1^5 



argues the frequency of the Irish invasions pf that country, and the 

 success that attended them. It has been stated that the celebrated 

 cave in the island of Staffa derives its name from the son of Cumhal. 

 Even if it did, it would only be a record of the extent of the Irish 

 warrior's fame. But this cave derives its nanie, as probably at least, 

 from a natural cause. All tourists by whom it is visited, are pleas- 

 ingly surprised to hear the musical echo produced by the percussion 

 of the waves at its extremity, and hence* it has been denominated 

 in the Gaelic tongue, Uagh-na-bhine, the musical grotto, corrupted 

 into Uagh-na-Fin, to favour Macpherson's fictions, 

 -r Before the days of Macpherson, the claims of Ireland to Fin 

 Mac-Cumhal, to Oisin, and the Fenian heroes, were never disputed, 

 more than the claims of Greece to Achilles and Homer. The bards 

 and historians of Ireland had recorded tlie genealogy of her hero, 

 the names of his sons and daughters, his dog, his .standard, and the 

 fabricator of his arms, the king whom he served, the civil strife in 

 which he was engaged. She could point to the scenes of his exploits j 

 to the palace of Almhuin, in Leinster, where he dwelt; to the banks 

 of the Boyne, where he fell ; to the top of Slieve Gullen, where he is 

 said to be entombed. She eould repeat numerous tales of the 

 achievements of his heroes ; and no farther proof is wanting to shew 

 the undisputed justice of her claims, than the impotent efforts of 

 Sir John Sinclair to set up an opposite claim for Scotland, founded 

 on false inferences, drawn from ludicrous rhymes and extravagant 

 fictions of a, comparative^ly njodern date. The most ancient records 

 he has been able to produce, are those of Barbour aaid Boethius,-f* 



* Pinkerton, in his Geography, ascribes the name either to this circumstance, or to the 

 harmonious arrangement of the coJiimns. 

 t "Antiquissima quae de Finno extant Scotorum Albiensium testimonium, Sajculum, xivtum 



