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

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" stranger, and living at a distance from these
" parts, and having his accounts of I-colmkill only
" by hearsay, his authority on this subject ought
" not to be put in the balance with that of Adam-
" nan, who was himself Abbot of I-colmkill near
" St Columba's time, and one of his successors;
" and besides, had his information from those
" who lived with the saint, and from the origi-
" nals in the monastery itself."*
Had the learned author been aware of the fact,
that that portion of the Gadhel of Albinn, who
had in the fourth century got the appellation
of Scoti, the term Scuit having been so latinized,
consisted themselves of two classes of people,
the herdsmen or breeders of cattle, who were
called Arich, and the labourers of the ground and
mechanics, who were called Draonaich, he would
have easily got over the difficulty which Bede's
authority put in his way, respecting the donation
of lona to have been made to St Columba by the
Picts. It is well known, that the appellation of
Picts was applied to all those who bore the name
of Draonaich, corruptly, by the Irish historians,
called Craonich. I-colmkill and the neighbour-
ing country of Argyle were inhabited by a peo-
ple who got the name of Draonaich, from their
possessing a country fit for cultivation, and con-
sequently employing themselves in the labours
of agriculture. That they were subject to the
* Innes. — Caledonians or Picts.