INTRODUCTION. xxxi 



nised rules of etymology, generally afford a clue to the 

 origin of the primitive inhabitants of a country. What, 

 then, are we to understand from the conditions which apply 

 to the place-names of the Long Island ? It is generally 

 assumed that the Celts of the Outer Hebrides were partially 

 or entirely extirpated by the Norse invaders, and that a 

 general re-naming of places thereupon took place. These 

 assumptions, however, rest upon the further supposition 

 that there was a pre-existing Celtic race to extirpate, but 

 the evidence in support of that belief is by no means 

 conclusive, unless we accept the theory that the Picts 

 (CruithnigJi) were Celts. 



We have the assertions of John of Fordun, reiterated by 

 later Scottish historians, that the Hebrides were in the 

 possession of the Scoto-Irish for many centuries before the 

 Norse settlements took place. Fordun is most emphatic 

 in his statement that the Hebrides passed into the hands 

 of the Scots in the time of Ethdacus or Ethacius Rothay, 

 great grandson of Simon Brek, 500 years before Fergus I., 

 son of Feredach, came over from Ireland at the instigation 

 of the Caledonian Scots. As this Fergus is stated to have 

 commenced to reign 330 B.C., we are consequently asked to 

 believe that the Scoto-Irish came into possession of the 

 Western Isles about 830 B.C. But Fordun's early annals 

 are admittedly such a mass of fiction as to be perfectly 

 valueless ; and Hector Boece, and even George Buchanan, 

 are merely echoes of Fordun in their treatment of this 

 period. Edward I., of England, the Hammer of Scotland, 

 had carried off and destroyed the ancient records of Scot- 

 land, thus paving the way for his subsequent claim to the 

 Scottish throne. From the fragmentary records which 

 remained, Fordun, a Scottish priest who lived in the 

 fourteenth century, strove to construct a chronology of 

 Scottish kings, which he fondly hoped would establish the 

 antiquity of the Scottish nation, and enable the patriotic 

 party to refute the arguments trumped up by the English 

 king and his successors in support of their preposterous 

 claim. Fordun is believed to have travelled in Ireland 



