Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

8 The ATTESTATIONS of many GENTLEMEN to
different Counties who were moil likely to give Light on this
Llead.
With regard to the Manner in which the Originals of thefe
Poems have been preferved and tranfmitted, which has been
reprefented as fo myflerious and inexplicable, I have received
the following plain Account : That until the prefent Century,
almofi; every great Family in the Highlands had their owji Bard,
to whofe Office it belonged to be Mafter of all the Poems and
Songs of the Country; that among thefe Poems the Works of
OJJian are eafily diffinguifhed from thofe of later Bards, by fe-
veral Peculiarities in his Style and Manner ; that OJJian has been
always reputed the Homer of the Highlands, and all his Compo-
litions held in lingular Efteem and Veneration ; the whole
Country is full of traditionary Stories derived from his Poems,
concerning Fingal and his Race of Heroes, of whom there is
not a Child but has heard, and not a Diffrift in which there are
not Places pointed out, famous for being the Scene of fome of
their Feats of Arms -, that it was wont to be the great Enter-
tainment of the Highlanders, to pafs the Winter Evenings in
difcourfing of the Times of Fingal, and rehearfmg thefe old
Poems, of which they have been all along enthufiaftically fond ;
that when affembled at their Feflivals, or on any of their public
Occafions, Wagers were often laid who could repeat mofl of
them ; and'to have Store of them in their Memories, was both
an honourable and a profitable Acquifition, as it procured them
Accefs into the Families of their great Men ; that with regard
to their Antiquity, they are beyond all Memory or Tradition;
infomuch