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to inquire the cause of his coming, and, if as a friend, to bid him 

 welcome, and invite him to the feast. The Lochlainn chief haughtily 

 replied to the invitation thus : 



" Do fhreagair sin Maghnus go borb, 

 Airdrigh Lochlainn na long mbreac, 

 Do bhearfha me a bhean 6 Fhionn, 

 Daimhdheoin air tuinn, agus Brann." 



" To that roughly replied Manus, 

 The supreme king of Lochlinn of mottled ships, 

 I shall carry his wife from Fionn, 

 In spite of him, across the waves, and (with her) Bran." 



Fergus to this insolent threat replies : 



" Bhearaid an Fhiann comhrag cruaidh. 

 Dot' shluagh sul a dtiubhraid Bran, 

 Is cuirfidh Fionn oath a ndliis 

 Sul fa ttugaidh uaidh a bhean." 



i.e. 



" The Fiann will give a severe battle 

 To thy host, before they give thee Bran. 

 And Fionn will give you war in plenty 

 Before he surrenders his spouse." 



> Such is the original, and such the strictly literal translation of 

 this passage, which, not only sets this part of Mr. Mac Neill's letter 

 to rest, but proves, with what we have already shown, that the chief 

 incidents of the entire poem of Fingal, are stolen from the poems of 

 the Irish Ossian. Of the poem of " Berrathon," we confess we know 



