and perhaps one and all of them would give intimation to John Roy if they thought him in danger from such a leader and such a party. John Roy Stewart had no great cause to be alarmed, although friends felt some iudignation at even a show of hostility to a man so universally beloved. Things went on in this manner for sometime, to the amusement of some and the annoyance of others, until a wag took a bet of a pint of whisky that he would so frighten Grant as to make him cease tormenting John Roy for ever. He therefore proceeded to Grant's house, and having asked and obtained a private audience, he told him, with great gravity, that he had information of great importance to communicate; that he knew where John Roy was to sleep that night, and that he would conduct Grant and the party to the spot, provided they gave him a share of the reward. This, of course, was agreed to. The party assembled, and when the night became dark, they set out armed and accoutered, the wag having mentioned some sequestered dwelling at a considerable distance. When they were drawing near to the place the leader began to ask a great many questions-"Was he sure that John Roy would be there? Did he know if he had anybody with him? "for," he added, "should he have a stronger force than ours, it would be madness in us to attack him," to which the wag replied, "That John Roy never had more than one or two along with him, and that it would be a terrible disgrace if six-and-twenty would be afraid to attack two or three men, however powerful and desperate they might be." Grant then turned upon another tack. He began to express apprehensions that the outlaw was not there, "for," said he, "if we go to the house and not find him, it would put him no his guard, and there will be less chance of getting hold of him on a future period." "That is very true," replied the wag, "and, as it is not known that I have joined your party, and therefore will not be suspected, I shall go to the house and see, while you remain here until I return and bring certain intelligence." This plan was agreed to, and the wag set out at a good pace until he got out of sight, and then set himself down until a reasonable period had expired in which he might perform the journey. He then returned, and when he got to the party he began to caper and dance, exclaiming in an undertone of voice-" Great news, my lads! glorious news! what lucky dogs we are! our fortunes are made!" The leader now eagerly enquired what this good and great news were, and if he had seen John Roy, to which he replied, Yes, I have, and what is still better, Cluny Macpherson is along with him." "Cluny Macpherson!" exclaimed Grant. "Yes,

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Cluny Macpherson!" replied the wag, "we shall be the richest men in Strathspey-that is, the survivors of us!" He was then questioned as to how many attendants there were, to which he answered that there were only four, but that they were the largest and roughest fellows he had ever seen, and armed to the very teeth." The whole party now began to suspect the drift of their new associate, and eagerly demanded to be led on, saying that such an opportunity of making their fortunes would never again arise, to which the wag added-" "Tis very true that at least one half of us will be killed, but still so much the better for those that live." Grant now began to show the most unequivocal symptoms of terror, and proposed that they should wait till daylight before they surrounded the house, but his tormentor declared that Cluny and Stewart were never known to remain in their quarters till daylight, and the whole party, as with one voice, opposed the delay. At last the unfortunate Grant fell down in a state of insensibility, and when he partly recovered it was found necessary to wash him in the nearest stream before he was carried home. The news of the expedition circulated like wildfire, and continued to be the subject of conversation and jocular remark throughout the district for many a long day.

2nd APRIL, 1890.

The paper for this evening was contributed by Mr Hector Maclean, Islay, entitled "The Picts." Mr Maclean's paper was as follows:

THE PICTS.

Much has been written about who the Picts were, and whence they were. They were supposed by some to be Kelts, and by others to be Scandinavians; but persevering research has enabled scientific inquirers to ascertain that they were neither the one nor the other; and that, through time, they amalgamated with Gaels from Ireland on the west of North Britain, and with Brythons on the south-east side. They and the Caledonii were kindred peoples, if not quite the same; but there is reason to think that there was a large admixture of Gaels among the Caledonii in the time of Tacitus. Calgacus is believed by scholars to be a better

reading than Galgacus. Now Calgach is an ancient Irish name which points to a still older form Calcagos, which signifies swordsman. At p. 9 of his "Iberian and Belgian influence in Britain,” Mr Hyde Clarke states :- -"Caledonia is by its termination shown to be an Iberian name." At p. 4 ibid. he says:- "At a later period during my investigations for Khita decipherment, the word Nia comes out, a distinctive word for country, land. This we find in Britannia, Hibernia, Sardinia, Hispania, Lusitania, Acquitania, Mauritania, Tyrrhenia, Lucania, Sikania, Makedonia, Lakonia, Messenia, Acarnania, Carmania, Armenia, Germania, Paionia, Albania, Babylonia, Hyrcania." Calydon in Greece would seem to be a word akin to Caledonia. In Calydon there was a celebrated boar hunt, in which the King Meleager killed the boar, according to Greek mythological story; and, according to Gaelic Feinnian story, Diarmaid killed a fierce boar in Ireland or Hibernia, according to Irish tradition; and in Alban or Caledonia, according to Highland ballads and legends.

As to the red hair and large limbs which Tacitus ascribes to the Caledonians, whence he compared them to the Germans, it may be said that red hair is of various hues corresponding to different races there is the light-red or yellow-red hair of the Teutons; the bright-red or orange-red hair of the Kelts; and the red hair of the colour of iron rust to be seen among the Caffres. The Voguls, the same in race with the Magjars of Hungary, who are black-haired, separated far apart from the latter in Asia, are red-haired.

