Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 51
to his own purposes, than to detect their misrepresenta-
tions, or investigate truth amidst the darkness which
they had thrown round it. It therefore appears, that
little can be collected from their o\\m historians, con-
cerning the first migrations of the Scots into Britain.
That this island was peopled from Gaul admits of no
doubt. Whether colonies came afterward from the
north of Europe is a matter of mere specvilation. When
South Britain yielded to the powerofthe Romans, the
nnconquered nations to the north of the province were
distinguished by the name of Caledonians. From their
Tery name, it appears, that they were of those Gauls
who possessed themselves originally of Britain. It is
1 compoimded of two Celtic words, Caf/ signifying Celts,
or Gauls, and Dun or Don a hill ; so that Caeldon, or
Caledonians, is as much as to say, the ' Celts of the
hUl country.' The Highlanders, to this day, call them-
I selves Cael, and their language Caelic, or Galic, and
their country Caeldock, which the Romans softened
[ into Caledonia. This, of itself, is sufficient to demon-
strate, that they are the genviine descendants of the
ancient Caledonians, and not a pretended colony of
Scots, who settled first in the north, in the third or
fourtli 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 different race from the rest of the Britons,
and that they received their name upon that account.
This opinion, say they, is supported by Tacitus, who,
from several circumstances, concludes, that the Cale-
donians were of German extraction . A discussion of
a point so intricate, at this distance of time, could
neither be satisfactory nor important.
Towards the latter end of the third, and beginning
of the fourth century-, we find 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 descendants of the ancient Cale-
donians. This mistake is easily removed. The Cale-