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was fought near four hundred years ago. It is called Brosnachadh 

 cath Ghariach (invigorating address at the battle of Garioch,) and is 

 well known." This appears to be introduced for the purpose of shew- 

 ing that some of the Scotch bards knew how to write, and that as one 

 of their poems happens to be in existence at this time, we should, 

 therefore, conclude that the works of Ossian, who wrote eleven hun- 

 dred years earlier, were still in existence. 



We must confess that we cannot come to such a conclusion ; nor 

 can we refrain from giving our opinion, that for any credit the poem 

 does to either the bard, his patrons, or their country, it might as 

 Avell have been lost along with the poems of Ossian. We are told 

 that it is called " Brosnachadh Cath," (Cat ha properly,) which sig- 

 nifies " an excitement to battle ;" but if we are allowed to judge of 

 its spirit, and the spirit of the persons to whom it is addressed, from 

 the copy of the thing called a poem, bearing that name in the 

 " Choice Collection of the Works of the Highland Bards," printed in 

 Edinburgh in 1804, we must believe the Mac Donalds of that day 

 were much more tardy in rushing to fight the battles of their country 

 than the members of that truly noble family, and, indeed, the High- 

 landers in general, have been in subsequent periods. The poem con- 

 sists of no less than 336 lines, all of which, we are to believe, the Mac 

 Donalds patiently listened to, whilst their enemies were bidding them 

 defiance, before they could rush to the conflict. But the length of the 

 thing is not the circumstance which renders it tedious. It bids defi- 

 ance to every thing like verse ; every single line of the poem, except 

 the two first and the eleven last lines, consists of two adverbs, with- 

 out any attention to the number of syllables, pauses, or accents. 

 And what is more extraordinary, the poem, if it may be called a 

 poem, is divided into seventeen stanzas, according to the number of 

 letters in the Gaelic alphabet, and each of the adverbs, in each 



