AMONG the curiosities of human nature, this legend claims a high place.
It is needless to remind the reader that the Picts were never
exterminated, and form to this day a large proportion of the folk of
Scotland: occupying the eastern and the central parts, from the Firth of
Forth, or perhaps the Lammermoors, upon the south, to the Ord of
Caithness on the north. That the blundering guess of a dull chronicler
should have inspired men with imaginary loathing for their own ancestors
is already strange: that it should have begotten this wild legend seems
incredible. Is it possible the chronicler’s error was merely nominal?
that what he told, and what the people proved themselves so ready to
receive, about the Picts, was true or partly true of some anterior and
perhaps Lappish savages, small of stature, black of hue, dwelling
underground—possibly also the distillers of some forgotten spirit? See
Mr. Campbell’s _Tales of the West Highlands_.