SRANN, snore.

STALLA, an overhanging rock.

STAMHNADH, taming (a horse).
STIUIR, guide.

STOR, a steep cliff.

SRON, a nose.

RANN, song.

TULA, a hill.

TAMH, quiet.

DRUIDH, teacher.
TORR, a hill.

ROINN, a peninsula.

At present sliabh is in all our Gaelic dictionaries, but looking at the above list is there not some reason for saying that iiabh also ought to be regarded as an independent word, and have a place given it in all future lexicons, adding a reference to sliabh, and a note to the effect that this form is theoretical or ideal.

Who were the Picts? There have been three theories about them.

One idea is, or was, that they were a non-Celtic race. Another opinion is that they were Cymro-Celtic. A third theory is that they were GaelicCeltic.

In considering the claims of the two latter views, some writers attach great importance to the word aber (the mouth of a river); to the absence of the word sliabh; and to the occurrence of the word law in the districts once inhabited by the Picts.

As to the word aber, it is not now used, by itself, as meaning the mouth of a river; this use is obsolete. It is found in many names of places (see James A. Robertson's Gaelic Topography of Scotland), and in parts where the Picts were not settled. There does not appear to me to be any reason to look upon it as a Cymric-a Welsh word solely. It is also Gaelic. It is likely that at one time aber meant mouth; abair (to speak) in constant use now, is a proof of this. Strangers to the locality may not know that Old Aberdeen is on the river Don; that is the same as Don-mouth. The other town built subsequently is on the river Dee, the same as Dee-mouth. Between them they have made a little confusion in the spelling-the old town takes the ee from the new, and the new takes the n from the old. Some make out that aber and inver are test-words-aber a proof that the Picts were Cymric, and inver (a confluence) a proof that they who used it were Gaelic. I do not see that the existence among them of aber is a proof that the Picts were Cymric; the word is as much Gaelic as Welsh. I frankly admit that I always look at things from a Celtic point of view, and this makes it pleasant to think that aber has not been claimed to be Gothic. If the Picts were fond of aber, it is not likely that they were Gothic and non-Celtic.

The next thing to consider is, that some writers attach great weight to the fact, or supposed fact, that in the range of country inhabited, or supposed to be inhabited, by the Picts, there was an absence of the word sliabh, and the occurrence of the word law. My suggestion is that these are the same word. I have beside me a Welsh dictionary, and I cannot find sliabh in it. If law is then found in Pictland, and if law is the same as sliabh, and if sliabh is not Welsh but Gaelic only, then as far as one word goes the Picts were Gaelic.

To repeat-1. As the Picts were fond of the word aber, and as aber is not Gothic, but Celtic, the Picts probably were not Gothic but were Celtic.

2. As aber is not the peculiar property of Cymric or Welsh, but a word belonging equally to Welsh and to Gaelic, there is on its account no ground for saying that the Picts were Cymric or Kymric and nonGaelic.

3. As the Picts were fond of the word law, and as this is perhaps the same as sliabh, and as sliabh is not found in Welsh, but is Gaelic only, it follows that the Picts belonged to the Gaelic division of the Kelts or Celts.

I hope the readers of the Celtic Magazine will forgive the dryness of this communication for the sake of the way in which it may be utilised for the purposes of history.

In this inquiry two test-words are used, aber and sliabh.

The testimony of aber is to the effect that the Picts were Celts; in this way we get rid of the Gothic claim. Taking aber by itself the Picts were either Cymric or Gaelic.

The testimony of sliabh is to the effect that the Picts were Gaelic; in this way we get rid of the Cymric claim.

DEAR MR EDITOR,-The accompanying Gaelic poem, with an English version, of great literalness by the author himself, reached me this morning all the way from Melbourne. It can appear nowhere more appropriately than in the Celtic Magazine, for in a note the author informs me, as a piece of good news, that your Magazine has found its way to the Antipodes, and is read with avidity, to use his own words, by "Celts and sinners alike," who may be so fortunate as to lay their hands upon it. Mr Cameron is of the Keppanach family in my immediate neighbourhood, a good old Lochaber stock of great respectability. On its own merits, and as a contribution from a true Celt at the other side of the world, I hope you can make room for the poem with its English version in opposite columns.-I am yours faithfully,

*N. B.-Let Secularists please take notice how the author, without a thought be sure, of our Education Act or School Board squabbles, localises the birth of his moral and religious life, not in the church or manse, though he refers to both with love and respect, but in the school in which he learned to read-in the mountain tongue at once, and in English-the book

"That guides us on the heavenly road."

"N. L."

THE Paper recently read by Professor Blackie before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the question whether the Gaelic or the English of Ossian is the original, he has rewritten and extended, and it will appear in the next number of the C.M.

THOUGH the custom of exacting the Each ursann, as it was termed in Sutherland, was common in that county in the days that were, I had no idea of its prevalence throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland till I read the article by "Sgiathanach" in the February number of the Celtic Magazine. During the greater part of the seventeenth century, the practice of exacting by the chieftain, wadsetter, or tacksmen, the best horse, or best head of cattle upon a farm, on the demise of its occupier, seems to have been common in the district of Sutherland, but it gradually vanished towards the close of that century, or during the beginning of

the next.

