The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

400 THE HIGHLANDERS [excursus
Ochil Hills and Oykel river have already been discussed. Space
does not allow the discussion of individual place-names ; nor
can the influence of Pictish on Gaelic phonetics and vocabulary
be touched. Such a word as preas, bush, already alluded to, is
easily detected as a Pictish borrow, because initial /
is non-
Gaelic, and its root qre, or qer, is allied to G. crami, W. prenn.
IV.—Pictish Manners and Customs.
For the manners and customs of early Scotland, Skene goes
to Ireland, and transfers the whole social system to Pictavia ; so,
as the latest example, does Mr. Andrew Lang. But surely the
Book of Deer ought to have warned them all that this is utterly
wrong. The public life outlined there resembles the Irish, but
it is not the same. We have the king {ri), mormaer or great
steward (translated earl or jarl), and toisech or clan chief: also
the clan. The word mormaer means " lord "
; but it must be a
Gaelic translation of the Pictish word,
for the Gaelic itself is
hybrid {inor, great ; juaer, officer ; from Lat. major). We have only
three grades of nobility here, nor is there any trace else of more.
The tenure of land is the usual Celtic one, but the only word of
definite import we get is dabach or davock, four ploughlands, a
term peculiar to Pictland, though extended slightly in feudal
times to the West Coast and Isles. We see, therefore, that the
older Pictish system underlies the Gaelic kingdom of Scotland.
Another serious point, whose significance was lost by Skene,
and found only too well by Prof Rhys, is the Pictish rule of
succession, or the marriage system. The succession to the
throne (Bede) and to property (Irish writers) lay in the females ;
that is to say, a man succeeded to the throne because his
mother was the previous king's daughter or sister. The king's
brother was his heir, and failing him, his sister's son. It was
the female side that was royal. A glance at the king list given
son succeeds a father, but a brother often
above shows this : no
succeeds a brother. The fathers, too, were often outsiders :
Talorgan, son of Enfrid, Prince of Bernicia, and called cousin of
Egfrid (686) ; Brude, son of Bili, King of Strathclyde ; Gart-
nait, son of Domhnall, Donald being likely a Scotic prince.
This system, where maternity alone is regarded as certain, holds
a low view of marriage, and is at present found only among un-
civilised races. Caesar knew of the existence in Britain of