PICT. 
389 
« -- ferroque notatos 
Perlegit exanimos Pido moriente figuras.” 
And in his panegyric on Theodofius’s vidories, he again 
thus fpeaks of the Pids: 
“ Ille leves Mauros, nec falfo nomine Pidos 
Edomuit.” 
It appears, therefore, from the mention ofclafllc authors 
during three centuries, that the Pids were Caledonians. 
That the Caledonians were the North Britons, who 
fought Agricola at the foot of the Grampian, we know 
from the nature of the events and the atteftation of Ta¬ 
citus; and that the Northern Britons of the firft century 
were the defcendants of the Celtic aborigines, who were 
the fame people as the Southern Britons during the ear- 
lieft times, has been fatisfadorily proved, fays Chalmers, 
as a moral certainty. 
At the period of the Roman abdication, A.D.446, when 
the Pidifh period commenced, the fixteen tribes of Pids, 
under this appropriate denomination, ranged unfubdued 
beyond the wall of Antonine, and acquired from their 
independence higher importance, when they were no 
longer overawed by the Roman power. By degrees 
they became the ruling nation, and retained their domi¬ 
nion throughout four centuries of the North Britifh an¬ 
nals ; viz. until A. D. 843, when the Pidifh period ter¬ 
minated. 
It has been afubjedof difpute, as we have already in¬ 
timated, whether the PiCts were of a Celtic or of a Gothic 
origin ; but it has been fhown, on the moil fatisfadory 
evidence, that their genealogy may be clearly traced 
through three fucceffive changes; from the Gauls to the 
Britons; from the Britons to the Caledonians; and from 
the Caledonians to the Pids ; thus changing their names, 
but not their nature. The venerable Bede, who was 
contemporary with the Piflifli government, fpeaks doubt¬ 
fully of the Pids, as the fecond people who came into 
this ifland from Scythia ; firft to Ireland, and thence to 
North Britain ; and many later writers have been milled 
by his authority ; but it has been fince concluded, from 
more accurate examination, that the Pids were undoubt¬ 
edly Caledonians, that the Caledonians were Britons, and 
that the Britons were Gauls, or Celts. Towards the 
conclufion of the third century, the Caledonians ac¬ 
quired the comprehenfive appellation of Pids ; and this 
appellation, before the end of the fourth century, fuper- 
feded every other name. Camden, whofe teftimony com¬ 
mands deference and refped, is the firft perfon of emi¬ 
nence who avowed it as his opinion, that the Pids were 
the genuine defcendants of the ancient Britons; and Sel- 
den, having duly confidered the fubjed of the origin of 
the Pids, advifes the reader rather to adhere to the 
learned Camden, who makes the Pids very genuine Bri¬ 
tons, diftinguifhed only by an accidental name. 
. Innes, in his “ Critical Effay,” has given from an an¬ 
cient chronicle a feries of the Pidifh kings, comprehend¬ 
ing forty, who fucceeded one another, from Druft, the 
fon of Erp, A.D. 451, to Bred, the laft, A.D. 843. 
Thefe Pidifh kings fucceffively governed uncivilized 
clans during the rudeft ages. In the third century, they 
were in a high degree barbarous ; but in procefs of time 
they gained fome improvement from their intercourfe, 
either civil or hoftile, with the Romanized Britons, or 
Roman armies, and ftill more from the introdudion of 
Chriftianity among them. 
