Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

[34s
REPORT ON THE
This is certainly a very good, and, when the ori-
ginal is poetry, may be confidered a clofe translation;
but it wants the fimple defcription, the aciual pic-
ture of the original.
* Air mullach bha crom chruth Loduinn
Is clacha mor nan iomadh buadh.'
« On a top (or fmall height) was the circle of the form (or
[image) of Loda,
And the large floncs of many virtues.'
4 On the top is the circle of Loda, the moffy ftone of power.'
Here is the fame departure from the fimple de-
fcription of the original, ' the large {tones of many
virtues/ Befides there being in the Gaelic no epi-
thet mossy, the fmgular stone was contradictory to
the defcription, in the preceding line, of a circle,
which could only be compofed of many ftones.
' Air iofal bha raon gun mhòrchùis
Agus feur is craobh ri cuan ;
Craobh a bhuain a 'ghaoth 'f i ard
O iomall nan earn gu raon.'
* Upon the low (ground) was a plain, without greatnefs (extent),
And grafs and a tree near the ocean ;
A tree which the wind had torn, and it (the wind) high,
* A narrow plain fpreads beneath, and aged trees, which the
midnight winds in their v. rath had torn from the fhaggv rock.'
The