The Ethnology of the British Islands Part 4

Now, it so happens that _Morini_ and _Durotriges_ are words that can as little be considered as synonymous terms belonging to different languages as _Lowlander_ and _Borderer_; since good reasons can be given for referring them _both_ to the Keltic. Their _exact_ import is difficult to ascertain; but if we suppose them to mean _coasters_ and _watersidemen_, respectively, we get a clear view of the unlikelihood of one being German and the other Keltic. Thus--

_Duro-triges_ coincides with the Latin compound _ponticolae_, since _dwr_ in Welsh, Cornish, and Armorican means _water_, and _trigau_ means _to remain_ or _to inhabit_; _trig-adiad_ denoting _dwellers_, or inhabitants, as is well remarked by Prichard, v. iii. 128.

_Mor_, in _Morini_, is neither more nor less than the Latin word _mare_.[6] Surely this sets aside all arguments drawn from the supposed bilingual character of the words _Morini_ and _Durotriges_.

The _Cauci_ and _Menapii_ of Ireland tell a different tale. One name without the other would prove but little; but when we find _Cauci_ in Germany not far from _Menapii_, and _Menapii_ in Ireland not far from _Chauci_, the case becomes strengthened. Yet the likelihood of _Menap_, being the same word as the _Menai_ of the _Menai Straits_ in Wales, suggests the probability of that word being a geographical term.

Nevertheless, the contiguity of the two nations is an argument as far as it goes.

And here I must remark, that the process by which words originally very different may become identified when they pa.s.s into a fresh language is not sufficiently attended to. _Cauci_ is the form which an Irish, _Chauci_ that which a German, word takes in Latin. And the two words are alike. Yet it is far from certain that they would be thus similar if we knew either the Gaelic original of one, or the German of the other. A dozen forms exceedingly different might be excogitated, which, provided that they all agreed in being strange to a Roman, would, when moulded into a Latin form, become alike. Still the argument, as far as it goes, is valid.

Such are the reasons for believing, at one and the same time, that the Britons came from Belgic Gaul, and that the Belgae from whence they came were Kelts.

We cannot, however, so far consider the origin of the British branch of the Keltic stock to be disposed of, as to proceed forthwith to the Gaelic; another population requires a previous notice. This is the Pict.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] These are the exact words of one of the ablest supporters of the Germanic origin of the south-eastern Britons, Mr. E. Adams, in a paper ent.i.tled, "Remarks on the probability of Gothic Settlements in Britain Previously to A.D. 450."--_Philological Transactions_, No. ciii.

[6] This root is important. As it means _sea_ in more European languages than one, it has created a philological difficulty in the case of a very interesting gloss, _Mori-marusa_, meaning _dead sea_; where by a strange coincidence the same consonants (_m-r_) are repeated, but with a difference of meaning.

Prichard, who drew attention to this remarkable compound, having stated that a pa.s.sage in Pliny informed us that the _Cimbri_ called the sea in their neighbourhood _Mori-marusa_, inferred that the name was Cimbric; and further argued, that as _mor mawth_ in Welsh meant the same, the Cimbric tongue was Welsh, Cambrian, or British. As far as it went the inference was truly legitimate; but the reasoning which led to it was deficient. The likelihood of there being more languages than one wherein both _mor_ meant _sea_, and _mor_ meant _dead_, was overlooked; though one of the languages that supplied the coincidence was the Latin--_mare mort-uum_.

Another such a tongue was the Slavonic; and to that tongue I imagine _Morimarusa_ to be referrible. I also imagine that by the _Cimbri_ of Pliny were meant the _Cimmerii_; so that the Sea of Azof was the true Dead Sea; or, perhaps, the Propontis; in which case its present name, the _Sea of Marmora_, is explained.

The name of the Province, _Ar-mor-ica_, means the _country on the sea_, and if rendered in Latin would be _ad mare_. _Ar-gail_ is such another word; and it was the name of the landing-place of the _Gael_=_ad Gallos_.

To the Gaelic _Ar-mor-ica_, the Slavonians have an exact parallel in the word _Po-mor-ania_; where _po_ means _on_, and _mor_ the _sea_.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PICTS.--LIST OF KINGS.--PENN FAHEL.--ABER AND INVER.--THE PICTS PROBABLY, BUT NOT CERTAINLY, BRITONS.

The Picts have never been considered Romans; but, with that exception, a relations.h.i.+p with every population of the British Isles has been claimed for them. As Germans on the strength of Tacitus' description of their physical conformation of the Caledonian, and as Germans on the strength of the supposed Germanic origin of the Belgae, the Picts have been held the ancestors of the present Lowland Scotch. They have been considered Scandinavians also. On the other hand, they have been made Gaels, in which case it is the Highlanders who are their offspring. They have been considered Britons, and they have been considered a separate stock.