The appropriate country of the Pids acquired different 
names in fucceffive periods. The mountainous part of 
it was denominated by the firft colonifts, in their native 
ipeech, Alban, i. e. the Superior Height. This appellation, 
originally applied to the hilly region that forms the weft 
of Perth and the north-weft of Argyle, was in fubfe- 
quent times extended to the whole country. In the firft 
century, the Britifh term Celyddon, literally fignifying 
Vol. XX. No. 1376. 6 
the Coverts, was applied by the Roman authors to the 
whole country on the north of the friths, though the 
fame name was reftrided by the Roman geographers to 
the interior highlands, lying northward of Alban : and 
both thefe appellations were afterwards applied more 
largely to North Britain. The Pidifh Chronicle, from 
the Pidifh people, called their country “ Pidavia,” The 
annals of Ulfter generally mention this country under 
the name of “ Fortruin,” derived, with a flight variation, 
from Fother, the name of the Pidifh capital. Saxo, the 
Danifh hiftorian, plainly refers to “ Petia” as the name of 
Pidland ; and this Petia of Saxo approaches the neareft 
to the Britifh term “ Peith,” or “ Peithw,” which the 
Britifh people applied to the open country, lying along 
the eaft coaft, on the northward of the Forth. 
We fhall merely mention fome incidental circum- 
ftances that occur in the hiftory of the Pids. The reign 
of Bridei was rendered illuftrious by his converfion to 
Chriftianity, under the inltrudion of Columba, in 565. 
From this epoch, the Pids may be confidered as Chrii- 
tians, though this change in their profeffion feems not to 
have produced any confiderable alteration in their prin¬ 
ciples or their cufloms. About the year 724, a civil 
war commenced among the Pids, and they were at the 
fame time expofed to the deftrudive incurfions of their 
enterprifing neighbours on the north-enft. The anar¬ 
chical governments of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, 
during the middle ages, produced the pirate-kings of the 
northern feas, and thefe were for a long time the fcourges 
of the navigators who failed from every nation on the 
European feas. In 839 the Vikingr, as they were called, 
landed among the Pids, and a bloody conflid enfued, 
which proved fatal to many of the Pidifh chiefs. Weak¬ 
ened by domeftic ftrife, and by a formidable invafion, 
the Pids were unable to refill: the arms, or to defeat the 
policy, of Kenneth, the fon of Alpin, when he acquired 
their diftraded government, A.D. 843. 
With regard to the language of the Pids, there are 
many reafons which make it plain that their tongue was 
the Gaelic or Celtic ; and thefe reafons are a further con¬ 
firmation of their having been of Caledonian extrad. 
Through the eaft and north-eaft coafts of Scotland (which 
were poffeffed by the Pids) we meet with an innumera¬ 
ble lift of names of places, rivers, mountains, &c. which 
are manifeftly Gaelic. From a very old regifter of the 
priory of St. Andrew’s (Dalrymple’s Colledions, p. 122.) 
it appears, that in the days of Hungus, the laft Pidifh 
king of that name, St. Andrew’s was called MukroJ's ; and 
that the town now called Queensferry had the name of 
Ardcliinneachan. Both thefe words are plain Gaelic. 
The firft fignifies “ the Heath or Promontory of Boars 
and the latter, “ the Height or Peninfula of Kenneth.” 
In the lift of Pidifh kings pnblifhed by Innes, molt of 
the names are obvioufly Gaelic, and in many inftances the 
fame with the names in the lift of Scottifh or Caledonian 
kings publifhed by the fame author. Had Innes under- 
ftood any thing of this language, he would not havefup- 
pofed, with Camden, that the Pids lpoke the Britifh 
tongue. It was unlucky that the two words on which 
they built their conjedure (Strath and Aber) are as 
common in the Gaelic as they could have been in the 
Britifh, and at this day make a part of the names of 
places in countries to which the Pidifh empire never 
extended. The names of Straihfillan and Lochaber may 
ferve as inftances. The venerable Bede, as much a ftran- 
ger to the Celtic as either of the antiquaries juft now 
mentioned, is equally unhappy in the fpecimen which he 
gives of the Pidifh language in the word peiiualiel, “the 
head of the wall.” Allowing the commutation of the 
initial p into c, as in fome other cafes, this word has ftill 
the fame meaning in Gaelic which Bede gives it in the 
Pidifh. It is true, there might have been then, as well 
as now, a confiderable difference between variousdialeds 
of the Celtic j and thus, perhaps, that pious author was 
5 G led 
