This is one of those general and well known facts, which it is believed no one will contest, however much he may be disposed to doubt the authenticity of the poems, published as the compositions of Ossian, the son of Fingal. 4. The uniform tradition and belief of those Highlanders, who were the most likely to have their traditions unmixed with foreign fable, is, that Fingal and his heroes were natives of Scotland. Many distinguished families in the Highlands, particularly the great clan Campbell, trace their origin from these heroes. A gentleman born in the isle of Skye, and who communicated several of those poems to Macpherson, (Capt. John Macdonald of Breakish), aged 78, has recently declared upon oath, as the universal tradition of that country, that Fingal, Ossian, Oscar, and the Fingalians in general, were at all times, and without any doubt, reckoned and believed to be of Scotch, and not of Irish extraction.* It can hardly be doubted, that Cuthullin was a Scotch chief, whose original residence was at Dunskaich, in the Isle of Skye, a castle built on a round rock, See Captain Macdonald's declaration, Appendix No. I. This is strongly corroborated by Evan Macpherson's declaration. Report of the Highland Society, Appendix, p. 98. d almost surrounded by the sea, and having no access to it, but by a moveable bridge. Without the entry to the castle, there was a long stone, sunk in the ground, to which it is said that Cuthullin's dog was tied, except when he went a-hunting. In short, the general tradition, and likewise the ancient poetry of the Highlands, represent the Fingalians as residing in Scotland, though occasionally going to Ireland, for the sake of hunting or of war. This train of evidence must be satisfactory to every impartial reader; and it is not therefore to be wondered at, that Ossian should be called the Prince of the Scottish bards, and the Homer of the ancient Highlanders.* It appears indeed, that Fergus, and not Ossian, was, according to Irish traditions, the chief bard of the Irish Fingal, though his works are hardly known in Scotland. The Irish poets bestow innumerable epithets upon this favourite bard; he is denominated Fergus of the sweet lips, the truly ingenious, superior in knowledge, skilled in the choice of words, &c. &c.+ These praises, bestowed upon Fergus and his works, prove that the Irish were unacquainted with the real and superior poetry produced by Ossian. * See Report of the Highland Society, App. p. 15, 18, and 61. + Walker's Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, p. 42. Besides, it is admitted, that the poems attributed by the Irish to Ossian, were composed between the 8th and 12th centuries;* whereas the poems of Ossian are ascribed by our traditions to some of the most remote periods of which there is any account in the history of Scotland; insomuch that it is a phrase commonly used in the Highlands to this day, when they express a thing belonging to very great antiquity, to call it Fiontach, or Fianntaidh, i. e. belonging to the time of Fingal. The Irish and the Scotch poems also, though composed in the same language, and sometimes imputed to the same authors, yet in many respects differ from each other. In the Irish, St. Patrick is introduced in compliment to that great apostle of Hibernia; which is never the case in the poems of the Scottish Ossian: and, in the Western Islands, where those poems were preserved in the greatest purity, names are introduced never heard of in Ireland, as Swaran, Acandecca, Fainasollis, &c. clearly indicating, that the poems were originally different, though, in consequence of the strong connexion which subsisted between the two countries, during the course of so many ages, some entire poems, or beautiful passages in them, might be transferred from the one country to the * Walker's Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, p. 109, and 110. Miss Brooke's Relicts of Irish Poetry, p. 73, note. other, at a time when, in regard to language and many other particulars, the two nations were almost the same. S IV. That some Parts of the Poems of Ossian were preserved in Manuscript. The existence of Gaelic manuscripts can no longer be denied, as many of them are now in the possession of the Highland Society of Scotland, an account of which is given in their Report regarding the authenticity of Ossian.* Others also are known to exist, which the Society will probably procure. It must be admitted, that only two poems, expressly ascribed to Ossian, have hitherto been traced in those manuscripts: the one a lamentation of Ossian, much in the style of the poems published as Ossian's by Macpherson; the other, the story of a fair lady, who fled to Fingal for protection. This poem resembles the one printed in the Irish character, and translated into English by Miss Brooke, under the name of Moira * See Appendix, No. 19, p. 285; also the Report, p. 17, where Bishop Carsewell, whose book is printed anno 1567, mentions Gaelic manuscripts. Borb. Upon comparing the two together, it evidently appears, that some Irish bard had endeavoured to improve the simple and sublime poetry of Ossian, and to transfer, without any just ground, the credit of that poetry to Ireland. In Miss Brookes's translation, the following are the four first lines: A tale of old, of Finian deeds I sing, Of Erin's mighty hosts, the mighty king, But, in the manuscript, which was written at different periods from 1512 to 1529, and consequently must be held as much better authority, the poem, as literally translated, begins as follows: Know ye a short tale of Fingal, A tale that claims your attention. It concerns the son of Comhal, of powerful sway, In which there is not a word of Fingal being the king of Erin's mighty hosts. But, though it is acknowledged, that no considerable extent of poetry ascribed to Ossian, has hitherto been discovered in any ancient manu * Report of the Highland Society, p. 99. In the MS. the poem is called " A Howdir so Ossein;" the English of which is, The Author of this is Ossian. |