The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

48 THE HIGHLANDERS [parti
Teutonic etymologies for the topography of the country. It
would therefore be but a waste of time to prove an assertion
which has been so generally admitted ; and it will only be
necessary here to notice two objections which have been made
to the conclusion to which we are naturally led by this fact,
viz. :— that the Picts, who at all times inhabited the greater part
-of the north of Scotland, must hav^e been a Gaelic people.
In the first place, it has been said that there is a clear
distinction perceptible between the names of places in the High-
lands and those in the eastern or Lowland part of the country,
and that while the former are unquestionably Gaelic, the latter
can be traced to the Kymric or Welsh dialect only. From this
supposed distinction, one author ^ concludes that the country
must have been inhabited by British tribes before the arrival
of the Caledonians or Picts, who are considered by him as of
Teutonic origin ; and another author ^ infers, from the same
fact, that the Picts themselves were of Cymric or British descent.
Nothing, however, can be more erroneous than the premises
from which these conclusions are drawn ; for an attentive
examination of the topography of the two divisions of the
country will shew that there is no difference whatever between
the elements which compose the names of the natural features in
both, and that those in the Lowlands are as purely Gaelic as
those in the Highlands.
The words which are principally dwelt upon as affording
proof of a Welsh derivation are those syllables, Aber, For, Pit,
Lan, Strath, &c., which so frequently enter into the composition
of the names of places in Scotland. Now, nothing more will
be requisite than to refer to the best Gaelic dictionaries, in order
to shew that all these words are as purely Gaelic as they are
a map of the Highlands will prove distinctly that
Welsh ;
and
they are to be found as constantly occurring in the one part
of the country as in the other. 3
^ Pinkerton. word corresponding exactly with the
2 p,
,
Gaelic word Inver, and that they are
used synonymously in the different
» The tirst of these words is the one parts of Scotland. The best mode of
which has been principally made use ascertaining to what language a word
of in this argument, and it has been properly belongs is by reducing that
always assumed that Abei- is a Welsh word to its primitives, and in whatever