Ossian Collection > Morison's edition of the Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

58« APPENDIX.
different counties who were moft likely to give light on this
head.
With regard to the manner in which the originals of thefe
poems have been preferved and tranimitted. which has
been reprefented as lb myfterious and inexplicable, I have
received the following plain account : That until the pre-
fent century, almoft every great family in the Highlands
had their own bard, to whole office it belonged to be maf-
ter of all the poems and fongs of the country ; that among
thefe poems the works of Ofiian are eafily diR""gui(hed
from thole of later bards by feveral peculiarities ir. his ftyle
and manner ; that Offian has been always reputed the Ho-
hier of the Highlands, and all his compofitions held in An-
gular efteem and veneration ; that the whole country is full
of traditionary ftories derived from his poems, concerning
Fingal and his race of heroes, of whom there is not a child
but has heard, and not a dirtrid in which there are not pla-r
ces pointed out as famous for being the fcene of fome of their
feats of arms ; that it was wont to be the great entertain-
ment of the Highlanders, to pafs the winter evenings in dif-
courling of the times of Fingal, and rehearfing tbefe old
poems, of which they have been all along enthufiaftically
fond ; that when alTembled at their feftivals, or any of their
public occafions, wagers were often laid v.'ho could repeat
moft of them, and to have ftore of them in their memories,
was both an honourable and a profitable acquilition, as it
procured them accefs into' the families of their great men j
that with regard to their antiquity, they are beyond all me-
mory or tradition ; infomuch that there is a word common-
ly ufed in the Highlands to this day, when they would ex-
prefs any thing which is of the moft remote or unknown
antiquity, importing, that it belongs to the age of Fingal.
' I am farther informed that after the ufe of letters was in-
troduced into that part of the country, the bards and other.s
began early to commit feveral of thefe poems to writing ;
that old manufcripts of them, many of which are deftroyed
or loft, are known and attefced to have been in t!ie poffef-
lion of fome great families ; that the moft valuable of thofe
which remained, were coUeited by Mr Macpherfon during
his journey through that country ; that though the poems of
Offian, fo far as they were handed down by oral tradition,
were no doubt liable to be interpolated, and to have their
parts disjoined and put out of their natural order, yet by
comparing together the different oral editions of them (if
we may ufe that phrafe) in different corners of the country,
and by comparing thefe alio with the manufcripts which he
obtained J