Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

THE POEMS OF OSSIAIs^. 4a
a few ignorant senachies might be persuaded out of
their own opinion by the snaoothness of an Irish tale, it
was impossible to eradicate from among the bulk of the
people their own national traclitiuns. These trr-iditions
afterwards so much prevailed, that the Highlanders
continue totally unacquainted with the pretended Hi-
bernian extract of the Scottish nation. Ignorant chro-
nicle writers, stranv^ers to the ancient language. of their
country, preserved only from falling to the groui;d so
improbable a story.
It was during the period I have mentioned, that the
Irish became acquainted with, and carried into their
conntry the compositions of Ossian. The scene of many
of the pieces being m Ireland, suggested first to them
a hint of making both heroes and poet natives of that
island. In order to do this eliectuaHy, they found it
necessary to reject the genuine poems, as everv line
vvas pregnant with proofs of their Scottish original, and
to dress up a fable on the same subject in their own
language. So ill qualified, however, were their bards
to effectuate this change, that amidst ail their desires
to make the Fiona Irishmen, they e%^ery now and then
called them ' Siol Albin.' It was probably, after a suc-
cession of some generations, that the bards had effron-
tery enough to establish an Irish genealogy for Fion,
and deduce him from the Milesian race of kings. In
some of the oldest Irish poems on the suf^ject, the
great-grand-father of Fion is made a Scandinavian ; and
his heroes are often called Siol Lochlin ka beum,
i. e. * the race of Lochlin of wounds.' The only poem
that runs up the family of Fion to Nuades Niveus,
king of Ireland, is evidently not above a hundred and
fiftv years old ; for, if I mistake not, it mentions the
Earl of Tyrone, so famous in Elizabeth's time.
This subject, perhaps, is pursued further than it de-
serves ; but a discussion of the pretensions of Ireland
to Ossian, was become in some measure '.lecessary. If
the Irish poems concerning the Fiona should appear
ridiculous, it is but justice to obs rve, that they are
scarcely more so than the poems of other nations at