Ossian Collection > Ossian, his principal poems

THE BARDS. liii
own bard, who was considered as an officer of rank in his
court.
Of the honour in which the bards were held, many instances
occur in Ossian's poems. They were the ambassadors be-
tween contending chiefs, and their persons were held sacred.
" Cairbar feared to stretch his sword to the bards, though his
soul was dark. 'Loose the bards,' said his brother Cathmor,
' they are sons of other times. Their voice shall be heard in
other ages, when the kings of Temora have failed.' " They
and the Druids were exempted from taxes and military
services,, even in times of the greatest danger ; and when
they attended their patrons in the field, to record and cele-
brate their great actions, they had a guard assigned them.
At all public assemblies, they Avere seated near the person
of the king or chieftain, and sometimes even above the
greatest of the nobility and chief officers of the court. Nor
was their profession less lucrative than it was honourable.
Besides the valuable presents which they occasionally re-
ceived from patrons, they had estates in land allotted for
their support. So great was the veneration which the
princes of these times entertained for their poets, and so
highly were they delighted with their strains, that they
sometimes pardoned even their capital crimes for a song.
SVe may reasonably suppose, that a profession so honourable
and advantageous would not be deserted. It was indeed
much cultivated, and the accounts which we have of the
number of bards in some countries, particularly in Ireland,
are hardly credible. We often read, in the poems of Ossian,
of an hundred bards belonging to one prince, singing and
playing in concert for his entertainment. Every chief bard,
who was called AUab Bedan, or doctor in poetry, was allowed
to have thirty bards of inferior note constantly about his