I 



Colonel Tod's Observations on a Gold Ring found at Montrose. 569 



many analogies in their language, theogony, and customs, developed in 

 their mythological poetry, we may at least hint at a common origin to the 

 Indo-Scythic martial races of India and the early colonists of Europe, and 

 suggest that either Etruscan, Celt, or Goth, might claim the relic before us ; 

 for whether the Ops or Isis of the fertile Campania, thelsa of the Seine and 

 Marne, the Mahamina, Ertha or Elva, of the bleak Scandinavia, the Isani, 

 Mahama, or Ella of the Indus and Ganges, or the Ellanala, mother of 

 the Turshka Chagitais, we have the same fabled divinity, the prolific Mo- 

 ther Earth, daughter of Surya, the Sim, whose symbolic worship, as on 

 the ring before us, was once universal. 



The Camden of Scotland, the erudite Chalmers, in his ' Caledonia,' affirms 

 that neither Celtic Ireland, nor Scotland had seals ; that they were strangers 

 to gold, or coins of gold, or heraldic bearings, even to the twelfth century.* 

 From this it would appear that the Celts of Britain had again merged into 

 barbarism in being cut off from their Gallic brethren, who were far behind 

 the comparatively highly civilized tribes of Italy. Rings, more espe- 

 cially seal-rings, seem to have been the first ornament on record, and there 

 appears no nation, however barbarous, unacquainted with them. Scripture 

 constantly alludes to the ring, particularly the " signet ring," the mark of 

 initiation into official dignity in the days of Pharoah and Joseph, as in the 

 present ; but that under discussion is a religious ring, worn as a charm 



against evil. 



In King Haco's memorable expedition, A.D. 1267, against Scotland,t 

 the tribes of the western isles are peculiarly designated as " the wearers 

 of rings." Thus, in verse 10 : 



« The wide-extended Bute was won from the forlorn wearer of rings by the 

 " renowned and invincible troops of the promoter of conquest ; they wielded the 

 " two-edged sword, the foes of our ruler dropt, and the raven from his f eld 

 " of slaughter winged his flight from the Hebrides." 



Nor was this distinctive mark confined to the people of the isles ; for the 

 " Sea-king," in his wide sweep, imposing tribute throughout the coasts of 

 Scotland,°alike applies the term to the tribe of Cat, Catai, or Catini, the 

 club-men of Cathness.t 



» Caledonia, vol. i. p. 465. 



t Norwegian Account of Haco's expedition against Scotland, in A.D. 1263, by the Rev. 



James Johnstone. Ed. 1782. 



X Chalmer's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 67. The Cat derived their name from the cU.b.-Pinkerton 



on the Scots. 



