Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
The upper one looks like a Scottish shashka!! 
Jim |
I don't know why Jim, but every time you post you fire up a memory that keeps me up until I follow it through??? Must be that free association thing.
Your observation above may not be as far fetched as you think! Rev J. A. Wylie in his
History of the Scottish Nation London 1886 devotes chapter 20 in Volume I to "The Cradle of the Scots in Scythia". As you know it is the descendants of the Scythians that are the shashkaophiles (if that is a word).
A few quotes of Wylie's such as "Almost all ancient testimony points to Scythia as the original cradle of the Scottish race." He goes on to explain that both the names Scots and Scyths signify the the same thing namely an archer or bowman.
Further... "King Alfred, in his translation of Bede, and other writers of that time, use Scytisk for Scottish, so that Scyt and Scot were synonymous. Several of the classic writers do the same thing, making use of Scythia and Scotia and Scyth and Scot alternatively. The Irish writers uniformly say that the Scots were Scythians... "
I have absolutely no idea if his theorys still hold water, and I doubt that this is usefull in any way, but, At least now I can go to bed
All the Best
Jeff