by Professor Meyer,[33] who holds that the first Goidels reached Britain
from Ireland in the second century, while Dr. MacBain[34] was of the
opinion that England, apart from Wales and Cornwall, knew no Goidels,
the place-names being Brythonic. But unless all Goidels reached Ireland
from Gaul or Spain, as some did, Britain was more easily reached than
Ireland by migrating Goidels from the Continent. Prominent Goidelic
place-names would become Brythonic, but insignificant places would
retain their Goidelic form, and to these we must look for decisive
evidence.[35] A Goidelic occupation by the ninth century B.C. is
suggested by the name "Cassiterides" (a word of the _q_ group) applied
to Britain. If the Goidels occupied Britain first, they may have called
their land _Qretanis_ or _Qritanis_, which Pictish invaders would change
to _Pretanis_, found in Welsh "Ynys Pridain," Pridain's Isle, or Isle of
the Picts, "pointing to the original underlying the Greek [Greek:
Pretanikai Nêsoi] or Pictish Isles,"[36] though the change may be due to
continental _p_ Celts trading with _q_ Celts in Britain. With the
Pictish occupation would agree the fact that Irish Goidels called the
Picts who came to Ireland _Cruithne=Qritani=Pre-tani_. In Ireland they
almost certainly adopted Goidelic speech.

Whether or not all the Pictish invaders of Britain were called
"Pictavi," this word or Picti, perhaps from _quicto_ (Irish _cicht_,
"engraver"),[37] became a general name for this people. _Q_ had been
changed into _p_ on the Continent; hence "Pictavi" or "Pictones," "the
tattooed men," those who "engraved" figures on their bodies, as the
Picts certainly did. Dispossessed and driven north by incoming Brythons
and Belgæ, they later became the virulent enemies of Rome. In 306
Eumenius describes all the northern tribes as "Caledonii and other
Picts," while some of the tribes mentioned by Ptolemy have Brythonic
names or names with Gaulish cognates. Place-names in the Pictish area,