Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 4

194 GAELIC POETRY OF KNOWN AND UNKNOWN BARDS,
" Cliuir sinn a' bkrigis air lar,
'S cha d' tliig i gu bràtli a' cuil."
"We have laid down the " breegis" on earth,
She will never come out of the nook.
Then comes sometliing more agreeable —
" Osan nach ceangail ar ceum,
'S nach niigeadh mar reis an glnn."
Hose that bind not oiu' stride,
That reach not the knee by a span.
The Highland dress is a principal theme with all
the bards that flourished at the same period with
Macintyre. They grieve deeply for being deprived of
it ; praise it as the finest, the most becoming, and the
most convenient of all garbs. Breeches, black hats,
and long coats, are made the subjects of keen satire ;
and the bard taxes all liis Avits to make the lowland
dress the most ludicrous and the most contemptible
that can be conceived. Like other poets of the same
period Macintyre composed bacchanalian songs, mostly
in praise of whisky, but there is one to brandy, from
wdiich it appears that the Gaelic poet by no means
coincided with Burns in his opinion of this drink, for
he does not call it burning trash, but praises it.
In his " Moladh Dhun Eideann," the praise of
Edinburgh, the appearance of the city, and the dress
of the period, are described by the poet in his happiest
manner, —