The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

APPEND.] OF SCOTLAND i6i
Fidach to be identified ; but although these must have been
the Gaehc names of the two remaining provinces stretching
from the Dee to the Firth of Tain, we are unable further to
identify them. All authorities thus agree in the division of the
Pictish nation into seven provinces ; and as the Picts were at
the same time divided into the two great nations of the Northern
and Southern Picts, who were separated from each other by the
Great Grampian range, it would appear that four of these provinces
belonged to the former of these nations, and three to the latter.
The Picts, however, it must be remembered, consisted of a
confederacy of tribes, in number certainly greater than seven.
These tribes, then, must have been grouped together, as it were
into provinces, and it will be necessary to ascertain their number
and situation before we can understand the purpose of the latter
division. After giving the first list of seven provinces, Giraldus
proceeds to say —" Inde est ut hi septem fratres praedicti pro
sub se habentes.
septem regibiis habebantur : septem regulos
Isti septem fratres regnum Albaniae in septem regna diviserunt,
et unusquisque in tempore suo in suo regno regnavit." There
were thus, according to tradition, among the Picts, seven "
reges,"
and inferior to them seven "
reguli," that is to say, as the Picts
were a confederacy of tribes, the heads of the nation consisted
of fourteen chiefs, of whom seven were superior in rank to the
rest. As we had previously found the existence of the seven
provinces traditionally preserved in the shape of the seven sons
of the supposed founder of the Pictish kingdom, so we should
likewise expect to recognize the fourteen tribes of the nation
traditionally preserved in the same documents and in a similar
form. Such is actually the case. The Pictish Chronicle has the
following passage :—
"15 Brude bout, a quo xxx Brude regnaverunt Hiberniam
et Albaniam, per centum 1. annorum spacium xlviii. annis regnavit.
Id est, Brude Pant, Brude Crpant, Brude Leo, Brude
Urleo, Brude Gant, Brude Urgant, Brude Guith, Brude Urguith,
Brude Fecir, Brude Urfecir, Brude Cal, Brude Ureal, Brude Ciut,
Brude Urciut, Brude Fee, Brude Urfec, Brude Ru, Brude Eru,
Brude Gart, Brude Urgart, Brude Cinid, Brude Urcinid, Brude
lup, Brude Uriup, Brude Grid, Brude Urgrid, Brude Mund
Brude Urmund."
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