into the Irish poems, never in the Scotch." A proof, we reply, of 

 the dihgent care with which it has been excluded, lest its presence 

 should betray a principal source of Macpherson's centos. 



Ample amends, however, have been made for the exclusion ot 

 one name, by the introduction of several, which are found no where else, 

 such as Swaran, Acandecca, and Fainasollis. These names Sir John 

 thinks, " clearly indicate that the poems (the Irish and the Scotch) 

 were originally different." They indicate more clearly that Mac- 

 pherson knew the value of sweet-sounding, romantic names, and that 

 he had ingenuity to compound them from Irish roots, and modulate 

 them to please an English ear. As for the personages whom they 

 were intended to represent, they never had any existence but in his 



own imagination. 



?.id d' 



' ' ' Note "The name of Fingal was never given to Fhi by the Irish or by the Highlan- 

 ders. It was applied to him only by tlie Lowland Scots, and perhaps means Fin-gael, or 

 Fin the Irishman by eminence. That Fingal was the same person with the Irish Fin Mac 

 Cutval (Cumhail) is clear from the identic names of the father Cuwal, the son Oisin, the 

 grandson Oskir, (Osgar,) and from the old Scottish poets who sometimes call his person Fin- 

 gal, sometimes Fin Mac-CouL The names of his companions, Gaul son of Morni, &c., also 

 coincide both in Irish and Highland tradition, so that the identity of Fin Mac-Cuwal and 

 Fingal is demonstration. His formation of a regular standing army called Fianiia Eiriomi, 

 or the Phenians of Ireland, trained to war, in which all Irish accounts agree, must have been 

 a rude imitation of the Roman legions in Britain. Buchanan gives an account of the Feans, 

 or legions of Fin, and speaks of rude rhymes on the actions of Fin Mac-Coel, as retained 

 by the Irish and Scottish Highlanders. The idea, though simple enough, shews prudence, 

 for such a force alone could have coped with the Romans had they invaded Ireland." — 

 Buchanan's Account of the family of Buchanan, Edinburgh, 1723, 4 to. Pinkerton's Soot. 

 vol. ii. part iv. c. 2. quoted from a note to the "Annales iv. Magisironim," by Doctor 

 O'Conor, p. 89. 



