We certainly have not exhausted the statement of the question, have not stated fully and completely all the points in dispute; nor do we pretend to have given with fulness all the arguments _pro_ and _con_ on the various sides. We have, however, given as much as will enable any ordinary reader to form for himself a fair idea of the present state of the Pictish question, and indicated the sources whence more information may be derived, should any one wish to pursue the subject farther. In the words of the latest and greatest Scottish historian “this brief survey of the great Pictish controversy leaves nothing but a melancholy record of wasted labour and defeated ambition. It has been more fruitless than a polemical or a political dispute, for these leave behind them, either for good or evil, their marks upon the conduct and character of the populations among whom they have raged; while here a vast outlay of learning, ingenuity, enthusiasm, and, it must be added, temper, have left no visible monument but a pile of forbidding volumes, in which should any one who has not studied the matter fundamentally expect to find instructive information, he will assuredly be led into a tangled maze of unintelligible pedantry, from which he will come forth with no impression but a nightmare feeling of hopeless struggle with difficulties.”[78] FOOTNOTES: [24] Garnett’s _Philological Essays_, p. 196. [25] Agricola xi. [26] The wall of Antonine. [27] Dio L. 76, c. 12, as quoted in Ritson’s _Annals_, p. 11. [28] Critical Essay, ch. ii. [29] _Highlanders._ [30] Book iii. [31] “Scotti per diversa vagantes, multa populabantur.” Am. Mar. xxvii. 8. [32] “---- Nec falso nomine Pictos Edomuit.” [33] “Venit et extremis legio prætenta Britannis Quæ Scoto dat fræna truci, ferroque notatas Perlegit exangues Scoto moriente figuras.”-- _De bello Getico_, v. 416. Thus rendered by Ritson:-- The legion came, o’er distant Britains placed, Which bridles the fierce Scot, and bloodless figures With iron marked, views in the dying Pict. [34] The name given by the Irish Annalists to the Picts is _Cruithne_, said by some to mean “variegated.” [35] The only important exception is Ritson, whose arguments, like those of his opponent Pinkerton, consist mostly of virulent language and vehement assertion. [36] In Amm. Mar. [37] It is a curious fact that these latter are, among the peasantry of Scotland, the distinctive characteristics of the Picts or Pechts, who, however, it is not unlikely, may be popularly confounded with the Brownies, especially as, in Perthshire at any rate, they are said always to have done their work while others were asleep. [38] Skene’s _Highlanders_, vol. i. p. 2. [39] L. O. Pike, _The English and their Origin_, ch. i. [40] _Biographia Britannica Literaria_, vol. i. [41] Gildas, 1. [42] Id., 19. [43] Gildas, 14. [44] _Highlanders_, vol. i. p. 72.