court, in which, being without a roof, fires could be lit. In some few
there were wells, but water-supply, save when the broch was in a loch,
must have been a difficulty in most cases during a prolonged siege.

In these brochs the farmer lived, and his women-kind span and wove and
plied their querns or hand-mills, and, in raids, they shut themselves
up, and possibly some of their poorer neighbours took refuge in the
brochs, deserting their huts and crowding into the broch; but of this
practice there is no evidence, and the nearest hut-circles are often
far from the remains of any broch.

For defence the broch was as nearly as possible perfect against any
engines or weapons then available for attacking it; and we may note
that it existed in Scotland and mainly in the north and west of it,
and nowhere else in the world.[8] It was a roofless block-house, aptly
described by Dr. Joseph Anderson as a "safe." It could not be battered
down or set on fire, and if an enemy got inside it, he would find
himself in a sort of trap surrounded by the defenders of the broch,
and a mark for their missiles. The broch, too, was quite distinct from
the lofty, narrow ecclesiastical round tower, of which examples still
are found in Ireland, and in Scotland at Brechin and Abernethy.

To resist invasion the Picts would be armed with spears, short swords
and dirks, but, save perhaps a targe, were without defensive body
armour, which they scorned to use in battle, preferring to fight
stripped. They belonged to septs and clans, and each sept would have
its Maor, and each clan or province its Maormor[9] or big chief,
succession being derived through females, a custom which no doubt
originated in remote pre-Christian ages when the paternity of children
was uncertain.