324 A TOPOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENT IN FAVOUR OF THE 
calls them Scoti vagantes, i.e., the wandering Scots, proving thus 
that they could not be natives. Bede calls these marauders Hiberni, 
i.e., Irish, and Gildas says that “the Hibernian robbers return 
home.” As it was only in the beginning of the sixth century that 
the Scots came to have any permanent home in Albin, it is evident 
enough that they came too late to have any material influence on the 
Topography of that country. In his introduction to the Dean of 
Lismore’s book, p. 28, Skene thus effectually disposes of the allega- 
tion of Irish historians that the language of the Scofi or of Gaelic 
Dalriada had subsequently to the ninth century spread, with the rule 
of a Scottish king, over the whole of the Highlands not embraced in 
that limited territory: ‘They (the Irish historians) have never 
attempted to account for the entire disappearance of the previous 
language, and the expulsion of the previous population of so exten- 
sive a district, so mountainous and inaccessible in its character, and 
so tenacious of the language of its early inhabitants in its Topography, 
which such a theory involves.” 
Were it true that the Scoti, who eventually succeeded in giving 
their name to the country which was formerly known as Albin, 
displaced the Celtic tribes of that country, it is very strange that 
no word representing Scott has hitherto found its way into the Gaelic 
language, and that to this day Scottish Celts are wont to say regard- 
ing themselves, /s Albannaich mise: Lam a native of Albin; Js 
Albannaich sinne: We are natives of Albin. Even respecting 
those inhabitants of Scotland whose blood is not Celtic and whose 
language is not Gaelic, the Scottish Gael always says, Js Albannaich 
iad: They are natives of Albin. <A refutation of the opinion that 
the Scoti subdued or exterminated the Gaels who occupied Scotland 
before their time, may surely be found in the entire absence from the 
Gaelic language of any word representing Scotland. 
In turning attention to the Topography of Ireland, I shall, 
deferring to the extraordinary and sensible importance which Taylor 
assigns to the names of streams and rivers, first consider the names 
of the Irish streams and rivers that it may be seen how purely Gaelie 
they are. 
In Antrim are the rivers Bann, a bend or hinge; Bush, buas, 
abounding in cattle; Braid, braghad, neck; Main, min, soft, gentle; 
and Don, dubh-an, the dark river. 
