PICTS, the ancient inhabitants of the north-eastern provinces of Scotland. Everything connected withae history of the Picts has been made matter of controversy, and it is not easy to ascertain the truth, where the information given by early writers is so scanty,. and where most modern authors seem only to have looked for materials to support a favorite theory.
It will be unnecessary to enter on an examination of the name itself. The "Picts" of the Romans probably represented a word by which the nation was known in its own language, as well as the barbaric custom to which the well-known expression of Clau dia'', " nee falso nomine Pictos," bears reference. Of much more importance is the inquiry regarding the origin and language of the Picts. This is what, among Scottish antiquaries, has been emphatically called "the Pictish question;" respecting which the best-known and most amusing, and certainly not the least useful discussion. is that between Jonathan Oldbuck and sir Arthur Wardour, in the sixth chapter of The Anti quary. The disputants can hardly even now be said to be agreed; but the prevailing opinion is, what sound criticism always pointed to, that the Picts were a Celtic race— perhaps the first known inhabitants of northern Britain, and (as some hold) to be itien,i tird with the Caledonians of the Roman writers. At the time when they became generally spoken of under the name of Picts, they occupied the whole territory n. of the firth of Forth, except the western portion, which' had been colonized or subdued by the ScoLs. another Celtic nation, whose chief seat was in Ireland—the proper and ancient Scotland. Toe southern boundary of the Picts was the Roman province of Valentin, embracing the territory between the two Roman walls. At a later period, when 13ritain was aban doned by its imperial rulers, the boundaries of the various nations occupying the north ern art of the island may be traced with considerable distinctness. 31aking allowance for partial changes at various times, these boundaries may be held to be the following: The Pictish territory extended along the whole sea-coast from the firth of Forth to the Pentland firth. It was bounded on the w. by the country of the Scots, which extended along the western coast from the firth of Clyde to the modern Ross-shire; but the precise line between the two nations cannot be ascertained. The country of the Picts was
hounded on the s. by the firth of Forth and the province of Lothian, then possessed by the English; while the country of the Scots had tor its southern boundaries the firth of Clyde and the kingdom of Cumbria, held by the independent Britons The Pictish nation consisted of two great divisions, called the northern and the southern Picts, the boundary between them being the mountain range known afterwards' as the Grampians,. These divisions seem at some times to have been ruled by different princes. at other times to have been under one sovereign. The Picts were converted to Chris tianity at different periods. The southern Picts received the faith from St. Nininn, biAlop of Canlida Casa, early in the 5th century. This is mentioned by Bede, and the fact itself has never been doubted; but controversy, as usual, has been busy with the details. The point in dispute is the situation of the Picts who owed their conversion to Nininn (q.v.). A careful examination of the statements of venerable. Bede, and the fuller but less trustworthy narrative of Allred of Rievaux, will show that the southern Picts, converted by Nininn, Lind their seat north of the Forth; that they were, in fact, the great division of the Pictish nation occupying the country between the firth and the Gram pians. The labors of Ninian were carried on and completed by teachers whose names are well known to the readers of eeclesiastieal history—Pallafflus, Serf, Tertian. and others. The northern Picts owed their conversion to a teacher of higher renown—St. Columba (q.v.). The life of that abbot, from his leaving Ireland in 563, to his death in 597, was chiefly spent in converting the northern Picts. Their ruler at this time wag Brittle, son of Mailcon, whom Bede styles a very powerful king. His chief residence was on the banks of the Ness, and there Columba baffled and confuted the heathen Magi in the manner recorded by his biographer Adamnan. It is impossible to ascertain the precise character of the superstitions held by the Picts before their conversion. Those whom Adamnan calls Magi, are by some modern writers styled Druids,.and their religion is said to have been a species of Druidism—whatever that may be held to mean.