Ossian Collection > Gaelic bards

40 MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
to that contained in the Clan Song in "Waverley," "There
is mist on the mountain and night on the vale," that a
reader of Sir Walter Scott's spirited imitation will be able
to form an exceedingly correct notion, both of the nature
of this and all other Clan Songs of the Highlands.
A species of Clan Song also, is Mac Donald's poem
entitled, "The Praise of the Lion," in which he celebrates
so cordially the prowess, valour, and greatness of all the
septs that bore his own distinguished name. It is. at the
same time, no unfair specimen oi those ^Yar-songs, or
Battle incitements, as they were called, with which the
bards, from very remote ages, used to animate their
friends and kinsmen when about to engage in battle.
Some of these, of an old date, are still extant and well
known. The most extraordinary of them, in every
respect, is one composed ijy Lachlan Mor MacYurich
Albanich, hereditary bard of Clan-Ranald, and chanted
by him to his clansmen at the battle of Harlaw, 1411.
This most unique production consists of three hundred
and thirty eight lines ; the theme of the whole being,
" Children of Conn of the hundred fights ! remember
hardihood in the time of battle." Round this theme the
Bard has gathered no fewer than six hundred and fifty
adverbial adjectives, arranged in alphabetical order, and
all bearing a special and bloody reference to the subject
in hand.
The Poem contains nothing else but these adjectives.
There is not much that can be called poetry about them ;
but yet, when supplied without hesitation by a good
memory in all their astonishing alliterative array, by a
ready speaker, gifted with a strong and sensitive voice,
they could not but have offered a rare opportunity for
imjDotuous, vehement and effective declamation. A man
of good ]>resence, as Lachlan Mor probably was, hurling
them forth in this way on his audience, with flashing eye
and fiery, and appropriate gesture, must have created no
small stir and excitement among the valiant children of