There was red hair in Ireland and in British Pictavia before the Kelts appeared in these regions. It likely abounded among the Fomorians who hailed from Africa, and the Children of Neimhidh, who succeeded the descendants of Partholon in Ireland. The Scandinavians, in the eighth and ninth centuries, intermixed largely with the Highland and Irish people, and in this comixture there was increase of fair skin, fair hair, and large stature. Large stature, white skin, and reddish hair abounded among the Amorites of Palestine, the Philistines, and the Lybians of Northern Africa. Of these latter were the Fomorians, who infested the coasts of Ireland, and intermarried with the successive peoples who held possession of that island. The Khabyles of Northern Africa, who are tall, ruddy-haired, and white-skinned, are the descendants of the ancient Libyans.

Professor Sayce says in his "The Hittites," pp. 15-17 :- “If the Egyptians have made the Hittites ugly, it was because they were so in reality. The Amorites, on the contrary, were a tall and

handsome people. They are depicted with white skins, blue eyes, and reddish hair, all the characteristics, in fact, of the white race. Mr Petrie points out their resemblance to the Dardanians of Asia Minor, who form an intermediate link between the white-skinned tribes of the Greek seas and the fair-complexioned Libyans of Northern Africa. The latter are still found in large numbers in the mountainous regions which stretch eastward from Morocco, and are usually known among the French under the name of Kabyles. The traveller who first meets with them in Algeria cannot fail to be struck by their likeness to a certain part of the population of the British Isles. Their clear white-freckled skin, their blue eyes, their golden-red hair, and tall stature, remind him of the fair Kelts of an Irish village; and when we find that their skulls, which are of the so-called dolichocephalic or long-headed type, are the same as the skulls discovered in the prehistoric cromlechs of the country they still inhabit, we may conclude that they represent the modern descendants of the white-skinned Libyans of the Egyptian monuments."

This freckled type of white-skinned, blue-eyed, and golden-red hair abounds in the Highlands as well as in Ireland, and they are to be distinguished on the one side from the orange-red-haired Kelts, and on the other from the milk-white-skinned Scandinavian type, which is never freckled. The former type owes its freckles to a thin skin, which is more influenced by sun and atmosphere than the thicker skinned Scandinavian type is, and has come down to us, intermingling, at first, with pre-Keltic races, subsequently with the Keltic race, and latterly with the Scandinavian type. Further on, Professor Sayce tells us :- "Tallness of stature has always been a distinguishing characteristic of the white race. Hence it was that the Anakim, the Amorite inhabitants of Hebron, seemed to the Hebrew spies to be as giants, while they themselves were but as grasshoppers' by the side of them (Numb. xiii. 33). After the Israelitish invasion, remnants of the Anakim were left in Gaza and Askelon (Josh. xi. 22), and in the time of David Goliath of Gath and his gigantic family were objects of dread to their neighbours (2 Sam. xx. 15-22).

"It is clear, then, that the Amorites of Canaan belonged to the same white race as the Libyans of Northern Africa, and like them preferred the mountains to the hot plains and valleys below. The Libyans themselves belonged to a race which can be traced through the peninsula of Spain and the western side of France into the British Isles. Now it is curious that wherever this particular branch of the white race has extended, it has been accompanied by

a particular form of cromlech, or sepulchral chambers built of large uncut stones. The stones are placed upright in the ground, and covered over with large slabs, the whole chamber being subsequently concealed under a tumulus of small stones or earth. Not unfrequently the entrance to the cromlech is approached by a sort of corridor. These cromlechs are found in Britain, in France, in Spain, in Northern Africa, and in Palestine, more especially on the eastern side of the Jordan, and the skulls that have been exhumed from them are the skulls of men of the dolichocephalous or longheaded type." Ibid. p. 17.

The Nemetes were a nation of Germany at the west of the Rhine; the Nemetatæ were, according to Ptolemy, a people of Heispania Tarraconensis; Nemetobriga was a city of Hispania Tarraconensis; and Nemetacum was a town of Gaul. Now these names correspond with Neimhidh, the progenitor of the Clanna Neimheadh, the second colony that conquered Ireland, in accordance with Irish legendary history; and they follow each other in succession through Spain and France to the south-west of Germany, and are connected, apparently, with the Children of Neimhidh in Ireland. Fomhorach, Seafarer," now contracted into Fomhor, signifies a giant both in Ireland and Scotland; in Argyllshire it is famhair, and fuamhair in the North Highlands. In Nott and Gliddon's Types of Manhood, the likenesses of the Tokkari on the Egyptian monuments are considered, who were taken prisoners, being invaders of Egypt by sea. They are compared with tall men of irregular features seen in the Highlands of Scotland.

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It is now agreed among ethnologists, and Professor Rhys has lately expressed the same opinion in some of his lectures, that the Picts are not so called because they painted or tattooed their bodies. It was evidently a name by which they called themselves. The name Picti is, without doubt, cognate with Pictones or Pictavi, an Aquitanian or Iberian people situated to the south of the Loire. In the "Chronicle of the Scots," "Skene's Chronicles of the Picts and Scots," p. 380, we have this passage :"And when Iber comme to eild Gayele send him in yat cuntre, yat now is callet Irland, and fand it vakande but of a certainne of Gewictis, ye quhilk he distroyt, and inhabyt yat land, and callit eftir his modir Scota, Scotia." Gewicht is here is, without doubt, from a Gaelic form Ciocht, into which, at a certain period, the Gaels, when they could not pronounce p, substituted c for it, as in the case with Caisg from the Latin "paschus," and clann, "children," from the Latin "planta," whence the Welsh plant, which means the same as clann. Mr Whitley Stokes has shown