66 A Pict's House. 



thrown outwards, which he conjectures, rightly I think, to have 

 been the sites of the huts of the people on the surface of the 

 ground, while the underground places were the refuges to which 

 they retreated in times of danger, or when circumstances were 

 such as to render such protection or shelter necessary or desirable. 

 Dr Anderson follows up this instance by saying that it would not 

 be difficult to find in other parts of Scotland, and especially in 

 Aberdeenshire, groups of similar structures, which, though not 

 so numerous or so closely aggregated, are so distributed over wide 

 districts as to show that the custom of constructing them was 

 general and prevalent. Most of the known ones have been dis- 

 covered accidentally by the plough striking one of the large 

 stones which form the roof. And from this I think it may 

 reasonably be inferred that many more exist, especially in the 

 north-eastern districts, which have never been brought to light. 

 But enough has been discovered to give us an interesting glimpse 

 into the customs and habits of our remote ancestors in the Scot- 

 land of Pagan times, which I thought it was not inappropriate to 

 bring under the notice of such a society as ours. 



Another example of the name given by the Romans having 

 become the recognised name not of a people but of a place or 

 places, quite diSerent from the names used by the original 

 inhabitants, is to be found in the name of the site of a great 

 battle fought by the Romans against the Picts and Caledonians, 

 who combined to resist the Roman invasion of their territory in 

 the time of Agricola. In the Agricola of Tacitus, this battle is 

 said to have been fought ad Montem Granipium. But no such 

 name seems to have been known to the natives. The mountain 

 range, which forms the backbone, as it were, of Scotland, was 

 known in its western part as Drumalbin, and that portion of it 

 which stretches in a north-easterly direction towards Aberdeen- 

 shire was known as the Mont or Mount. And it was only after 

 the revival of classical learning that the name of the Grampians 

 began to be given to it on the authority, it is supposed, of 

 Tacitus. And curiously enough a German scholar of compara- 

 tively recent times has questioned the accuracy of the reading of 

 Grampium in Tacitus, and maintains that it ought to have been 

 ad montem Graiqnum. The authority of Tacitus, however, has 

 been sufficient to perpetuate the name of the Grampians to the 

 range in question, although it was utterly unknown to the 

 Scottish people themselves. 