That they were Kelts rather than Germans is the commonest doctrine, and that they were Britons rather than Gaels is a common one; the arguments that prove the latter proving the first _a fortiori_.

We approach the subject with a notice of the Irish missionary St.

Columba.n.u.s, whose native tongue was, of course, the Irish Gaelic. This was unintelligible to the Northern Picts, as is expressly stated on in Adamma.n.u.s:--"Alio in tempore quo Sanctus Columba in Pictorum provincia per aliquot demorabatur dies, quidam c.u.m tota plebeius familia, verb.u.m _vitae_ per interpretatorem, _Sancto praedicante viro_, audiens credidit, credensque baptizatus est."--_Ad.a.m.n. ap. Colganum._ l. ii. c. 32.

This, however, only shews that the Pict was not exactly and absolutely Irish. It might have approached it. It might also be far more unlike than the Welsh was.

A doc.u.ment known as the Colbertine MS., from being published from the Colbertine Library, contains a list of Pictish kings. This has been a.n.a.lysed 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 pa.s.sage, 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 _p.r.o.nunciation_ 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 subst.i.tuted 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 gives a different form, the variation which results is as much a gloss of the tongue wherein it occurs, as if the word were indigenous. Hence, whether we say that _pen val_ are Pict glosses, or that _pen_ is a Pict _gloss_, and _val_ a Pict _form_ is a matter of practical indifference.

The _Vallum Antonini_ was a work of man's hands, and its name is of less value than those of natural objects, such as _mountains_, _rivers_, or _lakes_. Nevertheless, these latter have been examined: thus the _Ochel_ Hills in Perths.h.i.+re are better explained by the Welsh form _uchel_ than by the Gaelic _nasal_. But the most important word of all is the first element of the words _Aber_-nethy, and _Inver_-nethy. Both mean the same, _i.e._, the _confluence of waters_, or something very much of the sort. Both enter freely into composition, and the compounds thus formed are found over the greater part of the British Isles as the names of the mouths of the larger and more important rivers. But it is only a few districts where the two names occur together. Just as we expect _a priori_ _aber_ occurs when _inver_ is not to be found, and _vice versa_.

Of the two extremes Ireland is the area where _aber_, Wales where _inver_ is the rarer of the two forms; indeed so rare are they that the one (_aber_) rarely, if ever, occurs in Ireland, the other (_inver_) rarely, if ever, in Wales. Now as Ireland is Gaelic, and Welsh British, the two words may fairly be considered to indicate, where they occur, the presence of these two different tongues respectively.

The distribution of the words in question has long been an instrument of criticism in determining both the ethnological position of the Pict nation, and its territorial extent; and the details are well given in the following table of Mr. Kemble's:

"If we now take a good map of England and Wales and Scotland, we shall find the following data:--

"In Wales:

"Aber-ayon, lat. 51 37' N., long. 3 46' W.

Aber-afon, lat. 51 37' N.

Abergavenny, lat. 51 49' N., long. 3 0' W.

Abergwilli, lat. 51 51' N., long. 4 16' W.

Aberystwith, lat. 52 24' N., long. 4 6' W.

Aberfraw, lat. 53 12' N., long. 4 30' W.

Abergee, lat. 53 17' N., long. 3 17' W.

"In Scotland:

"Aberlady, lat. 56 1' N., long. 2 52' W.

Aberdour, lat. 56 4' N., long. 3 16' W.

Aberfoil, lat. 56 11' N., long. 4 24' W.

Abernethy, lat. 56 20' N., long. 3 20' W.

Aberbrothic, lat. 56 33' N., long. 2 35' W.

Aberfeldy, lat. 56 37' N., long. 3 55' W.

Abergeldie, lat. 57 5' N., long. 3 10' W.

Aberchalder, lat. 57 7' N., long. 4 44' W.

Aberdeen, lat. 57 8' N., long. 2 8' W.

Aberchirdir, lat. 57 35' N., long. 2 34' W.

Aberdour, lat. 57 40' N., long. 2 16' W.

Inverkeithing, lat. 56 2' N., long. 3 36' W.

Inverary, lat. 56 15' N., long. 5 5' W.

Inverarity, lat. 56 36' N., long. 2 54' W.

Inverbervie, lat. 56 52' N., long. 2 21' W.

Invergeldie, lat. 57 1' N., long. 3 12' W.

Invernahavan, lat. 57 2' N., long. 4 12' W.

Invergelder, lat. 57 4' N., long. 3 15' W.

Invermorison, lat. 57 14' N., long. 4 34' W.

Inverness, lat. 57 29' N., long. 4 11' W.

Invernetty, lat. 57 29' N., long. 1 51' W.

Inveraslie, lat. 57 59' N., long. 4 40' W.

Inver, lat. 58 10' N., long. 5 10' W.