Among the greatest nations descending from the Aryan or white race, whose original home was the great central plateau of Asia, from which it wandered south and north and west, were the Gothic and Teutonic tribes. From these tribes came the Franks, the Norsemen and others, including the Scots. The name of Scot is derived from the saint called Saint Skint, but the name Scot also means man of the North or Northman. Gothic comes from the word Cat or Got, meaning a man of war. The Scots, like their brethren of the North Aryan race, were tall with hazel, gray and blue eyes, brown and yellow hair, very fair complexioned, and were of the purest Gothic Aryan blood. They belonged to the Scandinavian division of Teutonic stock.

Among the Scandinavian people, the most important event from the dim prehistoric past was the arrival of Odin. According to historians, Odin was the chief of a Scythian tribe of warriors, which immigrated from the East and fought its way North, passing through Germany into Scandinavia. Through superior intelligence, skill and bravery, Odin brought the natives into subjection and established a kingdom. He made an alliance with the King of Sweden, and the Romans never conquered his kingdom. Odin is thought to have reigned about 70 B. C. Most likely Odin was a great and wise ruler, who of necessity in such an age was also a great warrior and statesman who organized his people and gave them laws and permanently established them. After his death, tradition, following its usual course, built about his memory a mass of attributes that in the course of years became divine, and finally caused him to be worshipped as a god. To Odin was attributed the invention of Runic writing and poetry; and a knowledge of astronomy and the arts, sciences and magic. He became the personification of all that was heroic, wise and good, and according to the ideals of his people, the predominant ideal figure of his race, its god. This was the normal course of mythology and tradition among races in their infancy before the dawn of letters in Greece and Rome.

The symbol of Odin was the raven. It was also the symbol of the wild, marauding Norsemen of ancient times. From this symbol comes the black eagle used in the arms of Germany, Austria and Russia.

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