Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 339
and uncontrouled race of men, lived by feeding of cat-
tle, and what they killed in hunting. Their employment
did not fix them to one place. They removed from one
heath to another, as fuited beft with their convenience
or inclination. They were not, therefore, improperly,
called, by their neighbours Scuite or the ivandering na-
tion ; which is evidently the orjgiii of jthe Roman name cf
Scotu
On the other hand, the Caledonians, who poflelTed the
eaft coaft of Scotland, as the divifion of the country was
plain and fertile, apphed themfelves to agriculture, and
raifing of corn. It was from this, that the Galic name of
the Fi3:s proceeded; for they are called, in that language,
Cniithnich, i. e. the wheat or corn-eaters. As the Pid:s
lived in a country fo different in its nature from that pof-,
feffed by the Scots, fo their national charader fuffered a
material change. Unobllrucled by mountains, or lakes,
their communication with one another was free and fre-
quent. Society, therefore, became fooner ellabliflied a-
mong them, than among the Scots, and, confequently,
they were much fooner governed by civil magillrates and
laws. This, at lall, produced fo great a difference in the
manners of the two nations, that they began to forget
their common origin, and almoft continual quarrels and
animofities fubfifted between them. Thefe animofities,
after fome ages, ended in the fubverfion of the Pi6tifli
kingdom, but not in the total extirpation of the nation,
according to moft of the Scots writers, who feemed to
think it more for the honour of their countrymen to an-
nihilate, than reduce a rival people under their obedience.
It is certain, however, that the very name of the Picls
was loft, and thofe that remained were fo completely in-
corporated with their conquerors, that they foon loft all
memory of their owp origin.
The end of the Pidifti government is placed fo near
that period, to which authentic annals reach, that it is
matter of wonder, that we have no monuments of their
language or hiftory remaining. This favours the fyftem
I have laid down. Had they originally been of a differ-
ent race from the Scots, their language of courfe would
be difterent. The contrary is the cafe. The names of
places in the Pictilli dominions, and the very names of
U u ij their