The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

50 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i
triumphantly adduced by the author above alluded to,i and shews
that a place may from various circumstances have two names,
both of which can be traced to the same language. It will
be unnecessary to produce other instances in proof of the fact
that the names of places have almost universally remained
unaltered to the present day from a very early period. A perusal
of Adomnan's life of St. Columba will of itself be sufficient
to establish the fact in respect of Scottish topography, and
numerous examples will be found in other sources. These
three proofs then which we have brought forward suffice to shew
that the Picts must have spoken a Gaelic dialect, and form
a body of evidence much stronger than any which can generally
be adduced regarding the language of a nation of which no
written memorial has come down to us.
Aibani the With regard to their national appellation, it may
appellation be remarked that besides the evidence of the Welsh
Triads, the Pictish Chronicle shows that they were
known in the ninth century by the name of Gael. That chronicle
mentions, in the reign of Donald, the brother and successor of
Kenneth Mac Alpin, the following circumstance :— " In hujus
tempore jura ac leges regni Edi filii Ecdachi fecerunt Goedeli
cum rege suo in Fothuirtabaict." The kingdom of Edus or
Edfin was, it is well known, the Scottish kingdom of Dalriada
prior to the conquest. Now, if by the word Goedeli the Scots
are meant, it is impossible to conceive how .they could come
to enact laws which were already the laws of their kingdom.
The manner in which the passage is expressed plainly indicates
that the Goedeli were different altogether from the regnum Edi,
and that the Goedeli were enacting the laws of a kingdom
different from their own. The transaction has also plainly the
appearance of a species of treaty or compact between the Goedeli
on the one hand and the king on the other. We know that
the regnum Edi was the Scottish kingdom, and that Donald,
at that time king, was of Scottish lineage, and a descendant
of P2dfin. The only mode by which an intelligible construction
can be put upon this passage, is to suppose that the Goedeli
here refers to the Picts, and that the Pictish Chronicle is
^ " Inverin qui fuit Aberin."— Chalmers.