Gothis." I ask who these Goths, in Britain were, Belisarius speaketh of, if they were not the Picts? which cer tainly they behoved to be, by the preceeding arguments.

CHAP. VI.

Concerning the Manners, and Policy, and the Religious Rites of the Pias.

To give an account of the manners, policy, and religious

rites of the Picts, we must have our recourse to the vestiges of them which do yet remain amongst us, and to the Latin historians.

The government and civil policy of the Picts was like to that of the Germans from whom they sprung: of them Tacitus remarks, 1. de Germaniâ, c. 7. " Reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute sumunt.—Nec regibus infinita aut li bera potestas:" they had their convention, as shall be shewn afterwards, in which the matters of great moment wert concluded.— Duces ex virtute sumunt, et duces exemplo potius quam imperio, si prompti, si conspicui: si ante aciem agant, admiratione præsunt.—Cæterum neque animadver tere, neque vincire, neque verberare quidem nisi sacerdotibus permissum: non quasi in pœnam nec ducis jussu, sed velut deo imperante, quem adesse bellantibus credunt effigiesque, et signa quædam detracta lucis in prælium ferunt, &c. &c."

1 "We give to you Sicily, that large and rich island, without which your possession of Africa is insecure. And Belisarius in return, said, we yield Britain to the Goths: which is much larger than Sicily, and which belongs to the Romans by ancient right."

2 "They make choise of their kings for their noble extraction, their com manders

He says, cap. 11. "De minoribus rebus principes consultant, de majoribus omnes. Ita tamen, ut ea quoque, quorum penes plebem arbitrium est, apud principes pertractentur." And below he saith, "Silentium, per sacerdotes, quibus tum et coercendi jus est, imperatur, mox, rex vel princeps, prout ætas cuique, prout nobilitas, prout decus bellorum, prout facundia est, audiuntur auctoritate suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate. Si displicuit sententia, fremitu adspernantur: sin placuit, frameas concutiunt. Honoratissimum

manders and generals for their courage.—Nor have their kings a boundless and unlimited power: Their captains they prefer more for example than command, if active, if of presence of mind, and behave themselves well at the head of the army. But it's not permitted to reprimand, nor put in chains, nor indeed chastise, to any but to the priests; not as if it were for a punishment, or by orders of the captain, but as if their gods commanded it, whom they believe assisting in their engagements. They carry the effigies, and certain banners taken down from the groves, into the battel: and what is the chief incitement to their courage, is not chance, nor a fortuitous embodying, which composes the squadron or pointed battel, but their own family and nearest relations, and hard by are their children; from whence the lamentations of their women and cries of their infants may be heard: these are the most sacred witnesses, and the highest applauders of every man's bravery. To their mothers and wives they declare their hurts; nor are they afraid to number or suck their wounds: they carry provisions to, and animate them, when they're fighting. It's recorded, that certain troops beginning to stagger and giving ground, were made to rally again by the women, by their importunities, the exposing of their own breasts, and demonstrating their approaching captivity; which upon the account of their women, they bear with much more impatience: so the affection and faith of these clans are the more effectually secur'd, to whom (inter obsides puellæ quoque nobiles imperantur) orders are given to send amongst their hostages the noblest virgins. Moreover, they think there's something sacred in them, and provident and foreseeing; neither do they reject their counsel, or neglect to follow their advice." SIBBALD.

That is, " Of little affairs the princes, of greater all in general advise so, notwithstanding that, these things, whose arbitration is in the power of the populace, are fully canvass'd amongst the princes." SIBBALD.

Honoratissimum assensus genus est, armis laudare

This was the policy amongst the Germans, the ancestors of the Picts; and who will compare the vestiges of the Picts' government, which are mentioned in the Roman writers, will see the Picts had the same. Thus Tacitus tells us of Galgacus, who commanded the army of the associated Caledonians, consisting of Scots and Picts, that he was "inter plures duces virtute et genere præstans 2." And Dio, in his account of Severus, says, that when the emperor was treating a peace with the Caledonians, Argentocoxus Caledonius treated with him, and he was the chief of the clan, which was named from the painting of their body with a red colour, as these who were of a Gothic extract marked their bodies as the Goths did with cinnaber, as is insinuated here by the word coch, which signifies a red or scarlet colour. That the kings' of the Picts power was limited, is clear also from what Tacitus saith in the life of Agricola, cap. 12. "Olim regibus parebant, nunc per principes factionibus et studiis trahuntur ." And Dio in Severus saith of them," Apud hos populus magna ex parte principatum tenet 4;" which is to be understood as Tacitus represented the government of the Germans in the place cited before: for Tacitus telleth us, that the Caledonians had their conventions, in which they G 2 consulted

