brary, contains a list of Pictish kings. This has been
analysed by Innes and Garnett; and the result is, that two names only
are more Gaelic in their form than Welsh--viz., _Cineod_ or _Kenneth_,
and _Domhnall_ or _Donnell_. The rest are either absolutely contrary to
what they would be if they were Gaelic, or else British rather than
aught else. Thus, the Welsh _Gurgust_ appears in the Irish Annal as
_Fergus_, or _vice versa_. Now the Pict form of this name is _Wrgwst_,
with a final T, and without an initial F. _Elpin_, _Drust_, _Drostan_,
_Wrad_, and _Necton_ are close and undoubted Pict equivalents to the
Welsh names _Owen_, _Trwst_, _Trwstan_ (_Tristram_), _Gwriad_, and
_Nwython_.

The readers of the Antiquary well know the prominence given to the only
two common terms of the Pict language in existence _pen val_, or as it
appears in the oldest MSS. of Beda _peann fahel_. This is the _head of
the wall_, or _caput vall_, being the eastern extremity (there or
thereabouts) of the Vallum of Antoninus. Now the present Welsh form for
_head_ is _pen_; the Gaelic _cean_. Which way the likeness lies here, is
evident. For the _fahel_ (or _val_) the case is less clear. The Gaelic
form is _fhail_, the Welsh _gwall_; the Gaelic being the nearest.

But some collateral evidence on this subject more than meets the
difficulty. "In the Durham MSS. of Nennius, apparently written in the
twelfth century, there is an interpolated passage, stating that the spot
in question was in the Scottish or Gaelic language called _Cenail_.
Innes and others have remarked the resemblance between this appellation
and the present Kinneil; but no one appears to have noticed that
_Cenail_ accurately represents the _pronunciation_ of the Gaelic _cean
fhail_, literally _head of wall_, _f_ being quiescent in construction. A
remarkable instance of the same suppression occurs in _Athole_, as now
written, compared with the _Ath-fothla_ of the Irish annalists.
Supposing, then, that _Cenail_ was substituted for _peann fahel_ by the
Gaelic conquerors of the district, it would follow that the older
appellation was _not_ Gaelic, and the inference would be obvious."[7]

In thus making _pen val_ a Pict gloss, I by no means imagine that any of
the three forms were originally Keltic at all; since _val_, _gwal_,
_fhail_ all seem variations of the Roman _vallum_, at least, in respect
to their immediate origin. Still, if out of three languages, adopting
the same word, each