and put in chains Dungal and Ferach the two sons of Selvac the late king of Dalriada; and in 743 a battle was fought between the Picts and the Dalriads, in which the latter were utterly defeated. From this date the race of the old Dalriadic kings comes to an end, and the Pictish royal house takes their place in Dalriada in some kind of subordination to the Pictish throne.

46. The old Dalriadic kingdom destroyed by Ungust king of the Picts, and the Picts and the Scots united by Kenneth the son of Alpin.-Murdac the son of Ambkellach began his reign of three years in 736. In 739 the Dalriadic kingdom was totally destroyed by Ungust, son of Vergust, king of the Picts; and Ungust wasted the whole of Dalriada. Sometime afterwards Talorgan the brother of Ungust routed Murdac, and slew many of his followers; and in 743 Ungust again ravaged Dalriada. After this latter date the history of Dalriada ceases in Tighernac and the Annals of Ulster.

What really took place at this time as to the Dalriadic throne is hidden in impenetrable darkness, and the history for a whole century is almost unknown. Aod-Fin was made king in 739, but who ḥe was, or by whom he was placed on the throne, or for what reasons, we are absolutely ignorant. The most probable solution of the difficulty involves a complete rejection of the old popular theory of the total destruction of the Picts, or even of their nobles. From the Annals of Ulster it is clear that till 811 there were petty kings of Argyle, and that Kenneth, who was the son of Alpin, and also the king of

the Scots, ascended the Pictish throne in 843; and that, in noticing the death of Kenneth in 857, both Tighernac and Carodoc of Llancorn refer to him merely as "the king of the Picts." Kenneth's earlier and smaller kingdom in fact becomes merged in the larger and later title. This was quite natural, and is what is now supposed to have taken place as to four or five of the Dalriadic princes whose names appear in the lists of the kings of the Picts, and whose reigns belong to periods nearly coincident with the reigns of the kings of Pictland. The name of Kenneth's paternal grandfather is unknown; but Kenneth himself claimed the Pictish throne through his mother. Probably he succeeded to the throne in consequence of the internal dissensions, and he may in point of fact have been the nearest heir of the Pictish kingdom.

From the accession of Kenneth to the Pictish throne, the tendency to an hereditary kingdom becomes more and more decided, and of course would be strengthened by the union of the two crowns.

47. Character of the Pictish kingdom. The monarchy was elective, and the kings were chosen from a royal race. Dio, lib. 76, says Dio, lib. 76, says that the govern

ment was almost

democratic, and there can be no doubt whatever that the Pictish kings were elected by the people, and were often deposed, and even sacrificed, by their subjects. It would also appear that brothers succeeded brothers, and not sons fathers. When there were two princes who appeared to have equal claims to the throne, we are told by Bede that the one who was descended from the female line was

preferred on the ground of his having better blood; but notwithstanding this preference of males descended from females of the royal family there is not a single instance of a woman reigning in Scotland till after the disputed succession, when the rules of primogeniture and lineal succession by descent were firmly established in Europe. Adamnan states (II. 14) that the Pictish kings had a senate, and (II. 11) that the Picts had a race of nobles. Briefly then, the government of the Picts in Scotland, like all early governments, was a democratic monarchy, and the early kings chosen from a peculiar family were men of superior merit, rich in friends, retainers, lands, cattle, and slaves, and were little more than chiefs, like those in America in modern times. As every man had a voice in the general assembly of the tribe in the woods of Germany, and indeed everywhere in the early stages of society amongst freemen, so it was in the earliest and rudest times in Scotland. "De minoribus," says Tacitus in his Germania, "principes consultant; de majoribus omnes."

48. Marriage of the Picts.-What Cæsar says as to the southern Britons, Dio tells us of the Picts, namely, that they had wives in common. This, Montesquieu says, is a feature of pastoral society. Amongst the Picts there was no sacred ceremony in the celebration of marriage. When they wished to marry they made presents to their intended bride's father or guardian, and when the marriage was to be consummated the bride made a present to her future spouse. Thereafter the parties themselves and their friends met together, and the father solemnly delivered

the bride to the bridegroom, and then there was a marriage feast.

FOURTH PERIOD.-THE SCOTO-PICTISH KINGDOM (843-1056).

49. Verge of authentic Scottish history reached.— During this period the darkness which enveloped Scotland for five centuries becomes less dense, and the dawn of our authentic national history is at last reached. In our next epoch we shall be able to avail ourselves of reliable materials; but as yet we must grope along as best we can in the midst of a flickering twilight. I therefore propose to finish this epoch (1.) with a brief sketch of the lives of the early ScotoPictish monarchs; and (2.) with some remarks on our early annals.

50. Sketch of the early Scoto-Pictish kings.— Kenneth III. reigned in Pictland for sixteen years (843-860). He was a man of considerable talents, and had ruled in Dalriada for two years before he ascended the Pictish throne. In 849 he transported the relics of St. Columba from Iona to Dunkeld. He invaded England, and burned Dunbar and Melrose which had been seized by the English, or the Danes of Northumbria. On the other hand the Britons of Strathclyde burned Dunblane, and the Danes devastated Pictland to Cluny and Dunkeld. He died in his palace of Forthunir-tabacht near the river Earn, south of Perth. This palace was the chief residence of the Pictish kings after the recovery of Lothian in 684. Before that time, as we may learn from Adamnan,

they resided at Inverness. This king and all his successors, till Edgar's death in 1098, were buried at Iona, which was the royal burying place till Dunfermline was founded by Malcolm Canmore and his queen St. Margaret in 1070-1093.

Donald I. succeeded his brother Kenneth III. and reigned one year. His reign is important from a statement in the Pictish Chronicle that he confirmed the old laws which had been granted by Aod-Fin to the Dalriads. What these laws were is not exactly known, but it has been plausibly conjectured that they were the Brehon or old Irish laws.

Constantine II. the son of Malcolm III. was the next king, and reigned twenty years, or, as some say, sixteen (864-884). In 866 Olave the leader of the Danes and Norwegians in Ireland ravaged Pictland, and carried away hostages and plunder; but having returned a few years later he was slain in battle. The Norsemen afterwards (874) invaded Pictland, defeated the Picts with great slaughter, and remained a year in their country. This reign was very disastrous to Scotland; and the Picts seem to have been enervated by the long peace which they had enjoyed, and consequently were unable to contend with the hardy Danes, who were inured to arms and perpetual war. Not only were the Picts defeated in battle by the Danes, but they suffered great territorial losses at the hands of the invaders. Indeed, somewhere between 864 and 882 the Norwegians had seized Orkney, the Hebrides, the shires of Sutherland and Caithness, and part of Ross-shire, or in other words about a fourth of the Pictish kingdom. This