Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

IX.] SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 265
of this one warrior race belong equally to both countries.
Each has its songs about the Fenian heroes ; each has
its local names taken from these, its ' Fenian topography.'
The question, therefore, often agitated, whether the
Fenian poetry belongs by right to Ireland or to Scot-
land, is a futile one. It belongs equally to both, for it
sprang from the doings and achievements of one warrior
race, which occupied both lands indifferently. I leave
Ireland to speak for itself, as it does very effectually
through the lectures of the late Professor O' Curry, and
other native writers. In the Western Highlands, to
quote the words of Mr. Skene, ' The mountains, streams,
and lakes, are everywhere redolent of names connected
with the heroes and actions of the Feinne, and show
that a body of popular legends, whether in poetry or
prose, arising out of these, and preserved by oral recita-
tion, must have existed in the country, where this
topography sprang up.' But, whether the events asso-
ciated with particular local names originally happened
in Scotland or in Ireland, must be left undetermined.
That songs about the Feinne, which had never been
committed to writing, had been preserved from time out
of mind by oral recitation among the native Gael, no
candid man who has examined the question can doubt.
The great Dr. Johnson would not believe this on any
evidence. But as one among innumerable witnesses
tells us, ' It was the constant amusement or occupation
of the Highlanders in the winter time to go by turns