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 SPECIRIEX. 151
The Mistakes which have been noticed are but a fpw of
what the Poem of Urnigh Ossian contains. Nor are the
other poems in tlie collection more exempt from error.
Two instances to be taken from the first of these which is
entitled Ossjan agus aa Clerich will suHice.
Stanza 26. " Se huirt an Tcsgar bu mhor Brigli
*' Diongamsa Riogh Inse-Tore
" S Cinn a Dha chomhirlich dheig
'*■ Leig faoi 'm choimhir fein an coisg."
Translated, " Then says Oscar of mighty strength, ' Give
*' me the King of Inistore [the Island of IVild Boars ;] his
" twelve nobles have a sweet voice, leave me to quell
« them."
The actual signification of Inse-Tore, or rather Inse toir,
is of the eastern Isle ; but the translator seems to have read
it, as it was probably recited, Inse-torc, which means, of the
island of boars.
Cinn a dha chomhirlich dheig, signifies the heads of his
twelve counsellors. The erroneous translation appears to
have proceeded from the translator's taking Cinn, heads., for
binn, sweet of voice, or imisicai., and not -understanding the
-meaning of cliomhirlich, counsellors.
Stanz.a 31. /. 3. " Meirg Riogh Lochlan an aigh'' is^trans-
■lated " the iron King of Lochlin," instead of the stan^rd of
Lochlifi^s auspicious King.
It is not without regret that I have observed the Enquiry
of a writer possessed of learning, ingenuity, and candour,
thus teeming with errors ; v.'hich .proceeded in part from
his being an entire stranger to the language in which the
poems he sought after were com.posed, and were, in part,
owing to the ignorance of has scribes and translators,
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