have remarked regarding historic questions of Scottish origin.[1]
82. Coming now to the epoch of the Romans, which may be computed to extend from the end of the first to the beginning of the third century, we find that the customs of these invaders never took root in Caledonia. Doubtless the Caledonians received then the elements of civilisation[2]; but if the Romans implanted the rudiments of writing and arithmetic, it must be confessed that these seeds never sprang up till many a century afterwards. In the sixth century, however, amidst the gradual exit of Paganism in favour of Christianity, the use of numbers became needful. Historic associations assumed a changed retrospect. The earliest missionaries would speak of events as taking place so many tens and hundreds of years after the Passion,[3] and references to the years of Rome would be discarded. Some few heathen ceremonial dates seem to have continued; for instance, at the beginning of summer, the Feast of Beltane.[4] This was afterwards fixed for the kalends of May month,[5] and it formed, along with Hallowmas,[6] Candlemas, and Lammas,[7] the oldest Scottish quarter days.
83. Returning now to the epoch of primary records of Scotland, namely, the reign of Malcolm Canmore, who died in 1093, I find that the earliest authentic writings are the
- ↑ Thomson's Acts, introduction.
- ↑ At the point of the sword.
- ↑ And e converso they would count back to that event by a similar notation.
- ↑ Gaelic: Bealteine, Bel's (the sun's) fire.
- ↑ In Ireland its date was the summer solstice.
- ↑ Now 1st November, N.S.
- ↑ Loaf Mass; first fruits of harvest offered by the pious.
