A MYSTERIOUS RACE

Hawera Star, Volume L, 20 December 1930, Page 11

A MYSTERIOUS RACE

TI7HY is 'Scotland called Scotland, ’ ' ami where did 1 the Scots come from origin ally? The following article is from Mr. G. A. Atkinson, the ‘‘‘Sunday Express” film critic. 'Though not a humble student of racial artlehaclogy, I think that 3. can throw some light oil the dark origin of this mysterious race. . The Scots first invaded 'Caledonia in force about the year +OO iBjC. The main body came from Ireland, then ealiod “Scotia” (not {Hibernia), but there had been: fiitrations across a non-existent border for seven centuries beforehand, because there is strong evidence that the same racer invaded England, on colonising linos, about the year ll'OO’ 33 JC. They probably came by way of Northern Spain, and they advanced in successive waves, which began at least a thousand years earlier. They were of Aryan-llittite stock, monotheistic and monogamic, and were undoubtedly a highly •aristocratic, highly civilised, markedly clannish, and exclusive race. Their ruling clan was known by a name which has undergone many mutation's, but one form of it, “'Cassi,” is rovelcnt to this discussion, because it survives in “Ecossais,” by which the Cassi were known in Gaul, Iberia' and England. The modern .Spanish word for “Scots” is “Escocccok, ” which, properly pronounced, has the 'sound of “th” on the second “'C.” 'Sounds tend to harden as we travel north( witness ‘ f kirk” for “church”). The word “Scot,” in my opinion, is a hard, northern mutation of the worn! “iCassi” where is becomes “Catiti,”

Dark Origin ol the Scots

among many other variations, and survives in numerous .Scottish place and proper names. 'The Cassi gave their royal name to the early English kings, i.e„, “ Cassi - vel annus’ ’ and “Gas-si-ibelan” (who was 'Shakespeare’s “Gymbolino”). They also gave their name to tin. which was known, to the Greeks as “ilvassi-teros. ” and Lyone-sse and Western Cornwall were known as the “<Cassitorides,” i. 0., “the distant tin lands.’ ’ There cannot be much: doubt but that the dominant race in 'Scotland is descended: from the royal Cassi clan of the .Hittites, but. lest the Scots should feel undue elation about that it should be- ’ added that the Cassi strain is equally prominent in England,, particularly north, of the Trent, though: its stronghold was once where London now stands. The eon-fusion between the word “‘Scot” and the -Greek word for “darkness” probably springs from the fact that these colonising wanderers hod a large settlement in Scythia, the inhabitants of which were known to the Greeks by a word which must have sounded very like “Scot. ” It is oossible, but unlikely, that the word “Scot” is derived from the Scythian association, and it may be the relic of an aneent- pun, the first joke against Scotland. •Caledonia, by the way, derives its name- from the ‘Khallis,” the hungermarching' Piets, who lived in rivervallcvs. iColumba called them the ‘ “Cuidecs. ’ ’ There is—with all respect to Mr. Morton’s feelings—a princess in the story. Unit she was probably Greek, and therefore not so interesting as Cleopatra’s compatriot.