That they were Kelts rather than Germans is the commonest doctrine, and that they were Britons rather than Gaels is a common one; the arguments that prove the latter proving the first _a fortiori_. We approach the subject with a notice of the Irish missionary St. Columbanus, whose native tongue was, of course, the Irish Gaelic. This was unintelligible to the Northern Picts, as is expressly stated on in Adammanus:--"Alio in tempore quo Sanctus Columba in Pictorum provincia per aliquot demorabatur dies, quidam cum tota plebeius familia, verbum _vitæ_ per interpretatorem, _Sancto prædicante viro_, audiens credidit, credensque baptizatus est."--_Adamn. ap. Colganum._ l. ii. c. 32. This, however, only shews that the Pict was not exactly and absolutely Irish. It might have approached it. It might also be far more unlike than the Welsh was. A document known as the Colbertine MS., from being published from the Colbertine Library, contains a list of Pictish kings. This has been analysed by Innes and Garnett; and the result is, that two names only are more Gaelic in their form than Welsh--viz., _Cineod_ or _Kenneth_, and _Domhnall_ or _Donnell_. The rest are either absolutely contrary to what they would be if they were Gaelic, or else British rather than aught else. Thus, the Welsh _Gurgust_ appears in the Irish Annal as _Fergus_, or _vice versâ_. Now the Pict form of this name is _Wrgwst_, with a final T, and without an initial F. _Elpin_, _Drust_, _Drostan_, _Wrad_, and _Necton_ are close and undoubted Pict equivalents to the Welsh names _Owen_, _Trwst_, _Trwstan_ (_Tristram_), _Gwriad_, and _Nwython_. The readers of the Antiquary well know the prominence given to the only two common terms of the Pict language in existence _pen val_, or as it appears in the oldest MSS. of Beda _peann fahel_. This is the _head of the wall_, or _caput vall_, being the eastern extremity (there or thereabouts) of the Vallum of Antoninus. Now the present Welsh form for _head_ is _pen_; the Gaelic _cean_. Which way the likeness lies here, is evident. For the _fahel_ (or _val_) the case is less clear. The Gaelic form is _fhail_, the Welsh _gwall_; the Gaelic being the nearest.