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

54. LETTERS TO DR. BLAIR.
that people in South Britain, and the Teutones from Scan-
dinavia ; so that, as the Celtic nations on the continent^
who were in perpetual motion^ some one way or other,
were coming in frequent detachments to the British Isles, it
is likely the leaders of tribes, and the other better sort of
people, would have known something of the use of cloaths
in Ossian's time. But the lower classes, I mean those
who Were inferior in valour, or servile mechanics, if they
had other than smiths I know not, would have only worn the
sagum, like Luno. Sagum, I am informed by two clas-
sical writers, is a Galuic word, which is no other than
Sheag or Sac, a hide ; though it was afterwards applied to
any square loose covering, made use of by the military
men among the Celts and Romans. I may fairly conclude
from this observation, that Ossian sung when the pure ori-
ginal sagum was the dress of many among the British
Celts.
I found the genealogy of Aldo, who carried off Erra-
gon's queen, in the following words, in this rehearser's
edition : " Aldo, the son of Leven, the son of Lir ; one de-
scended of the people of Ti", I take this Ti to be the Cel-
tic divinity Tis, (the Dis of Caesar) and the people of
whom Aldo was originally descended, to be the Titanes
or Teutones ; for our European forefathers flattered their
vanity very much in deriving their origin from some of
their favourite deities, as the Germans pretended to have
descended of Tuiston, by his son Mannus. I am Sure
this genealogy of Aldo hath the character of high antiqui-
ty, higher than the general belief of the christian system
in this colintry. Enough of this dry stuff.
The unconquerable aversion which the Druids had a-
gainst committing any of their poetical works to writ-
ing, conld not miss of bringing the most of them to
a period at the dissolution of their policy. The mis-
sionaries from Icolumkill to the Western Isles and