Ossian Collection > Thoughts on the origin and descent of the Gael

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excluded not the use of a spear or sword in close
fight. Hand-grenades communicated the name
of grenadiers to a certain portion of the modern
armies of Europe, though soldiers of that descrip-
tion were not limited to the use of those missile
weapons.
It is to be presumed, that with the establish-
ment of the Roman government in Gaul, the use
of the Gallic warlike weapons gave way to those
of the Romans. That, however, the Gael of
Albion were well acquainted with the instrument
called by the Romsins gas urn, the Gaelic language
furnishes ample testimony. It may be observed,
that the Greek authors called this weapon gaisos
and gaisoti ; and there can be no doubt with re-
spect to the Roman pronunciation of the word,
the difference of the Greek and Roman pronun-
ciation consisting only in the termination of the
word. The two vowels a e, though written
commonly in Latin as the sign of a diphthong,
imply not necessarily that they were pronounc-
ed as a coalition of vowels forming one sound.
In the gaison of the Greeks and the gcesum of the
Latins, there is reason to infer, that the vowels
a e\n the one, as well as a i in the other, were
both equally heard in pronunciation.
It is not to be doubted, that both the Greeks
and Romans, in pronouncing Gallic words, pre-
served, as nearly as their organs of speech, ac-
customed to the pronunciation of their own lan-
guages, easily admitted, the Gallic sound of the