Note 1045 — Chapter XIII · THE SWORD AMONGST THE BARBARIANS (EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE).
Reading edition
The word ‘Pict,’ says Prof. Rhys, is first applied by a writer of the third century to the people beyond the Northern Wall and on the Solway. It evidently arose from their tattooing. He opines that ‘Scotti’ is of Brythonic origin having the same signification. This is better than the old
(Scjot), the dart which named the Scythæ and the Scoti. The Picts, both of Alban and Ireland, called themselves Cruithing—‘which an Irish Shanachie has rightly explained to mean a people who painted the forms (Crotha, Ir.
kꞃoꞇ
) of beasts, birds, and fishes on their faces, and not on their faces only, but on the whole of the body.’ Again we find ourselves in
—‘infinita, arcana Africa orrenda.’