Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

GAELIC MANUSCRIPTS. 303
Spends almost exactly with Sliabh nam heannjionn in Ken-
nedy's Collection, p. 29. The number of verses is the
same in both, and even the order of them, with two excep-
tions which do not alter the sense. Some variation occurs
in the reading at the 20th, 36th, 44th, and 48th verses. It
is observable, that the argument or preface of this piece, as
given by Mr. Kennedy, makes the number of hunters 3000,
whereas the poem, written in his own hand, has only 1000,
which corresponds with the MS. of the Dean. Mr. Ken-
nedy's arguments, indeed, are frequently at variance with
the poems to which they are prefixed ; a mistake that may
have probably resulted from a disposition in the reciter
to exaggerate the subject of the poem in his preliminary
account of it.
A less perfect edition of this beautiful poem is also
found under the title of La ??ior Seilg na Feinne, in the oral
recitations communicated by the Rev. Francis Stewart, mi-
nister of Craignish ; and another still more corrupted, was
written from memory by Archibald M'Callum, and com-
municated through Mr. Malcolm M'Donald.
4. A poem by Fearghas Fili (p. 230) being the report
which that bard made to Fingal of Oscar's having fallen on
the field of Gavra, corresponds very much with an edition
of Kennedy's (p. 14S), and another of Mr. Malcolm Mac
Donald's ; neither of which is inferior to the Dean's. The
two last lines of the following stanza are even more happi-
ly expressed in Kennedy's edition than in his.
Chunnaic e righ Eirean
Shios iar làr a chatha
Is thug ruathar chuige
Mar bhuinne re caraig.
It is to be observed, that this report of Fergus the bard
appears in the edidons of Mr.. M'Donald and Kennedy, as