclusion that this 

 tribe succeeded the Firbolg, and that most probably they were 

 the Cruithnigh or Picts, who are known to have had some remark- 

 able customs regarding succession to the throne. From some 

 recent discoveries we have made, which have led to the identifica- 

 tion of one or more places in Colonsay mentioned in connection 

 with important events in Pictish history, we believe there is now 

 no doubt that Colonsay and Oronsay were at one time occupied 

 by this people. 



The learned Historiographer -Royal for Scotland says: "The 

 Celtic race in Britain and Ireland was preceded by a people of an 

 Iberian type, small, dark-skinned, and curly-haired. They are the 

 people of the long-headed skulls, and their representatives in Britain 

 were the tin-workers of Cornwall and the Scilly Islands, who traded 

 with Spain ; the tribe of the Silures in South Wales ; and in the 

 legendary history of Ireland, the people called the Firbolg. The 

 Celtic race followed them in Britain and in Ireland." ^ 



The same writer also says : " The names Firbolg and Firdomnan 

 harmonise very singularly with the legendary accounts of the tin- 

 workers of Cornwall and the Tin Islands. It is not difficult to re- 

 cognise in the tradition that the Firbolg derived their name from 

 the leathern sacks which they filled Avith soil, and with which they 

 covered their boats, and in the Firdomnan from the pits they dug, 

 the people who worked the tin by digging in the soil and trans- 

 porting it in bags in their hide-covered boats." ^ As we are not 

 1 Skene's ' Celtic Scotland,' vol. i. p. 226. ^ ibjj^ p_ 177^ 



