Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

OF OSSIAN'S POEMS. 293
" Tomhais an tore an aghaidh a ciadlg :"
That is,
" Measure the boar agaiast the bristles."
We find the people of Fingal, in these
poems, generally styled ^^NanColg,'" or "the
" bristled," probably from the fierceness of
their looks, and their bristled hair and beards.
This term, accordingly, has sometimes been
rendered by *' fierce," or " warlike."
Another race of men, mentioned in these
poems, particularly those of the south
Ireland, and of the southern and eastern
parts of Caledonia, are styled " Nam Bolg f
the BoKyct of Pausanias ; and the Belg« of
the Romans. Bolg, in Gaelic, signifies, li-
terally, " the bellyed,'' or " the corpulent,"
and might be applied, as a characteristic
epithet, to the inhabitants of the richer dis-
tricts and Lowlands. This, however, is given
only in the way of conjecture.