"the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On," and that the Pharaoh bestowed her upon Joseph as a helpmeet for him immediately after his prophecy of the seven years of superabundance, to be followed by the seven years of famine, in the cereal provision for which the Egyptian mythology makes both Isis and Osiris play the part of divine benefactors. Is it not, therefore, reasonable, to say the least of it, to believe that the prophet and prophetess of the "altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt" were Joseph and Asenath, the one the keeper of the sacred utensils of gold and silver, and the other "the keeper of the wardrobe," belonging respectively to the chambers called the king's and queen's?

Does anyone say that such distinct and definite uses of the treasure-strongholds of the ancients may be recognized in the Old Testament, but not in the New, and may be pertinent to the Mosaic dispensation, but not to the Christian? Then let me convince him how mistaken he may be. It was under the figure of a treasure-stronghold, like the Great Pyramid, which represents both earth and heaven, that the Christ said to his disciples: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves dig through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not dig through and steal: for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also" (Mat. vi, 19, 20). The treasures consumed by "moths" must needs have been garments, and the treasures consumed by "rust" must needs have been metals, in the cavernous recesses of such a mountain-like structure as the Great Pyramid, without those counteracting conditions in which the builder of this has so wisely provided. against such causes of consumption; and such a mountain-like structure must have been the sort of treasury that thieves had to "dig through" in order to possess themselves of the treasures therein. Such a "digging through" was that of the Caliph Al-Mamoun more than eight hundred years after Christ, in quest of the marvellous treasures reported to have been concealed in the Great Pyramid by a famous magician 'more than two thousand years before Christ.

Still another New Testament illustration is this in the Epistle of St. James: "Go to now, ye rich; weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten " (v. 1, 2). Under the like figure of speech, the Christ, under the symbol of "one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment white as snow down to the foot," clothes the teaching of the spirit to the churches, where he says: "I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white ments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest" (Rev. iii, 18).

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In these New Testament allusions to the two kinds of treasures in the strongholds of the ancients, it is easy to see that they had either a good or a bad significance, according to the use made of them. The question therefore is: Were the treasures of the Great Pyramid like those of which the Christ said: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth?" or were they like those of which he said: "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven?" Believers in the divine inspiration embodied in the Great Pyramid's most modern stage of mathematical and astronomical development, and in its prophetic chronology and symbolization of the Christ and his Kingdom, are predisposed to believe that its treasures were those of heaven, and hence those of the heaven on earth that had been, and those of the heaven on earth that is to be. When they shall have fully come to this conclusion, in both head and heart, they will as freely confess "the Pyramid religion," when accused of it, as they confess "the religion of the cross," regarding them as one and inseparable, and knowing full well that these symbolic terms will lead no honest and intelligent person to accuse them of "worshiping wood and stone."

J. W. REDFIeld.

WHO WERE THE PICTS?

The object of this little paper is to show that the Picts of Scotland were a Germanic race, of Norwegian descent. And it is hoped that either the merits or defects of the arguments here gleaned from various sources, and here very briefly stated, may provoke discussion on this branch of antiquarian research, with a view to showing the connection of the Picts with the Sacca-suni, sons of Sacca (I-saac ?).

The many facts showing relationship between the Cymric and Pictish race is, for the present, withheld, to avoid confusion. The word "Pict" seems to be derived from the Latin root, signifying to paint, in allusion to the supposed custom obtaining among the Picts of painting the body, but this derivation is (to say the least) questionable, as it is quite as likely to have been derived from the Welsh "Peith" or "Pith," signifying "to scream," or what is still more probable, it has been derived from the word "Pik," a corruption of the Norwegian "vik," (easily recognized in the Norse viking) and pointing to the connection between the province of Pitea in Sweden and the Pictish race. The Roman name, the "vecturiones," appears to come from the Icelandic "vick-verior," equivalent to Pehtar or Picts. The Anglo-Saxon name was "Pihtah" or "Peotah." The Norse "Péttland" (terra petorum).

We have various spellings of the name in Welsh and Gaelic, as "Pict," Phicti," "Peithi," "Peith-wyr," "Pictdich," (a plunderer*) and "Ffichti." The Roman word, "vecturiones," is also supposed to be derived from the Gaelic "Uachtarich," (the inhabitants of the cleared countries).

