Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/108

 c PEEFACE. among them, if their language was at all akin to that of the older population, the popular explanation must at once have arisen, that they had married wives of the older race, from whom they learned their language ; but while the primary idea in this legend is a linguistic one, it certainly may also have been intended to account for an obvious mixture of race. In the Welsh legends, the Picts are said from this marriage with wives of the race of the Gwyddyl, to have been called Gwyddyl Ffichti; but in the form of it in Layamon's "Brut" it is un- doubtedly used to explain the language of the Picts :— " Through the same ■women, Who there long dwelt, The folk gan to speak Ireland's speech ;" and the same idea is expressed in the chronicle quoted in the " Scala Chronica," which states that they obtained their wives from Ireland, " on condi- " tion that their issue should speak Irish." The other peculiarity, which this legend was sup- posed to account for, was the law of succession among the Picts through females. Bede states that they obtained their wives from the Scots, " ea solum " conditione, ut ubi res perveniret in dubium, magis " de feminea regum prosapia, quam de masculina, " regem sibi eligerent, quod usque hodie apud " Pictos constat esse servatum" (Lib. i. c. i.) This testimony of Bede shows that such a rule of sue-