Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

the Poems of Osslan, 23
this day call themselves Cael, their language Gaelic
or Gaelic, and their country Caeldoch, which the
Romans softened into Caledonia. This of itself is
sufficient to demonstrate, that they are the genuine
descendants of the ancient Caledonians, and not a
pretended colony of Scots who settled first in the
north in the third or fourth century.
From the double meaning of the word Cael,
which signifies ^* strangers" as well as Gauls or
Celts, some have imagined that the ancestors of
the Caledonians were of a difi"erent race from the
rest of the Britons, and that they received their
name upon that account. This opinion, say they,
is supported by Tacitus, vho from several circum-
stances concludes, that the Caledonians were of
German extraction. A discussion of a point so in-
tricate, at this distance of time, could neither be
satisfactory nor important.
Towards the la.tter end of the third and begin-
ning of the fourth century, we meet with the Scots
in the north. Porphyrins makes the first mention
of them about that time. As the Scots were not
heard of before that period, most writers supposed
them to have been a colony newly come to Britain,
and that the Picts were the only genuine descei>-
dants of the ancient Caledonians. This mistake is
easily removed. The Caledonians in process Oi
time became naturally divided into two distinct
nations, as possessing parts of the country entirely
different in their nature and soil. The westeni
coast of Scotland is hilly and barren ; towards the
east, the country is plain and fit for tillage. The
inhabitants of the mountains, a roving and uncon
trolled race of men, lived by feeding of cattle and
what they killed in hunting. Their employment
did not fix them to one place. They removeJ
from one heath to another as suited best with their
convenience or inclination. Thev were not, there-
fore, improperly called by their neighbours Scuite,