Hew Morrison Collection > Leabhar Nan Gleann

11
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1892, pp-
263-351), acute as it is, to connect them,
tbrousfh help of present-day Basque, with
the Iberian population of South-West Exirope,
I cannot approve. Under the influence of
their lingually Gaelicized kinsmen, the "trans-
montani" fseptentrionales") "Picti" became
Gaelic-speaking at an early period. When
Colnmba, in the second half of the sixth cen-
tury, brought them Christianity from lona,
only in intercourse with the common people
did ho v<^riuire the aid of an interpreter, but no
longer in int«rcourse with the King and the
Court. The introduction of Christianity
through the Irish hastened the lingual Gaelic-
izatiiiu ot these Picts. At the end of the
fourth century missionary Celtic Britons had
already introduced Christianity among the
Southern Picts. The higher culture acquired
tmder Eoman dominion by the North British
Celts, with whom, after the withdrawal of
the Eomans, the Southern Picts were in close
contact, hastened the lingual Celticization
(Welshifying in this case) of the Southern
Picts. Many of the Pictish names handed ;
down from the sixth century are accordingly '■
either Iro-Celtic (Gaelic), or Brito-Celtic
(Cymric), just as in each case they come
from the Northern, or the Southern Picts,
and where the names are certainly non-Celtic
they bear the impress, each according to
origin, of Irish or of Brythonic phonology.
The linguistic material suffices to let tis see
that the language of the pre-Celtic inhabi-
tants of the British Isles was not Aryan
(Indo-Germanic), but more it does not reveal.
In the case of the linguistic remains of the
Etruscans in Italy, of the Lykians in Asia
Minor, which are infinitely more extensive
than is the case in Pictish, the result of
investigation is — so many heads, so many
opinions. That should, in the case of Pictish,
■nithliold us from a useless learned waste of