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In Pinkerton's Essay on Scottish Poetry,' published in 1786, the writer argued that the Lowland Scotch were descendants of the Caledonians or Picts, a Gothic race who were Scythians from Norway, and who peopled Caledonia long before the in

* To pick and steal. See Anglican catechism.

vasion of the Romans; and Dr. Jameson then brought out his dictionary, which abundantly proved the common origin of the Icelandic and Scottish tongues.

Pinkerton contends that painting the body was Gothic and not Celtic custom.

Pinkerton, in his 'Inquiry into the History of Scotland, preceding 1056,' has elaborately proven his contention as to the Gothic origin of the Pictish race, via Scandinavia, the ancient Scythia.

The word " vickverior," from which the Roman name Vecturiones is said to have been derived, very suggestively appears to imply that the owners of it were a race of wanderers; and this origin pointing, as it dimly does, to the connection of the Picts with "the dispersed" of the Bible, is strongly corroborated by the derivation of the word "Scot" (the ally and companion of the Pict). "Scotica" has also been spelled "Sythica," and the Irish bards say that the Scots were of Scytho-Scandinavian origin; moreover, the historian Gildas, in a passage, states that the Romans returning out of Britain the Scots and Picts came over the Scythian valley in curraghs (Romanis ad suos remeantibus emergunt certatim de curucis, quibus sunt trans Scythicam vallem evecti). The "Scythicam vallem " appears to have been the firth of Edinburgh. In a work by James Paterson of Ayr (from which the writer has derived many facts), on "The Origin of the Scots, etc.," he says that the etymology of "Scot" has been derived from scinte or squit, a Gaelic word, signifying "scattered" or "wanderers." The significance of this derivation is apparent?

Bede, one of the earliest of our historians, brings the Picts. from Scythia, and, according to Greek authority, a diminished body of the Cimbri or Cimmerians of Asia Minor were in Holstein (or Scythia) early in the Christian era (first century).

According to Norwegian history, the Northmen are of Scythian origin, and supposed to have settled on the Euxine about two thousand years (?) before the Christian era. Although this fixes the origin at too remote a period, it is a very strong proof of the belief of the people as to the place from whence they came, the place to which the exiled Jews, or rather, Israel

ites, went, and which the historian Rawlinson compared to a great pot boiling over with successive invading hordes of people."

While on this point it is interesting to observe that the introduction to the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,' of King Alfred, speaks of the early inhabitants of Britain as having come from Armenia.

The connection between Norway and Scotland may also be shown from the names of places, thus scone in Scotland has a resemblance to Skon-land in Norway, so hope (Scot), hoop (Norway); almond (Scotch), almand (Norway) ; weoms (Scotch), wyn (Norway), etc.

In Scotland strange towers or castles of a conical shape, built of stone without cement, may be found chiefly in the Shetland Isles, the Orkneys, Ross, Inverness and Aberdeen, etc.

Not less than sixty-five of these are in Sutherland alone. In Caithness we have similar remains, and also later towers with Scandinavian names, as Freswick, Aldwick, Boorve, etc. One, Guernigo, is supposed to derive its name from the Carnavii, a tribe who inhabited a part of Caithness in the time of Ptolemy, and part of the same tribe dwelt in Cornwall, thus very singularly holding both ends of the kingdom. To resume, the building of these ancient towers is always attributed to the Picts, and similar remains of stone buildings are to be found in Norway.

Claudian speaks of the Orkneys as the abode of the Saxons, and Thule by the Picts. "Maduerunt Saxone fuso Orcades; incaluit Pictorum Sanguine Thule." By Saxons, Claudian meant Northmen; and Richard of Cirencester mentions the arrival of a colony of Picts from the Orkneys in the reign of Hadrian.

The Catini of Caithness, as related by Ptolemy, the ancient geographer, have a tradition that they came from Germany. No doubt they were of the Gothic stock of the Normen.

An almost incontestable proof of the identity of the Picts and Norwegians is this, that when the Danes overran the kingdom, A. D. 870, the Picts sought aid from the Northmen; and we have on record the expeditions fitted out by Sigurd of Nor