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

ON MR. hill's SPECIMEN'. 133
in the breast of Mr. Hill, who thus expresses it In the note
subjoined to it : " I suspect the expressions translated by
♦* Macpherson, the kings of the world, a^re somewhat similar
*' to these. Fingal is here represented as a Bacchus or
*' Sesostris."
'Stanza 10. '* Thug e la air pronnadh I òir
" San athlo air meoghair chon,"
is translated, '' He who has been one day distributing gold,
" and aiiother following the toes of dogs" — instead of
He passed one day in distributing gold,
And another in following th^ sport of hounds.
it ig possible the misconception here was occasioned by the
translator's being ignorant of the meaning of the word
meoghmr, or m^aghair, ns it ought to be written. But as he
may not have had the fortitude to acknowledge his ignorance,
he might read mcoir (fingers, or toes, of the human species)
ior meoghair. He did not, perhaps, perceive tliat such a
.reading was as flagrant a violation of the sound and quanti-
ity of the verse, as it wa« ^foreign to the idiom of th^
language.
Stanza l-S. ''- Sgann &chr^Ideas lae do sgcu!
" A ChlirichJed Jeabhar ban
*' Gurn bjthidh ^ion.i na chomh fliirul
" Aig Duine i\o aig Dia un laimh.*'
'The literal meaning of these lines is this,
I can hardly believe thy tale.
Thou Cleric -vvith thy wlu'te book.,
Tlijit Fingal, or any ,so generous .as he.
Should be under captivity either to God or man."
The wide compass of Giielic poetry does not comuln v.
sentence of plainer meaning than that which is before us.
\ For pronnadh read bronnadh. The first, as Mr. HIQ reliwrk-. 'u)iÈ^-C
^ote, signifies /'c««i;no-. The JiJst means ly/j/r/iaf.-.i^,
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