The deposit of such hoards of ornaments and coin is a custom more characteristic of the Scandinavian than of the Celtic area. Deposits of this character may have been placed in the soil for simple concealment at any time, but they are much more frequent in this particular period than in any other, and there was a motive connected with the Pagan faith of the people which may have operated to increase their abundance. We learn from the Saga of Egil Skalagrimson that there was a belief among the Pagan Northmen that treasure thus buried during their lifetime would be available for use or display in the life to come. But whatever may have been the manner or the motive of their concealment, the fact, which is of special importance for the purpose of the present investigation, is that they are for the most part relics which, by their forms and the characteristics of their art, are but feebly linked with the forms and art of the Celtic area in which they are found, and strongly linked by their art characteristics with the art of the Scandinavian Paganism, which was contemporary with the art of the Christian Celtic school. The soil in which they are found is within that area of Scotland which was occupied by a mixed population, composed of the two races whose special art instincts are visible in the mixed art of the objects—the dominant race, moreover, being that whose art is dominant in their decoration. The colonisation of the northern and western coasts of Scotland by the heathen Northmen forms an episode in the history of our country only second in importance to the earlier colonisation of its southern districts by the Romans, and far surpassing it in the interest of its historical annals. Its archæological interest may be estimated by the number and variety of the relics which have now been shown to belong to the Viking period of the Northmen in Scotland—a period of singular interest alike in connection with its history, its archæology, and its art. LECTURE III. (OCTOBER 24, 1882.) THE CELTIC ART OF THE PAGAN PERIOD. In this Lecture I shall deal with certain groups of relics which present in their forms and their decoration features which we have learned to recognise as distinctively Celtic.