Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

52 DISSERTATION ON
donians, in process of time, became naturally divided-
into two distinct nations, as possessing parts of the
country entirely different in their nature and soU. The
western 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 removed from one
heath to another, as suited best with their convenience
or inclination. They were not, therefore, improperly
called, by their neighbours, Scuite, or ' the wandering
nation ;' which is evidently the origin of the Roman
name of Scoti.
On the other hand, the Caledonians, who possessed
the east coast of Scotland, as this division of the country
was plain and fertile, applied themselves to agricul.
tare, and raising of com. It was from this that the
,Galic neime of the Picts proceeded ; for they are called
in that language, Cruithnich, i, e. ' the wheat or com-
eaters.' As the Picts lived in a country so different
in its natuie from that possessed by the Scots, so their
national character suffered a material change. Un-
obstructed by mountains or lakes, their communica-
tion vdth one another was fiee and frequent. So-
ciety, therefore, became sooner established among
them than among the Scots, and consequentiy, they
were much sooner governed by civil magistrates and
laws. This, at last, produced so great a difference in
the manners of the two nations, that they began to
forget their common origin, and almost continual
quarrels and animosities subsisted between them. These
animosities, after some ages, ended in the subversion
of the Pictish kingdom, but not in the total extirpation
of the nation according to most of the Scots ^vritera,
who seem to think it more for the honour of their
countrymen to annihilate, than reduce a rival people
under their obedience. It is certain, however, that
the very name of the Picts was lost, and that those
that remained were so completely incoi-porated with
their conquerors, that they soon lost all memory of
their own origin.