Ossian Collection > Thoughts on the origin and descent of the Gael

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*' the Pictish territories to Lorn, Mull, and lona
" or Y-colmkill, grounded chiefly on Bede's hav-
" ing made lona the donation of the Picts to St
"Columba."*
What portions of Albinn were subject to the
government of Pictish or Scottish kings, prior to
the time of Kenneth Mac Alpin, who united both
Scots and Picts under one government, it is im-
possible, from any records remaining to us, to de-
termine ; but it may be depended upon as a fact,
that all the inhabitants of Albinn, whose princi-
pal occupation was the cultivation of the soil,
were called by the pastoral Gael, Draonaich; and
that the pastoral people who led a wandering life
were termed by the Draonaich, Scuit or Scaoit.
To the one was applied the appellation Scots, to
the other that of Picts, by the provincial Britons,
who followed the Roman pronunciation of those
names. It follows of course, that that portion of
the people who appeared to have no fixed resi-
dence or permanent places of abode, could not
be considered as belonging to the Pictish terri-
tory, and that the lines of demarcation between
the Scots and Picts, must have been determined
by their proximity to, or distance from, the
mountainous tracts of Albinn, which were an-
ciently known by the Gaelic comprehensive
name of Drumalbinn, latinized Dorsum- Albanice.
It is an undoubted fact, that all the, inhabi-
* Innes's Critical Essays, vol. i. p. 78.
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