1 « Silence is commanded by the priests, in whom there is lodg'd then the coercive power1 by and by the king or prince, according to every one's age, their quality, reputation gain'd in the wars, or talent in rhetorick, are heard, more by the authority of persuading, than the power of commanding: if the opinion displeases, it's rejected by a murmuring; if it pleases, they clash their weapons: it's the most honourable manner of assent, to applaud it with their arms." Sibbald.

2 "He was preferr'd for his high birth and great virtue." Sibbald. 3" They were formerly govern'd by kings; but now they are divided into factions and parties, by some ringleaders." Sibbald.

4 "The people for the most part hath the government." SIBBALD

consulted about the matters of greatest importance, cap. 27. in Agricola, thus: "At Britanni non virtute sed occasione et arte ducis rati, nihil ex arrogantiâ remittere, quo minus juventutem armarent, conjuges ac liberos in loça tuta transferrent, cætibus ac sacrificiis, conspirationem civitatum sancirent." And it is very like, in these meetings the same order and manner was observed, which was observed, as was said, by the Germans their ancestors.

Our historian John Fordun, gives us a list of the kings of the Picts in the tenth and twelfth chapters of his fourth book of his history of the Scots: Titulo, De catalogo Regum Pictorum, thus:

20

40

12 Blarehasserath*

13 Frachna the white

14 Thalarger Amfrud*

15 Canatalmel

16 Dongardnethles*

20 17 Feredath,* son of Fynyel 2

18 Garnard

"The Britains supposing themselves defeated, not by the courage of their adversaries, but conduct of their general, who had watched his opportunity, abated nothing of their arrogance, but listed the stoutest men they had, and carried their wives and children to places of the greatest security. The clans confederated together, meeting frequently, and by religious rites and offering up sacrifices, confirmed their association." Sib.

From the name of this king, the Irish, fond of patronymics, called the Pics Cruitnich.

3 In the list of Pictish kings, given in the appendix from Chron. Pi&. there will be found 14 betwixt Cruythne and Ghede, there called Gilgide. The improbability of the statement of Fordun, that two kings reigned 250 years, sufficiently marks his list as defective,

These marked are not found in Chron. Pict.

Hurgust or Hungus, is a palpable forgery of the priests of St. Andrews, fabricated because a Hungus founded that city about 825; and they wanted, to obtain the reputation of higher antiquity, to derive their origin from a foreign saint, whose romantic and perilous voyage might interest a credulous people, and to inculcate the profitable belief, that they possessed apostolic relicks, brought to them from a distance by the divine command, and a supernatural agency.

3 Distinguished as this prince is for his great age and warlike exploits— which is the meaning of the barbaric title, King of 100 years and 100 battles, his reign is still more memorable for the introduction of order and truth into our history. The length of the reigns ascribed to some of the kings before this, shews, that the list had been compiled merely from tradition. Afterwards the reigns are reduced to a probable duration, and the dates of the accession of many of the princes arc ascertained—advantages that are derived from the introduction of some degree of literature along with Christianity. St. Ninian, bishop of Candida-casa, or Whitherne, had begun to convert the southern Picts, i. e. those between the Forth and the Grampians, about 412. Durst began to reign in 413; for Chron. Pict. mentions, that St. Patrick went to Ireland in the 19th year of his reign; and it is known, that this event took place in 432.

4 Palladius must have been sent to the inhabitants of Ireland, the only Scoti of that age. Had he been sent to this country, many memorials of him must have been preserved. In these superstitious ages, when so many churches and chapels were dedicated to almost every saint of the calendar, the celebrated missionary of Pope Celestine could not have been forgotten.

But