1896-97-] THE PICTS. 297 



Pictish Inscriptions when he remarks : " But that the language of those 

 inscriptions is simply old Gaelic is a fact which will not henceforth be 

 doubted by any Keltic scholar who reads this book," etc. 



It has been wisely asserted, that "it is a long time ago since the first 

 Celts crossed the sea to settle in Britain. Nobody knows how long, and 

 the guesses which have been made as to the date are hardly worth 

 recording. And when they did come, the immigration was not all over 

 in one year or even in one century. The Goidels were undoubtedly the 

 first Celts to come to Britain, as their geographical position to the west 

 and north of the others would indicate, as well as the fact that no trace 

 of them on the Continent can now be identified. They had probably 

 been here for centuries when the Brythons or Gauls came and drove them 

 westward. The Goidels had done the same with another people, for 

 when they came, they did not find the country without inhabitants. 

 Thus we get at least three peoples to deal with — t^vo Celtic and one 

 pre-Celtic." 



In his Life of Agricola, Tacitus thus writes ; " Namque rutila^ Cale- 

 doniam habitantium comc'e. . . . Silurum colorati vultus, et torti 

 plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania, Iberos veteres trajecisse 

 easque sedes occupasse, fidem faciunt." Isaac Taylor has the authority 

 of Tacitus on his side when, in his Origin of the Aryans, he thus writes, 

 (p. jG) : " There can be little doubt that the Iberian race was dark in 

 complexion, with black hair and eyes. As to the Celtic race, it is almost 

 certain that they were fair with red or yellow hair and blue or blue-grey 

 eyes. The Iberians were plainly the primitive inhabitants of Britain. 

 The Celts were later invaders who were not only a more powerful race 

 but possessed a higher civilization. The Iberians extended over the 

 whole Spanish peninsula as well as over the coasts and islands of the 

 Mediterranean. The Celts when they invaded Britain, found the 

 country in possession of the Silurian race whose descendants can be 

 traced to Denbighshire and Kerry." 



The account which Bede gives in his Ecclesiastical History of the 

 Inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland, possesses a peculiar importance. 

 " This island at present contains four nations — the English, Britons, 

 Picts and Latins. At first this island had no other inhabitants but the 

 Britons. The nation of the Picts from Scythia arrived in the northern 

 coasts of Ireland, and desired to have a place granted them in which they 

 might settle. Acting on the advice of the Scots who occupied Ireland, 

 the Picts sailed over to Britain and began to inhabit the northern parts 

 thereof In process of time Britain, besides the Britons and the Picts, 



