Ossian Collection > Dean of Lismore's book

THE BOOK OF
Long are the clouds this night above me ;
In this great workl none is like nie,
So sad, how sad ray case !
A poor old man now dragging stones.
Long are the clouds this night above me,
The last man of the Feine am I,
The great Ossian, the son of Finn,
Listening to the somid of bells.^
Long are the clouds this night above me.
Find, Patrick, from thy God
What our eternal state shall be.
Freed may we ever be from ill.
Long are the clouds this night above me.
Long are the clouds, etc.
The Aiitlioi- of this is Ossian :
Once on a time when Finn my loved
Went to hunt on the " Fair maids' hill," "
A^^ith three thousand nobles of the Feine,
Their shields aloft o'er their heads.
1 The iiells used in Christian worsliip. which the almost uiiifonu term for a
" Patrick of the bells," is a common ap- mountain is " Beinn," the English
pellation of St. Patrick in these compo- " Ben." This is one of the marked dif-
sitions. ferences between Irish and Scottish topo-
^ "Sliabhnambanfionn,"orthe "hill graphy. The term under consideration
of the fair-haired women," is said to be has sometimes been called in Scotland
one of the mountains of Tipperary, in " Sliabli nam beanu fionn," "the hill of
the neighbourhood of Cloumel. It is now the fair hills," a manifest mistake, which
called " Sliabh nam ban," and has seve- tlie meaningless tautology should be
ral traditions of the Feine associated with enough to prove. Topographical phrases
it. The writer is not aware of any nioun- in the Gaelic language are usually not
tain of the name in Scotland ; besides, only grammatically accurate, but of re-
although the word " Sliabh " is well niarkable elegance in their structure,
known and in common use among the Tlie interpretations often put upon them
Scottish Highlanders, it is seldom found are a monstrous outrage upon this sound
in the topography of the country, in and invariable principle.