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ject of disputation, or of any material consequence ; 2ndly, By the 

 names of places in the Highlands, derived from Fingal and his 

 heroes ; Srdly, By many proverbial expressions in the Highlands 

 which tend to confirm the idea ; and 4thly, By the concurring tra- 

 dition of the inhabitants of the Highlands. 



The first evidence adduced is Barbour, the oldest writer of Scot- 

 land, who mentions Fingal in " The Bruce," composed in 1375 : 



He said " methink, Marthoky's son, 

 Rycht as Gol-Mak-Mom was wone 

 To haiff fra Fyngal his menye, 

 Rycht sua all hys fra us has he." 



Bruce, buke iii. 67-70. 



This comparison was made by the Lord of Lorn, and is treated 

 by Barbour with great scorn, as tending to lessen his hero Bruce ;. 

 but, says Pinkerton, " Barbour had no prophetic view of Ossian, and 

 little suspected that Scotland would, in the eighteenth century, 

 produce a Geoffrey of Monmouth/' There is nothing in the lines 

 relative to the country of Fingal. The only thing remarkable in 

 them, as to the present question, is his name, which Pinkerton 

 observes, is unknown to the Irish. Gal, the latter part of the 

 compound, signifies a stranger, and being applied by Scotchmen to 

 Fin the son of Cumhal, it affords a decisive proof that they did not, 

 consider him as their countryman.* 



• " FiONN is not known in the Highlands," says Shaw, " by the name of Fingal. He is 

 universally supposed to be an Irishman." When he asked of the Highlanders, who Fionn 

 was, they answered • an Irishman, if a man ;' for they sometimes thought him a giant ; and 

 that he lived in Ireland, and sometimes came over to hunt in the Highlands. This is 

 the universal voice of all the Highlanders, excepting those who are possessed of abilities and 



