298 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. V. 



received a third nation, the Scots, who migrating from Ireland under their 

 leader Reuda . . , secured to themselves those settlements among 

 the Picts which they still possess. From the name of their commander 

 they are to this day called Dalreudius, for in their language Dal signifies 

 a part." It is added in a footnote : " Hence Dalrieta or Dalreuda may 

 be explained Dal-Ri-Eta, the portion of Reuda or Rieta, i.e., King Eta." 



In his De Bello Gallico, L. 5, Ca:isar thus writes : " Omnes vero se 

 Britanni vitro inficiunt quod csruleum efihcit colorem atque hoc horri- 

 diore in pugna aspectu." We may infer on the authority of Caesar that 

 the inhabitants of Britain in his time painted themselves with a dye that 

 they extracted from woad. The designation Picti ox painted men, would 

 thus be applicable to all the tribes of Britain of whom Caesar had any 

 knowledge. It was about the year 360 A.D., that those who were 

 subsequently known as the Picts of Scotland received the distinctive 

 appellation oi Picts to distinguish them from the Scoti or Scotti. In his 

 Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, MacPherson contends that it is 

 absurd to suppose, that the name of Picts was given by the Romans to 

 the Caledonians, who possessed the east coast of Scotland, from their 

 painting their bodies. According to MacPherson, " Britons who fled 

 northward from the tyranny of the Romans, introduced painting among 

 the Picts. Owing to that circumstance, it has been held that the Picts 

 were thus designated for the purpose of distinguishing them from the 

 Scots who never had that art among them, as well as from the Britons, 

 who discontinued it after the Roman conquest." The Picts called them- 

 selves Cruithne. Their original settlements appear to have been in the 

 Orkneys, the north of Scotland, and the north coast of Ireland or the 

 modern counties of Antrim and Down. A certain writer affirms that the 

 Scots came originally to Ireland, one of whose najnes from the sixth to 

 the thirteenth century was Scotia. It was called Scotia Major, after part 

 of northern Britain had acquired in the eleventh century the same name. 

 The transfer of the name Scotia to what is now known as Scotland was 

 ultimately due to the rise and progress of the tribe called Dalriad, which 

 migrated from Dalriada in the north of Antrim to Argyll and the isles 

 in the beginning of the sixth century. A difference of opinion obtains 

 as to whether the habit of painting their bodies prevailed among the 

 Scoti of Ireland as well as among the Picts of Scotland. Cruithne or 

 Cruithing involves the root Cruth which signifies form. Cruithneachd, 

 the Gaelic word for wheat can easily be regarded as compounded of 

 Cruth form and sneachd snow, the word thus signifying etymologically 

 the form or appearance of snow, out of regard, doubtless, to the whiteness 

 of the flour which is extracted from wheat. Professor Rhys, with 



