105 



" If a circumstance can render the detection more complete, the hundred cups of the Irish bal- 

 lad of Erragon, are converted in the battle of Lora, into ten shells {sliogh) studded with gems, 

 that gladdened once the kings of the world. But in Cathmor's marveUous shield (an obvious 

 imitation of the shield of Achilles,) copan a cup, so fastidiously rejected as unknown to Ossian 

 in its proper signification, is applied metaphorically to the seven bosses tipt with seven 

 stars of night, that spoke like a peal of bells, each in a separate voice or vowel to seven kings." 



" Riding, applied in English to ships, is a familiar idiom ; and the dark riders of ocean is 

 an easy metaphor, not to be translated with impunity into a different language. Marchaidk 

 a chuain mhoir, the horseman of the great sea, is a harsh and obvious translation of the rider 

 of ocean, equally ridiculous with eques maris, or Cavalier de la mer, were it translated into 

 French."— Laing's Dissertation. 



Mr. Laing and others, besides Doctor O'Conor, thought they 

 could discover in these and similar terms, ample and satisfactory 

 pi'oofs of modern forgery. Doctor Graham meets the objection, and 

 in that part of his Essay which we deem the most valuable, endea- 

 vours, not without success, to prove that " the Gauls who invaded 

 Italy, from the period of Tarquinius to the sacking of Rome, were 

 really of Celtic stock, and, therefore, it might be expected that 

 their language would influence that of the Romans in a very material 

 degree ; hence, it follows, that no legitimate argument against the 

 authenticity of Ossian can be derived from the similarity that may 

 be traced between certain Latin and Gaelic terms." This is cer- 

 tainly plausible. Doctor O'Conor was aware of the objection, and 

 states the admission of Quinctilian, that the Latins borrowed many 

 words from the Gauls, as Rheda and Peioritum. But it by no 

 means follows, that such words as have been quoted above, are of 

 Celtic origin, since in the really ancient Celtic poems, far different 

 terms are used to express the same things, and they were never ad- 

 mitted into the Irish vernacular tongue, except in liturgies, or after 

 the EngUsh invasion. The word Lochlan, which is a hundred times 



VOL. XVI. P 



