159 



As for the name Swaran, we believe it to be an alteration of 

 Sturan, a name found in the Irish poem L<tO) 6b)-M-6o)tl7)ti, Bin- 

 Bolbin. He was the son of Garav Glunach, and is described as a 

 powerful enchanter from the east and the regions of cold, who, by 

 the powerful music of his harp, charmed their weapons from the 

 hands of the Fenian heroes : 



" Le pujm a c;tujce S^'^/ij 

 Cujc ci n-a)j^m cf a l<xiiia;b." 



He bore a harp, at whose dread sound, 

 J .- Our swords dropp'd harmless to the ground. 



Others of Macpherson's names are found in the Fenian tales; but 

 the great source whence he drew, is Toland's History of the Druids. 

 From this history, Laing observes, that " his names and explanations 

 are transcribed verbatim." That he found his Inishuna there in 

 Inisoen, is pretty apparent, and also his Gelchossa (Ir. Geal-chos- 

 saigh.) This last, says Toland, " was a Druidess, and her name is of 

 the Homerical strain, signifying white-legged,"* a strain that would 

 at once arrest the attention of Macpherson, and cause him to transfer 

 it to his own centos. But had he paid the slightest attention to 

 genuine Irish history, and not been obstinately resolved on falsifying 

 it, to favour his own ill-constructed fictions, he would never have 

 resuscitated Cuchullin, after he had been quietly entombed for up- 

 wards of two centuries ; and changed his country, to make him the 

 contemporary and the compatriot of his Caledonian Achilles ! Mac- 

 pherson, conscious of his own literary crimes, takes every opportunity 

 of vilifying our Irish historians, that by destroying their credibility, 



* Toland's History of the Druids, p. 23,- 



