We have then, prior to that date, merely temporary conquests in the province of Britain, commencing in 360, which afford the sole historic basis to these supposed settlements, and there is no reason to suppose that prior to 360 a single Scot ever set foot in North Britain. The connection between the two countries of Scotland and Ireland was, notwithstanding, a very intimate one. It is quite clear that prior to the settlement of the Scots in Dalriada, the great nation of the Cruithnigh or Picts formed the sole inhabitants of Britain north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde; but while we find them during the historic period likewise in possession of that part of the province of Ulster known as Dalnaraidhe or Dalaradia, and Uladh, extending from the Boyne along its eastern shore to the border of Irish Dalriada, and likewise of that part of Meath termed Maghbreg or Bregia, yet these early legends present them to us as forming the original inhabitants of the north of Ireland, and as constituting one great nation peopling the northern districts of Britain and Galloway on the east side of the Channel, and the whole province of Ulster and part of Meath on the western, while the Scots occupied the rest of Leinster and the whole of Connaught and Munster. The Cruithnigh of both countries were thus substantially one people, and remained so till the beginning of the seventh century, and during this time there must have been a constant intercommunication between the tribes on both sides of the Channel, as well as a community of early legends among them. Thus the Pictish Chronicle tells us that thirty kings of the name of Bruide ruled over Hibernia and Albania during a period of 150 years, and the Irish Nennius derives the statement from the books of the Cruithnigh, while an early legend of the Picts of Dalnaraidhe states that ‘thirty kings of the Cruithnigh ruled over Erin and Alban, viz., of the Cruithnigh of Alban and of Erin, viz., of the Dalnaraidhe from Ollamhan, from whence comes Mur Ollamhan at Teamhair or Tara to Fiacha mac Baedan, who fettered the hostages of Erin and Alban.’ This latter event was in the historic time, and must have occurred between 589 and 626, when Fiacha mac Baedan was king of Ulster. From this period may therefore be dated the political separation of the Picts of Alban from those of Erin, who had hitherto been governed as one nation. The same legend likewise informs us that ‘seven kings of the Cruithnigh of Alban governed Erinn in Teamhair or Tara. Ollamh was the name of the first king that governed Erinn at Teamhair and in Cruachan thirty years. It is from him Mur Ollamhan at Teamhair is; by him was the feast of Teamhair first instituted.’ Then, after naming his six successors, the legend adds, ‘These then are the seven kings that ruled over Erin of the Cruithnigh of Alban.’[143] These seven kings, however, appear in the list of the mythic pagan kings of Ireland, and are placed