LETTERS TO A TRAVELLER AMONG THE ALPS. LETTER LXXVI. FROM the southern we are now to bend and our way to the northern part of Britain VOL. V. not dominion. They governed part of Caledonia. These Picts were the first people who checked the career of the Roman eagle, even so far as to oblige the Romans to build works of defence, against the recoil of northern valour. * "The German Scythians, who peopled Scandinavia,” observes Pinkerton, "were the Peukini and Sitones, two divisions of the Easternæ; and called so, probably, from the island of Пeun in the Euxine Sea, at the mouth of the Danube, whence they proceeded; an island finely describ-. ed by Appollonius Rhodius, in his poem of Argonautics, written about two hundred and fifty years before Christ. From these came the Picts or Caledonians of Scotland. The Oceanus Deucaledonius is made, by Ptolemy, an extension of the Baltic, or Sarmaticus, AgнaλudoviW TE HOU Σαρματικω ;” and he expressly says, it was on the north, agun, of Britain. Caledonians, however, are in another manner derived from Caeldon, the "Gauls of the Hills," who are possessed of the more mountainous division of Great Britain. + The Britons, as was a common practice among the Celts, painted their bodies with different colours. They likewise, as is done by the peo pla * Pownall. + Macpherson. * ple of the South Sea Islands at this hour, engraved by punctures on their skins the figures of various animals. This probably gained them, says a great man, the name of Britten or Briton. And hence, what Martial calls the people of Britain, Picti Britanni. From the same reason, it is said, the Romans gave the Scots the appellation of Picts. The Latin word at least warrants the conjecture. These strange and painful ornaments, however, served to express political distinctions, and the nobility of families. Slaves were not permitted to paint their bodies. Inferior people, though born free, were still confined to little marks. The great alone had the privilege of lacerating their whole frames; and hence, face, body, hands, arms, legs, and feet, were all tattooed in the boldest and most animated style. As civilization, however, increased, this practice, with the consequent nakedness of the human figure, fell into disuse. Men began to clothe themselves; but still anxious for blazoned superiority, they transferred to shields and banners, what they before exhibited on their own bodies. You will smile at this supposed origin of heraldic glories, and probably with reason. The A 3 source, Leibnitz Glossar. + Pellontier. source, as relative to other nations, certainly lies. deeper in antiquity. His arms were to the Scythian, the friend of his manhood, when he rejoiced in his strength; and they attended him in his age, when he wept over his weakness. Of these the shield was the most memorable; "and what is worthy of remark," says a learned writer,*"the ornaments he bestowed upon it, were in time to produce the art of blazonry, and the occupation of the herald. Coats of arms. were to be necessary to distinguish from each other warriors, who were completely cased from head to foot; Scuta lectissimis coloribus distinguunt. Christianity introduced the sign of the cross; and vanity, or wisdom, was to multiply devices." The motto likewise, most probably, came from the cry d'armes of the middle ages: or you may, if you please, go farther back even to Gideon; who, when going against the Midianites, gave the word "to the Lord and Gideon." These cries were supposed to incite to valour. Deus adjuva, Deus vult, were cries during the Crusades. Every banneret, or every knight who had a banner, had a cry peculiar to himself and the troops under his command. Barons had also their cries. Among * Stuart. + Tacitus, Among the Romans, from the days of Romulus, we read of the clypeus and the scutum.. On these they represented symbols of the gallant actions of their ancestors, or of the deeds from which they themselves had derived renown. Hence Virgil, describing the shield of one of the kings against whom Eneas fought, says, Clypeoque insigne paternum Centum angues, cinctamque gerit serpentibus hydram. Appius Claudius introduced the usage of dedicating, and hanging them up in the temples, and other sacred buildings; Suorum clypeos in sacro vel publico loco privatim dicare primus instituit Appius Claudius. The loss of the shield, was as infamous as running away. And hence the Lacedæmonian mothers, on presenting their sons with their bucklers, on going to battle, had this saying, aut in his, aut cum his. And the fathers, likewise, (it being the custom to bear the bodies of the slain on shields)-aut bunc, aut super hunc. The old branches of the Scythian stem in Ireland also, we are told, made use of no other arms of distinction in their banners, than a serpent twisted round a weapon. * "Can the vanquished carry joy? No shield is mine! It is broken on the field. It is when |