The Romans called this pre-Celtic people Pictii, or "Painted," although Claudius' words are proof that (as claimed by many historians), the ancient Picts actually tattooed their bodies with designs. To the non-Roman Celtic world of Scots and Irish and the many tribes of Belgic England and Wales they were known as "Cruithni" by the Irish - or the "People of the Designs."
Tatooing is unknow to other Gaelic civilizations. At that time only peoples from India, Polynesians and Egyptians peacticed tatooing.
In acient times the Orkneys Islands became island fortress with many stone settlements. By the time Rome became a world empire, the Orcadians were recognized by Rome as a sea power. From recent excavations, it seems that these Orcadian people were a slim, swarthy Caucasian race, with long, narrow heads.
Irish legend says that the Picts arrived in Ireland and requested Heremon to assign them a part of the newly-conquered country to settle in, but he refused. Since the Picts had not brought wives with them, the King gave them as wives the widows of the Tuatha de Danaans, whose husbands had been slain in battle by the Spanish, and he sent them with a large party of his own forces to conquer the country to the East then called "Alba," (present day Scotland) with the condition that they and their posterity should be liege to the Kings of Ireland and that all bloodlines should pass through the wives.
This Pictish matrilinear evidence is confirmed by Bede, who wrote that the Pictish succession went through the female line.
In the writings of St. Columba's biographer, Adamnan details the journey of the Irish saint to the court of Bridei near Loch Ness. However, Columba needed interpreters to speak to the king, clear evidence that the Picts did not speak the Celtic language of the Irish and Scots, or at the very least not the Gael version of the Celtic tongue.
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