from Odin, which he collected from the most ancient documents, partly printed and partly in MS. Bede acknowledges the same descent, Hist., Lib. xv., although he shortens the line by several generations.

III.-The Scandinavian origin of the Picts is illustrated by the history of the ORKNEY ISLANDS. We have seen that, according to some ancient accounts, they first took possession of these. That they were, in succeeding ages, inhabited by Picts, is acknowledged on all hands.

Wallace published an authentic Diploma concerning the succession of the Earls of Orkney, digested A. 1403, not only from the relation of their "faythfull antecessors and progenitors," but from books, writings, and chronicles, both in the Latin and in the Norwegian language; and attested by the Bishop, clergy, and all the principal people of these islands. In this they inform Eric, King of Norway, that, when the Scandinavians took possession of these islands, (which was in the ninth century,) they were inhabited by two nations, the Peti and Papé; and "that the country was not then called Orkney, but the land of the Pets, as yet appears from the name given to the sea that divides Orkney from Scotland, which is called the Petland Sea." V. Wallace's Account, p. 129. This, indeed, is still called, in the Icelandic histories, Petland Fiord.

There is not the least ground to doubt that the Picts are here designed Peti This is the name given by Scandinavian writers to the Picts. Saxo Grammaticus, who flourished in the twelfth century, calls Scotland Petia; Lib. ix. p. 154. It has been conjectured, with great probability, that the Papé, or Papae, were Irish priests, who, speaking a different language from the Pets, were viewed by the Norwegian settlers as constituting a different nation, although acting only in a religious character. For it appears from Arius Frode, that some of these Papae had found their way to Iceland, before it was discovered by the Norwegians.

It has been said, indeed, that "there is reason to believe that the Orkney Islands were planted, during early ages, by the posterity of the same people who settled Western Europe," i.e. by Celts; Caled., p. 261. The only proof offered for this idea is, "that Druid remains and stone monuments exist, and that celts and flint arrow-heads have been found in the Orkney Islands; while none of these have ever been discovered in the Shetland Islands." "This," it is added, "evinces that the Celtic people, who colonized South and North Britain, also penetrated into the Orkney, but not into the Shetland, Islands; and this fact also shows, that those several antiquities owe their origin to the Celts, who early colonized the Orkney Islands alone, and not to the Scandinavians, who equally colonized both the Orkney and the Shetland Islands;" Ibid.

Whether what is here asserted as to "Druid remains, &c.," be true, I do not presently inquire. Let it suffice to observe, that such is the mode of reasoning adopted by the learned gentleman, as plainly to show how much he is here at loss for argument. This is, indeed, a complete specimen of what is called

reason

ing in a circle. The existence of some monuments in Orkney, contrasted with the want of them in Shetland, evinces that "the first settlers in Orkney were Celts, and also shews that these stone monuments were Celtic."

It is admitted, that "scarcely any of the names of places in Orkney or Shetland are Celtic." "They are all," it is said, "Teutonic, in the Scandinavian form;" Ibid. Now, this is a very strong fact. We may, indeed, lay aside the limitation. For the most competent judges have not found any. If the Picts, who inhabited the Orkney Islands, were Celts, whence is it that not a single vestige of their language remains? To this query, which so naturally arises on the subject, it is by no means a satisfactory answer, that, "owing probably to some physical cause, the original people seem to have disappeared, in some period of a prior date to our era." What could possibly give birth to so strange a conjecture? It is the solitary testimony of one writer, who lived in an age in which nothing could have been written that was not true, because it would not have been received had it been false. "During the intelligent age of Solinus, those islands were supposed to be uninhabited, and to be 'only the haunt of seals, and orcs, and sea-mew's clang;"" Ibid.

Are we then to view this as the physical cause of the disappearance of the original people? Were these Celts so harassed by "seals and orcs, and sea-mews,' that they forsook their abodes, and sought a place of repose on the continent? Or did these troublesome animals, in fact, swallow up the wretched inhabitants of Orkney?

But can this dream of Solinus be seriously mentioned? Or can it be received in an "intelligent age?" Ere this be the case, some cause, whether physical or moral, which has at least some degree of plausibility, must be assigned for the supposed disappearance of a people, who had been so regularly settled as to have stone monuments and buildings, and so well versed in the art of war as to be acquainted with the use of celts. But it is evident that Solinus was very ill informed concerning the Orkney Islands; as he says they were only three in number. And in what he asserts as to their being uninhabited (vacant homine), he gives not the remotest hint that the contrary had ever been the case; but seems indeed to consider them as uninhabitable; Lib. 25.

