234 The Picts. 



Vecturiones who inhabited the Southern division of Scotland, and, 

 when repeatedly conquered by Angus Mac Fergus, the King of the 

 Vecturiones or Piccardach, invited the assistance of the Dalriads 

 or Hibernian Scots, who had previously effected a settlement in 

 Argyllshire and Cantyre. After numerous engagements, which 

 rendered Angus Mac Fergus finally the Sovereign of the whole 

 Pictish realm, a Prince of the Dalriads or Scots, who had become 

 connected by marriage with the Royal family of the Cruithni or 

 Northern Picts, at length entirely subjugated the Vecturiones, and 

 transferred the Sovereignty of Alban or North Britain to the 

 Scottish race. By this conquest of the Southern Picts, a.d. 842, 

 the Northern division of that people — the Dicaledones or Cruithni — 

 regained their independence, though at a subsequent period amal- 

 gamated with the Dalriads or Scots. It is probably owing to this 

 amalgamation of the Cruithni Picts with the Scots or the Cymbri 

 and Gael, (whose language formed merely different dialects of the 

 universal and primitive tongue,) that we find in the present time 

 two distinct races in the Highlands of Scotland, one resembling the 

 Cymbri or Picts in their ruddy complexion and hair, while the 

 other exhibits the darker hair and features of the Belga3 (or Silures) 

 and Celts, thus indicating a more direct and immediate Oriental 

 extraction. The alliances which were formed for upwards of a 

 century by the Northern Picts with the Dalriads or Scots (or more 

 properly the Gael) against the Vecturiones or Southern division of 

 this race, will account for their almost complete extermination, 

 their own preservation, and their amalgamation with the Gael or 

 Scots. Such would seem to be the descent of the present Scottish 

 Highlanders: though it is probable that the Aborigines of the 

 Orkneys were a more ancient colony from the " Northern Hive." 



But it is time now to make some enquiries respecting the original 

 inhabitants of the Orkne\-s, which, previous to the Conquest by the 

 Norsemen in a.d. 870, were regarded as a Pictish race. If so, and 

 there is no reason to doubt the correctness of this belief, they must 

 have arrived from Jutland or some other part of the Northern 

 Coasts; driven from what has been well designated "the Great 

 Northern Hive;" and are believed to have long remained in posses- 



