5

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NOTES. 339
Mr. Pinkarton, that he may appropriate to his beloved Goths
the sepulchral monuments wherein burnt human bones are fonnd,
says (vol, 1. p. 4l3.)-^there is no room to believe that the Celts
ever burned their dead at all. Will any man imagine that he
could be ignorant of the following passage of Cajsar (lib. 6. cap,
19.) Funera sum, pro cullu Gallorum, magnifica et sumptuoia.
iimniaque quae vims cordi fuisse arbitrantur in ignem inferunty
eiiam animalia; ac paulo supra hanc memoriam servi et clienteSj
quos ah its dilectos esse constabat,justisfunebribus covfcctis, una
cremabantur—i. e. " The funerals of the Gauls, considering
their circumstances, are magnificent and sumptuous; and they
throw irXo the fire whatever they imagine was most esteemed
by the deceased when alive, and even animals. A little before
the recollection of the present day, those servatits and clients
who were most beloved by them (the-necessary funeral rites being
performed), were burnt along with them." This is another instance
of Mr. Pinkarton's disingenuity.
Indeed he has, in many cases, hard work, but his dexterity is
admirable, though, in some instances, extremely ludicrous.
The
vitrified forts in Scotland have outlived both history and tradition.
There was therefore no authority for making them Pictish,
for which cause he does not mention them in the text, but in«
forms us by a note, (v. 2. p. 251.) that they were built by one
Vaull Macktyre in the 13th century. In the present case his
usual ingenuity seems to have failed. As it was his intention
not to ascribe them to the Celts, he should have assigned then
to some gentleman of Gothic name ; for as Vaull Macktyre was,
from the very name, clearly a Celt, these edifices must still be
Celtic. Strange ! that he could not have rendered them a lusus
natures, or made Torfceus swallow thera.
The Celtic names which every where occur, are a source of
infinite uneasiness to Mr. Pinkarton. He has indeed laid it
down as an axiom. That language is the surest mark, whereby
to discover the origin of nations. Yet he will not allow one ar.
gument to be deduced from this axiom }n favour of the Celts^
but monopolizes the whole for his beloved Picts. Vid Penden.