The last instance of it occurred, as well as can be ascertained, about the early part of the eighteenth century at a place called Holmdarry on the heights of Strathnaver. Its sequel had a more humane termination, but not the less characteristic of the people involved than that recorded by "Sgiathanach."

Those acquainted with the history of Sutherland, especially the history of that portion of it designated the Reay country, and still called in the vernacular Duthaich Mhic Aoidh, or Mackay's country, know that the whole of Strathnaver, "Sutherland's pride," belonged to Mackay of Tongue, chief of the clan, afterwards Lord Reay. One of these chiefs had a son, whose mother was a native of Lochaber, and as was not uncommon in those days, being a younger son, he was reared by his mother's relatives in Lochaber. From this circumstance, it is said, he and his descendants acquired the cognomen of Abairich. On his attaining manhood he returned to his paternal home in Tongue, and during his father's declining years, and his elder brother's imprisonment for disobeying the king's mandate, he became the leader of his clan, and the intrepid guardian of their territory. So successfully did he perform the duties of his office in repelling every incursion attempted by his powerful neighbours in Sutherland and Caithness, that his brother, when released, in gratitude for his prudent and gallant conduct assigned him in fee simple the whole of the upper parts of Strathnaver and wardenship of the marches. The descendants of this brave and intrepid warrior chieftain, patronymically called Clann Iain Abairich, continued wardens of the Marches between their own clan territories, and Caithness, and Sutherland, till the "Sutherland Evictions," termed by the late Mr Loch "Improvements," cleared them all off the lands they possessed, and which they nobly defended for centuries against all invaders. Brave, open-hearted, generous to a fault, respected for their prowess, famed as the most warlike of all the tribes inhabiting the provinces of Sutherland and Caithness-they never betrayed the trust reposed in them. Ever ready in the defence of their own territories, they evinced equal readiness in the defence of the country when the services of brave men were sorely needed. In the Sutherland Fencibles, Reay Fencibles, the Clann Abrach, were foremost in rank and

numbers. Strathnaver alone supplied to the former, in 1793, 121 William Mackays, and in the Reay Fencibles of 1795-1802, 800 strong-two-thirds were Mackays, of whom a great part were Abairich. The talented editor of Rob Donn's Poems says of them, "Tha dream araidh do chlann Mhic Aoidh dha'n leas sloinneadh Abrach, chionn gur ann an Loch-abair a dh'araicheadh an Ceann tighe o shean, agus gur bean a mhuinntir na tir sin bu mhathair dha, bu daoine ro fhiughanta, ro ainmeil iad, 's a chinneadh, fhada sa bha feum agus meas air daoine uaisle, 's air gaisgich." From this worthy stock, of whom not a remnant is now left in the land of their forefathers, was descended a worthy son who was the means of doing away with the unfeeling custom of the Each ursann in the Reay country, and gave the death-blow to the nefarious practice. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the youngest son of the Abaireach chieftain, named John, went into the army, and served under his famous clansman, General Hugh Mackay, at home and abroad. When he returned to his native Strathnaver, after the lapse of many years, he found all his father's family had in the meantime deceased, except a brother, who had become wadsetter or tacksman of Holmdarrie, better known as Fear Holmdarrie, who, it would appear, was a different dispositioned man from his younger brother John, and thought it still quite right and proper to observe and to exact an ancient custom.

John's return to his native Strath, and the scenes of his youth was in the summer time. He met his elder brother, Fear Holmdarrie, in the fields at some distance from his house. The usual kindly and affectionate greetings of brothers long parted being over, they strolled together round the township. At that season of the year all cattle were sent off to the hill pastures, but on nearing the house John, rather surprised at seeing a horse or two, and two or three head of cattle in a small fold, the former neighing, the latter lowing, enquired of his brother the reason of the animals being kept in confinement. Fear Holmdarrie, with some hesitation, replied that they were the Each ursann. A dhuine gun Dia (thou godless man) said John, "hast thou again revived that accursed custom, would it not be more Christian-like to give the widow and fatherless a horse, or a cow if thou couldst spare it rather than deprive them of their--most likely --all and only earthly stay? Return them! return them! otherwise I shall never bend my head under the lintel of thy house door." This adjuration had the desired effect. Immediate orders were given for the cattle to be returned to their respective owners, and so ended one unfeeling, one pernicious "feudal custom" in Sutherlandshire.

This brave soldier and humane gentleman, direct descendant of the intrepid Abrach chieftain, afterwards settled in the upper parts of Strathnaver called Mudale (Muthadal), where he survived to an extreme old age, "surpassing many in the greatness of fame." He composed many moral and sacred hymns, known in the district as Eiridinn Iain Mhic Raibeart Mhic Neill, a term very familiar to my ears forty years ago, though I cannot remember having heard them repeated. It is, however, said that some of these hymns were published in Inverness twenty years ago, in a small volume, entitled "Metrical Reliques of the 'Men' in the Highlands, or Sacred Poetry of the North."