_Picts' Houses and Argils._--The Cimmerians, a people mentioned by
Herodotus, who occupied principally the peninsula of the Crimea, are
distinguished by Prichard from the Cimbri or Kimbri, but supposed by M.
Amédée Thierry to be a branch of the same race, and Celtic. Many of their
customs are said to present a striking conformity with those of the Cimbri
of the Baltic and of the Gauls. Those who inhabited the hills in the Crimea
bore the name of Taures or Tauri, a word, Thierry says, signifying
mountaineers in both the Kimbric and Gaulish idioms. The tribe of the
plains, according to Ephorus, a Greek writer cotemporary with Aristotle,
mentioned in Strabo, lib. v., dug subterraneous habitations, which they
called _argil_ or _argel_, a pure Kimbric word, which signifies a covered
or deep place:
[Greek: Ephoros phêsin autous en katageiois oikiais oikein has kalousin
argillas.]
Having seen several of the rude and miserable buildings underground in the
Orkneys, called Picts' houses, I should like to know something of these
_argils_ or _argillæ_, but suppose them to be calculated for the
requirements of a more advanced state of society than that of the dwellers
in Picts' houses. Perhaps some of your correspondents could give
information on this matter. {431} For the above, vide Introduction to
Amédée Thierry's _Histoire des Gaulois, &c._, 1828, p. 57.