The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. II] OF SCOTLAND 29
With regard to the succession to the command of the Dalriadic
nation, that appears originally to have been governed by the
same rule as that of the single tribes, and it afterwards became
so frequently the subject of contention, that in general the most
powerful at the time obtained the supremacy.
Such, then, is a general view of these nations in the year 731.
The Picts, we have seen, were by far the most powerful of the
different nations inhabiting North Britain ; they possessed the
whole of Scotland proper, or Scotland north of the Firths of
Forth and Clyde, with the exception of the southern part of
Argyllshire, which was occupied by the Dalriads ; although
divided into numerous tribes, they were united under the rule of
one monarch, and while part of the nation had made consider-
able progress in civilization, and therefore may be supposed less
inured to warfare, the other part possessed all the hardihood and
constitutional bravery of a mountain people. The Dalriads, on
they occupied a small and
the contrary, were of far less power ;
mountainous district, and apparently owed their existence in
the heart of the Pictish tribes to the strength of their natural
barriers, the poverty of their country, and their alliance with
Ireland, and perhaps also to the policy with which they took
advantage of the jealousies and rivalry between the two great
nations of the Picts.
In the ninth centur}' we find the state of Scotland very
different ; the whole country was then united under the
government of one monarch, hereditary succession was firmly
established, the once formidable name of Picti gradually dis-
appearing, and the name of Scotia and Scotti, formerly confined
to so small a portion of the island, rapidly spreading over the
whole country. It must unquestionably have been a series of
events of no small importance which could have given rise to a
revolution so remarkable.