Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

OF OSSIAN'S POEMS. 05
" land, refused them admission ; but gave
" them this salutary advice : — ' We know/
" said they, ' an island, at no great distance,
" towards the east; there you may find set-
>" tlements, and, if you are opposed, we shall
" assist you."
In the paragraph which immediately fol-
lows, we have the sentence which appears to
be the sole foundation of the alleged inva-
sion of Riada ; the Dalriadan kingdom ; and
the Irish origin of all the present inhabitants
have been given by early writers, as well to the inhabit-
ants of Ireland as to those of Scotland, with whom it has
become permanent; the learned Joseph Scaliger, in his notes
on the Chronicon of Eusebius, (p. 175.) has well observed,
*' that it is not properly a name, but an appellation, de-
" scriptive of the wandering and predatory manner of life
" which characterised those tribes, who, by their incur-
" sions, infested the Roman province in Britain. They
" were called Scotti," he observes, "just as the Arabs
" were called Bedouins, or Saracens." It may be proper
to add, that the names Scots and Scotland are totally un-
known, at this day, to the Highlanders. They call
themselves Albanich, and their country Albin.