Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/121

 PEEFACE. cxiii The territories which constituted the petty king- dom of Dah'iada can be pretty well defined. They were bounded on the south by the Firth of Clyde, and they were separated on the east from the Pictish kingdom by the ridge of the great mountain chain called Drumalban. They consisted of four tribes, — the genus or Cinel Lorn, descended from Lorn, the elder of the three brothers ; the Cinel Gabran and Cinel Comgall, descended from two sons of Doman- gart, son of Fergus, the second of the brothers ; and the Cinel Angus, descended from the third brother, Angus. The Cinel Comgall inhabited the district formerly called Comgall, now corrupted to Cowall. The Cinel Gabran inhabited what was called the Airgiallas, or the district of Argyle proper, and Kintyre. The Cinel Angus inhabited the islands of Islay and Jura, and the Cinel Lorn, the district of Lorn. Beyond this, on the north, the districts between Lorn and the promontory of Ardnamurchan, i.e., the island of Mull, the district of Morven, Ard- gower, and probably part of Lochaber, seem to have formed a sort of debateable ground, the popu- lation of which was Pictish, whUe the Scots had settlements among them. In the centre of the possessions of the Cinel Gabran, at the head of the well-sheltered loch of Crinan, lies the great Moss of Crinan, with the river Add flowing through it. In the centre of the moss, and on the side of the river, rises an isolated rocky hiU called Dunadd, the top of which is strongly fortified. This was the