Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/106

 xcviii PREFACE. whole of the north of Scotland and part of the north of Ireland was peopled by the same race of Cruithne, there must have been much intercourse between them, and both countries must have been viewed by them as one territory. Whether, there- fore, the traditions represent them as first arriving in Ireland and proceeding to Scotland, or first arri jig in Scotland and passing over to Ireland, it amounts, in point of fact, to no more than that Cruithne of the same race were to be found in both countries. One common feature, however, accompanies almost every form of this tradition, viz., that the Cruithne or Picts were a colony of soldiers who married wives whom they had obtained from the Irish. This feature existed at a very early date, as it is men- tioned by Bede, and acquired strength from the fact that it was connected with a peculiar form of succession through females among the Picts, of whom it was supposed to indicate the origin. Ac- cording to Bede, they applied for and obtained wives from the Scoti. In the Welsh traditions, they are said to have applied first to the Britons, by whom they were refused, and afterwards gone to Ireland and obtained ^vives of Gwy^ddyl. In the Irish traditions, they apply to the sons of Mdesius to give them the wives of a party of Milesians who had been drowned on their voyage to Ireland. The original form of the tale probably is, that they are said to have obtained wives of the race of Gwyddyl, or Gael.