The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

AND NOTES] OF SCOTLAND 383
of all ages were Q Celts. Most of Gaul spoke the P variety of
Celtic. The Celts, of course, pushed westward into Britain.
It is usually thought that the Gadels came first. The common
notion naturally is that they swarmed into England about
600 B.C., and were thence driven westward into Ireland by the
advancing Belgic tribes. Undoubtedly Gadels were in Wales
and Devonshire in the fifth century A.D., settled as inhabitants.
These, however, are accounted for as the invaders of the Roman
Province of Britain during the invasions of the Scots and Picts
from 360 to 500. Indeed, in 366, and for a few years, the
Province of Britain was ruled, or misruled, by Crimthann,
High-King of Ireland. Theodosius arrived in 369. and drove
out the invaders. As early as 200, settlements were made by
expelled Gaels in South Wales. Besides this, Gaelic inscriptions
of the fifth and sixth centuries in Ogam are found in
South Wales, and one or two in old Cornavia. Professor Rhys
is the great protagonist for the view that the Gadelic tongue
was continuous in Wales from the time of the first Gadels till
the seventh century. On the other side, Professor Kuno Meyer
asserts that " no Gael ever set his foot on British soil save
from a vessel that had put out from Ireland," a dictum with
which the present writer agrees.
The tradition among the Gaels of Ireland themselves is
that they came from Spain to Ireland. It is more likely that,
starting from Gaul, they skimmed along the southern shore of
England— perhaps the Picts were then in possession of the
country—and thus arrived in Ireland. Their own traditions
and there being no other trace of them in Britain before the
Christian era prove this contention. As already said, the date
of their arrival must be about 600 or 500 B.C.
About the same time the Picts came across, possibly from
what was afterwards the land of the Saxon invaders of England,
and may have colonised Scotland first, bringing there the redhaired,
large-limbed Caledonians of Tacitus. In any case, the
Picts must have been the predominant race in Britain in the
fourth century B.C., when the Greek voyager, Pytheas, made his
rounds of the northern seas. He calls the people of Britain
Pretanoi or Prettanoi ; this might be a Celtic Oretani, present
Gaelic Cruithne, possibly from crtcth, figure, so called because