TO THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. THE REPORT, &c. IN execution of the business affigned it, your Committee conceived it to be foreign to its duty to enter into any elaborate argument or difcuffion on the authenticity of thofe poems, or to examine, with critical or historical labour, the opinions of different writers who have made this matter a fubject of controversy. It conceived the purpose of its nomination to be, to employ the influence of the Society, and the extensive communication which it poffeffes with every part of the Highlands, in collecting what materials or information it was ftill practicable to collect, regarding the authenticity and nature of the poems afcribed to Offian, and particularly of that celebrated collection published by Mr James Macpherson. For the purpose above mentioned, the Committee, soon after its appointment, circulated the following fet of Queries, through fuch parts of the Highlands and Islands, and among fuch perfons refident there, as feemed most likely to afford the information required. QUERIES. I. HAVE you ever heard repeated or fung, any of the poems afcribed to Offian, tranflated and published by Mr Macpherson? By whom have you heard them fo repeated, and at what time or times? Did you ever commit any of them to writing, or can you remember them fo well as now to fet them down? In either of thefe cafes, be fo good to fend the Gaelic original to the Committee. II. The fame anfwer is requested concerning any other ancient poems of the fame kind, and relating to the fame traditionary persons or stories with those in Mr Macpherson's collection. III. Are any of the perfons, from whom you heard any fuch poems, now alive? Or are there, in your part of the country, any perfons who remember and can repeat or recite fuch poems? If there are, be fo good to examine them as to the manner of their getting or learning fuch compofitions; and fet down, as accurately as poffible, fuch as they can now repeat or recite; and tranfmit fuch their account, and fuch compofitions as they repeat, to the Committee. IV. IV. If there are, in your neighbourhood, any per fons from whom Mr Macpherson received any poems, inquire particularly what the poems were which he fo received, the manner in which he received them, and how he wrote them down; fhew those persons, if you have an opportunity, his tranflation of fuch poems, and defire them to fay if the tranflation is exact and literal; or, if it differs, in what it differs from the poems, as they repeated them to Mr Macpherson, and can now recollect them. V. Be fo good to procure every information you conveniently can, with regard to the traditionary belief, in the country in which you live, concerning the history of Fingal and his followers, and that of Offian and his poems; particularly concerning those stories and poems published by Mr Macpherson, and the heroes mentioned in them. Tranfmit any fuch account, and any proverbial or traditionary expreffion in the original Gaelic, relating to the fubject, to the Committee. occur to VI. In all the above inquiries, or any that may in elucidation of this fubject, he is requested by the Committee to make the inquiry, and to take down the answers, with as much impartiality and precifion as poffible, in the fame manner as if it were a legal queftion, and the proof to be investigated with a legal ftrictnefs. |