[92] "Scottish Dictionary" (Supplement), s. v. "Picht."
[93] "The Topography of the Basin of the Tay," by James Knox, Edinburgh, 1831, p. 108. This writer adds that "they are said to have been about three or four feet in height"; and it may be mentioned that when I asked my young guide at Kettlester the exact height of the small Pechts he had just been speaking of, he said, "About that height," indicating at the same time a stature of three feet or so. Whatever their height really was, this young Shetlander's ideas were in agreement with those held "throughout Scotland."
[94] "Popular Rhymes of Scotland," 1870, p. 80.
[95] See the Society's "Memoirs," 1865-6, vol. ii, pp. 216-225.
[96] The term "broch" has hitherto been used in a general sense in these pages. This its etymology permits: for it is the same word as borough, burgh, burg, barrow, etc. But the students of these ancient structures have recently restricted "broch" to the more elaborate and superior building of the round or "martello" tower order. This definition is very convenient, and saves much confusion. In spite, however, of the great difference that Mr. Petrie speaks of as between the so-called "Pictish" broch and the humbler dwelling that alone is recognized by him as a "Pict's house," it is yet evident that the "broch" is to a very great extent evolved from the more primitive and rudimentary "Pict's house."
[97] Mr. Daniel Gorrie, in "Summers and Winters in the Orkneys," London, 1869, p. 117.
[98] This extract is quoted from the review in the Scots Magazine of 1823 (pp. 457-8) of Captain Scoresby's "Journal" (published 1823).
[99] From an extract contained in the review (Scots Magazine, 1819, vol. iv, pp. 332-3) of Capt. Ross's account (published by John Murray, London, 1819).
[100] Op. cit., p. 119.
[101] The fact that the "Interlude" is allegorical does not at all affect the question.