Ossian Collection > Gaelic bards

OSSIAXIC POETRY. 179
bonnet in honour of the ancestral shade. Mr. Pope's
simplicity, and his manner of telling a story in his rather
peculiar English, are both so charming that it would be
almost inexcusable not to give his own words. It is a
pity he did not write more letters about the eccentricities
of his parishioners. A collection of them, if they
resembled this one, would have made a very entertaining
volume. Mr. Pope writes as follows : — " There is an old
fellow in this parish who, very gravely, takes off his
bonnet as often as he sings ' Duan Dearmot.' I was
extremely fond to try if the case was so, and, getting him
to my house, gave him a bottle of ale, and begged the
favour of him to sing ' Duan Dearmot.' After some
nicety, he told me that to oblige his parish minister he
would do so ; but, to my surprise, he took of his bonnet.
I caused him to stop and put on his bonnet. He made
some excuses. However, as soon as he began, he took off
his bonnet. I rose and put it on. He took it off. I
put it on. At last he was like to swear most horribly, he
would sing none unless I allowed him to be uncoveied.
I gave him his freedom, and so he sung with great spirit.
I then asked him the reason. He told me it was out of
regard to the memory of that hero. I asked him if he
thought that the spirit of that hero was present ? He
said not; but he thought it well became them who
descended from him to honour his memory." This shows
the fast hold which the notion of a descent from the
Fenian hero took of the popular mind. Althouf^h
Diarmad makes no great figure in MacPherson's "Ossian,"
he is a very conspicuous actor in the prose leo-ends and
other traditions of the Highlands. This poem
sometimes called Duan or Heroic Song, sometimes Laoidh
(with the dh silent) or Lay, sometimes Bàs Dhiarmaid
or the Death of Diarmad — is in many of the collections
of Gaelic poems. That of MacCallum has been principally
but not wholly followed in this translation : —