Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

18 ON THE AUTHENTICITY
He adds, " that they liave their women in
" common."
Now, I confess, that, in all this testimony,
if we except the last circumstance, which
My Laing himself candidly rejects, I can
perceive nothing but that ordinary admixture
of violence and of bravery, of ferocity and of
generosity, which constitutes the character
of nations, in the earlier stages of society.
The testimony of Herodian is very nearly
the same, to the character of hardiness, and
intrepidity in swimming and wading over
their rivers and morasses, without regard to
the inclemencies of the weather, — exertions,
on which the Romans prided themselves in
the polished days of Horace : — he adds the
common account of their painting their
bodies ; and of their propensity to war and
shedding of blood. Jerome, an eye-witness,
is cited, as asserting, that the Attacotti, (who,
however, by the consent of all, did not inha-
bit Caledonia, in the period assigned to Fin-