Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

xiv A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE,
versal in the Highlands as the belief of any ancient
fact whatsoever. It is recorrled in proverbs, which
pass through all ranks and conditions of men. Ossian
dull, blind Ossian,* is a person as well known as
strong Samson or wise Solomon. The very boys in
their sports cry out for fair play, Cothram iiafeine,
the equal combat of the Fingalians. Ossian, an deigh
namfiann, Ossian, the last of his race, is proverbial,
to signify a man who has had the misfortune to sur-
vive his kindred ; and servants returning from a fair
or wedding, were in use to describe the beauty of
young women whom they had seen there, by the
words, Tha i cho hoidheach reh Jgandecca,
nighean ant sneachda, she is as beautiful as Agan-
decca, daughter of the Snow.t
All this will be readily conceded, and Mr. Mac-
pherson's being at one period an " indifferent profi-
cient in the Gaelic language," may seem an argument
of some weight against his having himself composed
these Ossianic Poems. Of his inaccuracy in the
Gaelic, a ludicrous instance is related in the declara-
tion of Mr. Ewan Macpherson, at Knock, in Sleat,
Sep. 11, 1800. He declares, that he, " Colonel Mac-
leod, of Talisker, and the late Mr. Maclean, of Coll,
embarked with Mr. Macpherson for Uist on the same
pursuit: that they lauded at Lochmaddy, and pro-
ceeded across the Muir to Benbecula, the seat of the
younger Clanronald : that on their way thither, they
fell ill with a man whom they afterwards ascertained
to have been Mac Codriim, the poet : that Mr. Mac-
pherson asked him the question, A bheil dad agad
air an Fheinn ? by which he meant to inquire,
•whether or not he knew any of the poems of Ossian
relative to the Fingalians; but that the term in which
the question was asked, strictly imported whether or
not the Fingalians owed him any thing; and that Mac
Codrnm being a man of humour, took advantage of
the incorrectness or inelegance of the Gaelic in which
* Ty$Xo? -y 'OjOt»)go?, Lascaris Const,
t Report, p. 15.