Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 1

THE If^A\ OF OSSIAN-. $
fcrv-inj: their rharacler of landity was lb eiTential to their
inilnence, that they never broke out into violence or op-
preffion. The chiefs were allowed to execute the laws,
but the legiflative power was entirely in the hands of the
Druids f. It was by their authority that the tribes were
united, in times of the greateft danger under one head.
This temporary king, or Vergobretus ||, was chofen by
them, and generally laid down his office at the end of
the war. Thefe priefls enjoA^ed long this extraordina-
r\' privilege among the Celtic nations who lay beyond
the pale of the Roman empire. It v/as in the beginning
of the fecond century that their power among tiie Cale-
donians began to decline. The Poems that celebrate
Trathal and Cormac, anceilors to Fingal, are full of par-
ticulars concerning the fall of the Druids, which account
for the total filence concei'ning their religion in the
Poems that are now given to the public.
The continual wars of the Caledonians againll^the
Romans, hindered the nobility from initiating them-
lelves, as the cuftom formerly was, into the order of the
Druids. The precepts of their religion v/cre confined
to a fevi> and were not much attended to by a people
inured to war. The Vergobretus, or chief magifcrate,
was chofen without the concurrence of the hierarchy,
or continued in his ofdce againft their vy'ill. Continual
power ftrengthened his intereft among the tribes, and
tnabled him to fend down, as hereditary to his poftcri-
ty, the office he had only received himfelf by election.
On occafion of a new war againft the iCw^g- <?y /Zs
World, as the Poems emphatically call the Roman em-
peror, the Druids, to vindicate the honour of the order,
began to refume their ancient privilege of chufuig the
Vergobretus.* Garmal, the fon of Tarno, being deput-
ed by them, came to the fzrandfather of the celebrated
Fingal, who was then Vergobretus, and commanded
him, in the name of the Avhole order, to lay down liis
©ffice. Upon his refufal, a civil war commencod, which
Vol. I. b
^ Csei. '. 6. I Ftfr-gubrgCb, ' the nisTi to judge.'