Since, then, the account given by Solinus is so directly contrary to all probability, to what purpose grasp at it? The reason is obvious. The great topographical test of the genealogy of nations is here pointed directly against the learned writer. He must either part with this, or devote all the Celts of Orkney to destruction. It is only by some such supposition as that which he makes, that any reason can be given why the names of places in Orkney are all Teutonic. As the stone buildings must necessarily be ascribed to Celts, whence comes it that there is not one topographical vestige of this race in Orkney, while the names imposed by the British in Scotland remained long after the people were lost? It is supposed that the "original people" totally disappeared in some unaccountable

manner, and, of course, that their possessions were, for centuries perhaps, uninhabited.

But that no argument may be founded on the Teutonic names in Orkney, we áre informed, that "the topography of Orkney, Shetland, and Cathness, is completely different from the Saxon topography of Scotland, which does not exhibit one Scandinavian name that is distinct from the Northumbrian Dano-Saxon;" that "of the Scandinavian names in Orkney, and in Cathness, the great body terminates, according to the Gothic construction, in Buster, signifying a dwelling-place; in Ster, denoting a station or settlement; and in Seter, a seat or settling-place. But there is not a single instance of the Buster, the Ster, or Seter, in the topography of proper Scotland." Caled., p. 489.

Three terms are here mentioned, which do not occur, as far as I know, to the south of Caithness. They are most probably Norwegian; although, perhaps, it may be doubted if they are to be accounted among the most ancient Scandinavian terms. G. Andreae is referred to; but I can find none of these terms in his Lexicon. Nor does it appear that they are common in Orkney. Brand mentions Kebister in Shetland, p. 110. But a variety of other terminations common to Orkney and Shetland, and to Scotland, are quite overlooked by the author of Caledonia-as Dale, Ness, Wick, Head, Ton, Bye, so common in the South of S., and Burgh. V. Brand, and Statist. Acc. Bow, which is undeniably Scandinavian, is the name given in Orkney to the principal house on a farm, or on an estate. That this was not unknown in Scotland, appears from what is said in Dict. vo. Boo.

IV.-A pretty certain test of the affinities of nations is their ARCHITECTURE. A variety of circular buildings in Scotland, and in the Orkney Islands, are traditionally ascribed to the Picts. They are found in different parts of the country, and are of two kinds. One of these is above ground, the other almost entirely under it. The first includes their circular spires and castles,-as the spires of Abernethy and Brechin, and the castles of Glenbeg in Inverness-shire. V. Gordon's Itin., p. 166. Their subterranean buildings, or those which are nearly so, externally exhibiting the appearance of a tumulus or mound, are still more numerous. Many of these are described by Pennant, in his Tour, and by the writers of the Statistical Accounts.

These are almost universally ascribed to the Picts, whether appearing in the Lowlands, in the Highlands, or in the Islands of Orkney. In some instances, however, they are called Danish or Norwegian. Even this variation in the voice

of tradition may perhaps be viewed as a proof of the general conviction, which from time immemorial has prevailed in this country, that the Picts were originally a Scandinavian people.

They are by far most numerous in those places where we are certain that the Scandinavians had a permanent abode, as in Sutherland and Caithness, on the coast of Ross-shire, on the mainland, and in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. In

Sutherland, there are three in the P. of Kildonan, Statist. Acc., iii. 410; six in the P. of Far, Ibid. p. 543; almost everywhere in the P. of Rogart, Ibid. p. 567. There is a chain of Pictish buildings on each side of Loch Brura, P. of Clyne, Ibid. x. 304. In Caithness, P. of Olrick, there are six or seven, Ibid. xii. 163; a number in Wick, and "throughout the country in general," Ibid. x. 32; in Dunnet, &c.

The names of these buildings claim peculiar attention. It would appear that they are all Gothic. In the Orkneys they are called Burghs or Brughs. This word cannot reasonably be claimed as Celtic. Nor is it confined to the islands. It is given to one of these structures in Caithness, called the Bourg of Dunbeth. Pennant's Tour, 1769, p. 195. There is an evident affinity between this name and that imposed on a fortification in Angus, which tradition calls a Pictish camp. V. Dict. vo. BRUGH. As the Burians in the South of S. are generally viewed as Pictish, although the term may be rendered burying-places, it is not improbable that some of them were erections of the same kind with the Burghs. V. Dict. vo. BURIAN.

