ORIGIN OF THE SCOT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21745, 30 March 1936, Page 7

ORIGIN OF THE SCOT

TO THE EDITOR OV TII* PRESS. Sir—Some of the people of Christchurch and its surroundings are not so intimately acquainted with the origin of their own particular race as they would like to be. The Scots believe they came from a place hidden far away in the mists of antiquity. The truth of history is not always confined to books. Often knowledge as to the age and manners of a people is determined by observation and experience, as well as by legend, tradition, and hierography. An Egyptologist can read the history of the pyramids as easily as an anthropologist can determine the age and sex of a newly discovered skeleton. We do things in these days, not superficially, but profoundly and with ease in as much as method is the mother of success. In order, therefore, to trace correctly the origin of so noble a division of the people of the earth

as the Scots, we must have recourse to keen observation and rich experience. These were my thoughts as I pondered over a very interesting book entitled “Primitive Races*” The author of this book has paid special attention to the origin and advancement of the primitive Scot. As 1 read on 1 naturally anticipated 1 should be led to regale my mind with some brilliant narrative concerning the Scots in Ireland and Scotland. But no, instead of Scotland looming before me, the author was actually dragging me through the horrors of primitive North China. It was then my powers of

observation began to play their part. Following the author closely, I came to understand that the noble Scot originated in the land of the Zolos. It is also stated that a few clans .of this people refused to migrate and so consequently were left behind. It was a good thing for Scottish history that it was so, or this valuable treatise on the origin of the Scot would never have been brought before the public. Now these Zolos or primitive Scots have been found relatively to resemble the noble Scot of the present day with the sunken eye, the high cheek bones, and the talking in Gaelic, which guttual utterance resembles more the mutterings of a bear rather than that of a human being. The thick skull of these people is so tempered by hard

living that nothing but an object of phenomenal weight would break through it. These are very pleasing thoughts. Who would not be a noble Scot, rising from the humblest obscurity to almost the highest distinctions? Yet it is so, for have we not had four monarchs of Zolos, of Scottish extraction, sitting on the Throne of old England, although one of them entirely, lost his head, it not being hard enough to resist the executioner’s axe.

My author also states that this migration began about the year 2000 B.C. It must have taken this hardy people a long time, in fact many years, to wander from North China and through Central Asia before they reached their present geographical position. The struggles, hardships, and miseries experienced by these noble Zolos were no less than those endured by the Jews, who, having left the Pharaohs, preferred the toilsome journey of the desert with the land of Caanan in view.

The author of “Primitive Races,” continuing his story, goes on to explain the meanings of different utterances, how the sound Scot or Zolos signifies hill climbing; how the primitive Zolos imitated the early Romans by wearing apparel similar to theirs; how in the year 1000 B.C. the Scots became so infatuated with the Roman kill that they immediately set to work to improve upon it by adding what is now known as the sporan, and many other pleasing and brilliant additions. As a friend of mine once remarked to me. “Fine feathers make fine birds.”— Yours, etc., W. MOSDELL. March 27, 1936.