the top of the valley in sight of the Craig of Badenoch on
the left hand side of the way, I saw an immense cairn, probably
the memorial of some bloody clan battle. On my journey I picked
up from the mouth of an old Highland woman a most remarkable
tale concerning the death of Fian or Fingal. It differs
entirely from the Irish legends which I have heard on the
subject--and is of a truly mythic character. Since visiting
Shetland I have thought a great deal about the Picts, but
cannot come to any satisfactory conclusion. Were they Celts?
were they Laps? Macbeth could hardly have been a Lap, but then
the tradition of the country that they were a diminutive race,
and their name Pight or Pict, which I almost think is the same
as petit--pixolo--puj--pigmy. It is a truly perplexing
subject--quite as much so as that of Fingal, and whether he
was a Scotsman or an Irishman I have never been able to decide,
as there has been so much to be said on both sides of the
question. Please present my kind remembrances to Mrs. Petrie
and all friends, particularly Mr. Sheriff Robertson,[197] who
first did me the favour of making me acquainted with you.--And
believe me to remain, dear Sir, ever sincerely yours,

GEORGE BORROW.

Thank you for the newspaper--the notice was very kind, but
rather too flattering.

On the same day that Borrow wrote, Mr. Petrie sent his acknowledgment of
the books, and so the letters crossed:

I was very agreeably surprised on opening a packet, which came
to me per steamer ten days ago, to find that it contained a
present from you of your highly interesting and valuable works
_Lavengro_ and _Romany Rye_. Coming from any person such books
would have been highly prized by me, and it is therefore
specially gratifying to have them presented to me by their
author. Please to accept of my sincere and heartfelt thanks for
your kind remembrance of me and your valuable gift. May I
request you to confer an additional favour on me by sending me
a slip of paper to be pasted on each of the five volumes,
stating that they were presented to me by you. I would like to
hand them down as an heirloom to my family. I am afraid you
will think that I am a very troublesome acquaintance.

I would have written sooner, but I expected to have had som