draw any conclusions as to the affinities of the language of the Picts
is so extremely scanty that the question has been the subject of great
controversy. The Picts are first mentioned by Eumenius (A.D. 297), who
regarded them as having inhabited Britain in the time of Caesar. In the
year 368 they are described by Ammianus Marcellinus as invading the
Roman province of Britain in conjunction with the Irish Scots. In
Columba's time we find the whole of Scotland east of Drumalban and north
of the Forth divided into two kingdoms--north and south Pictland--and it
is reasonable to identify the Picts, at any rate in part, with the
Caledonians of the classical authors. Galloway and Co. Down were also
inhabited by Picts. Bede in enumerating the languages of Britain
mentions those of the Britons, Picts, Scots and the English. The names
by which the Picts are known in history have aroused considerable
discussion. It seems natural to connect Lat. _Picti_ with the _Pictones_
and _Pictavi_ of Gaul, but in Irish they are known as _Cruithne_, which
appears in Welsh as _Prydyn_, "Pict"; cp. _Prydein_, "Britain," forms
corresponding to the earliest Greek name for these islands, [Greek:
nesoi Pretanikai].

Three conflicting theories have been held as to the character of the
Pictish language. Rhys, relying on the strange character of the Scottish
Ogam inscriptions, pronounces it to be non-Celtic and non-Indo-European.
In this he has been followed by Zimmer, who bases his argument on the
Pictish rule of succession. Skene maintained that the Picts spoke a
language nearly allied to Goidelic, whilst Stokes, Loth, Macbain,
D'Arbois and Meyer are of opinion that Pictish was more closely related
to Brythonic. Of personal names mentioned by classical writers we have
Calgacus and Argentocoxus, both of which are certainly Celtic. The names
occurring in Ptolemy's description of Scotland have a decidedly Celtic
character, and they seem, moreover, to bear a greater resemblance to
Brythonic than to Goidelic, witness such tribal designations as Epidii,
Cornavii, Damnonii, Decantae, Novantae. In the case of all these names,
however, it should be borne in mind that they probably reached the
writers of antiquity through Brythonic channels. Bede mentions that the
east end of the Antonine Wall terminated at a place called in Pictish
_Pean-fahel_, and in Saxon _Penneltun_. _Pean_ resembles Old Welsh
_penn_, "head," Old Irish _cenn_, and the second element may