They are denominated Picts' houses. Now, as the Picts certainly had names for their fortresses in their own language, had this been Celtic, it is most natural to think that, in some instances, these names would have been preserved, as well as the Celtic designations of rivers, mountains, &c., ascribed to this people.

They are also called Duns. This term is mentioned as equivalent to the other two. "There is a range of watch-houses, and many remains of burghs, duns, or Picts' houses." P. Northmaven, Orkney, Statist. Acc., xii. 365. Another name is also given to them by the vulgar. V. Dict. vo. HOWIE, CASTLE-HOWIE.

Even in those places where Gaelic is now spoken, they seem to have a Gothic designation. The valley in which Castle Troddan, Chalamine, &c., have been erected, is called Glen-beg. The final syllable does not seem Gaelic. It is probably corrupted from Goth. bygg-a, to build, bygd, pagus; q. the glen of the buildings or houses. The Pictish castle in the P. of Loth, Sutherland, is in like manner called Loth-beg, q. the building situated on the river Loth. The signification little cannot well apply here. For what sense could be made of the little Loth? They are indeed in one place called Uags. "In Glenloch," says Mr. Pope, "are three [Pictish buildings], called by the country people Uags." Pennant's Tour. 1769, Append. p. 338. This may be from Gael. uaigh, “a den, grave, cave;" Shaw, In the P. of Liff, they have the synonymous designation of Weems or caves. But these are obviously names imposed by the ignorant people, because they knew neither the use nor the origin of these buildings.

I am informed, that in Inverness-shire the foundations of various houses have been discovered of a round form, with spots of cultivated ground surrounding them; and that when the Highlanders are asked to whom they belonged, they say that they were the houses of the Drinnich or Trinnich, i.e., of the labourers, a name which they gave to the Picts. By the way, it may be observed that this implies, that, according to the tradition of the country, the Picts were cultivators

of the soil, while the Celts led a wandering life. This seems to confirm the sense given of the name Cruithneach, imposed by the Irish on the Picts, q. eaters of wheat.

It has always appeared to me a powerful proof of the Gothic origin of the Picts, that they had left their names to structures apparently unknown to the Celtic inhabitants of Britain. But of late this argument has been pointed the other way. Mr. King, a writer of considerable celebrity, contends that all these are Celtic monuments. The proof he gives is the existence of some buildings of a similar kind in Cornwall and South Wales.

It appears, however, that the remains of what are accounted similar buildings in South-Britain are very scanty. "There are still some vestiges," he says, "to ascertain the fact. For in the parish of Morvah, in Cornwall, are the remains of a most remarkable structure, called Castle Chun, that, as it appears to me, cannot well be considered in any other light than as one of the first sort of very rude imitations of the mode of building round castles, according to hints given by the Phenicians, and before the Britains learned the use of cement. It bears considerable resemblance to the Duns, near Grianan Hill in Scotland, and in the Isle of Ilay. "It consisted of a strong wall of stones without cement, surrounding a large oval area, and having the interior space evidently divided into several separate divisions, ranging round the inside, leaving an open oval space in the centre. It was even much larger than the two great Duns just referred to in Scotland; the area being 125 feet by 110; and it was moreover surrounded on the outside by a large, deep ditch, over which was a zigzag narrow passage on a bank of earth, with a strong rude uncemented wall on each side.

"From the largeness of the area within, it seems exceedingly probable, that (whilst the surrounding walled divisions served for stores) the more interior oval space was for habitation, like that in a Dun, supplied with floors of timber, supported by posts near the middle, but yet leaving still a smaller open area in the centre of all.

"Dr. Borlase conceived that this, with some other hill-fortresses, which are continued in a chain in sight of each other, must have been Danish." Munim. Antiq., iii. 204, 205.

But this fort, from the description given of it, appears to differ considerably from those call Pictish. It more nearly resembles the hill-forts, such as Finhaven, and that called The Laws in the P. of Monifieth, both in Forfarshire. Almost the only difference is, that, from whatever cause, they retain indubitable marks of vitrification. In the latter, the vestiges of a variety of small buildings, between the inner and outer wall, are perfectly distinct.

It is no inconsiderable argument against Mr. King's hypothesis that Dr. Borlase, who was thoroughly acquainted with the Welsh Antiquities, saw no reason to think that these buildings were British.