The theory of an early Goidelic occupation of Britain has been contested by Professor Meyer,[33] who holds that the first Goidels reached Britain from Ireland in the second century, while Dr. MacBain[34] was of the opinion that England, apart from Wales and Cornwall, knew no Goidels, the place-names being Brythonic.  But unless all Goidels reached Ireland from Gaul or Spain, as some did, Britain was more easily reached than Ireland by migrating Goidels from the Continent.  Prominent Goidelic place-names would become Brythonic, but insignificant places would retain their Goidelic form, and to these we must look for decisive evidence.[35] A Goidelic occupation by the ninth century B.C. is suggested by the name “Cassiterides” (a word of the q group) applied to Britain.  If the Goidels occupied Britain first, they may have called their land Qretanis or Qritanis, which Pictish invaders would change to Pretanis, found in Welsh “Ynys Pridain,” Pridain’s Isle, or Isle of the Picts, “pointing to the original underlying the Greek [Greek:  Pretanikai Nesoi] or Pictish Isles,"[36] though the change may be due to continental p Celts trading with q Celts in Britain.  With the Pictish occupation would agree the fact that Irish Goidels called the Picts who came to Ireland Cruithne=Qritani=Pre-tani.  In Ireland they almost certainly adopted Goidelic speech.

Whether or not all the Pictish invaders of Britain were called “Pictavi,” this word or Picti, perhaps from quicto (Irish cicht, “engraver"),[37] became a general name for this people. Q had been changed into p on the Continent; hence “Pictavi” or “Pictones,” “the tattooed men,” those who “engraved” figures on their bodies, as the Picts certainly did.  Dispossessed and driven north by incoming Brythons and Belgae, they later became the virulent enemies of Rome.  In 306 Eumenius describes all the northern tribes as “Caledonii and other Picts,” while some of the tribes mentioned by Ptolemy have Brythonic names or names with Gaulish cognates.  Place-names in the Pictish area, personal names in the Pictish chronicle, and Pictish names like “Peanfahel,"[38] have Brythonic affinities.  If the Picts spoke a Brythonic dialect, S. Columba’s need of an interpreter when preaching to them would be explained.[39] Later the Picts were conquered by Irish Goidels, the Scotti.  The Picts, however, must already have mingled with aboriginal peoples and with Goidels, if these were already in Britain, and they may have adopted their supposed non-Aryan customs from the aborigines.  On the other hand, the matriarchate seems at one time to have been Celtic, and it may have been no more than a conservative survival in the Pictish royal house, as it was elsewhere.[40] Britons, as well as Caledonii, had wives in common.[41] As to tattooing, it was practised by the Scotti ("the scarred and painted men"?), and the Britons dyed themselves with woad, while what seem to be tattoo marks appear