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 entitled, "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 passage 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 relationship 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 Belgæ, 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.