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

14id OBSERVATIONS
The words which are here translated ^ow ou"» are plural
in the original : So that the whole of the six verses now
quoted, express in the clearest manner, that Fingal and his
venerable son, with the heroes whom he celebrates, were
inhabitants and natives of Scotland.
As the two songs which we have just examined, show
Scotland to have been the country of Fingal and his heroes ;
so, two other ancient songs with which Mr. Hill has fa-
voured the public, will prove them to have an intimate
connection with the " peculiarities and traditions." of that
kingdom.
" The first of them relates to the Death of Dermid:""
On a passage of which, as translated in Smith's Gaelic An-
tiquities, p. 194. Mr. Hill has. this note : " Smith adds,.
" that the clan of Cam-pbell, said to be descended from?
" Dermid, assume the boar's head for their crest from this
" eventf."' And he afterwards remarks in another note,=
" As Hengist, Horsa, and the other Saxon chiefs, derived;
*' their pedigree from Odin, so the Cainpbells, &.c. derive
*' theirs from Dermid and the rest of the Fingalians J.""
And, in truth, it is a general belief cn'^er all the Highlands-
and Western Isles of Scotland,, that the Campbells are de-
scended of this very Dermid r a striking instance of which
belief is remarked by the Rev. Mr. Pope of Reay, in a let--
ter to Dr. Blair *. But the tradition of it is peculiar to
Scotland ; for the account of Irish history is, that the illus-
trious house of Argyll took its rise from Fathod Canann,
son of Lughad Mac Con, who succeeded to the kingdom of
Ireland in the year 250 f.
Ancient Erse Poems, p. 15. t Ibid. p. 53. * See p. 54.
i
f " Fathodius Canann Macconii regis filius, Argatheliae in Scotia ComitM
" bus Canibellis (Hibernicè Mac Cathlin) — originem dedit." Roderic. O'Fla-
hfcitri Ogyg. p. 330.
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