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

310 ACCOUNT OF
known to have reached from the Rhine, eastward, to the
Baltic, Weisel, and Gulf of Finland f.
The parchment book, marked No. IV. consists of differ-
ent MSS. written by different hands, and stitched together
in one collection. The oldest of them should seem, from
its letter and vellum, to have been written in the loth or
11th century.
The annexed specimen plate 1. fig. 4. shews its orna-
mented letter, and plate 3. No. 2. is taken from its Treatise
of Peanaid Adhaimh, or Punishment of Adam, Fol. XXIII.
rev. col. 1. Aspeart Eua fri hAdum as missi as chintach
ar si agus imbir bas forum a Adaim .1. comad moide do
genad Dia troccaire ottrsa. As leor cheana do craidfimur
in Coimde ar Adum agus ni dingansa fingal fortsa arse ar
atai chena co truag tarrnocht agus ni dailimb mfhuil fein
for talmuin uair rann dom chorpsa thussa.
That is — Eve spoke to Adam. I am the guilty person,
said she, and do thou deal death to me, O Adam, that God
may the rather do mercy to thyself ! Enough have we al-
ready grieved the Godhead, said Adam, nor can I commit
murder upon thee. For, said he, thou art already miserable
in thy nakedness ; and I shall not deliver my own blood
to the earth, since a portion of my body art thou.
In the same Collection is an ancient Life of St. Columba,
the character of which (very similar to that of Lord Ban-
natyne's MS. mentioned above) evidently shows it to be
of the twelfth or thirteenth century. The following ex-
f Lhuyd Archseolog. Britann. Tit. X. in voc. Lochlonach. Evan's ancient
Welsh Bards p. 25, note»
Vetustissimi igitur Germanise termini fuere ; ab occasu Rhenus amnis, et
Octanus Germanicus; — ab ortu Granvicus et Finnicus sinus, mare Suevicum,
Mve sinus Codanus, Vistula aronis, &c. Philp. Chiverii Introduct. in uniyer?,
Oeograph. Lib. III. c. 1.