Note 231 — Chapter IV · ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN.

Henry of Huntingdon, in repeating Bede’s statement as to the five languages, adds, ‘Quamvis Picti jam videantur deleti, et lingua eorum ita omnino destructa, ut jam fabula videatur, quod in veterum scriptis eorum mentio invenitur.’ This is true of the language if it was different from the others, but not if it resembled one of them so closely that one of the spoken languages might equally represent it; neither is it true of the people, as almost in the very year he makes this statement he mentions the Picts as forming an entire division in David the First’s army at the Battle of the Standard.