Modern opinion holds that the Picts were Celts, like the Scots and Welsh. This text seeks to demonstrate the scarcity of the evidence for this common assumption and follows instead the evidence of native tradition. The author offers a view of the Picts that concentrates on the oldest traditions of Pictish origins, which together with early historical sources, would suggest that the Picts were not Celts at all, but Scythians and presents an alternative case that the Picts were Finno-Ugrian immigrants from the Baltic coast.