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for Scotland, Albion. Albion is the name of England particularly, or, 

 if you will, of the whole island of Britain ; but no Irish writer ever 

 called England or Wales Alba, a name that is solely applicable to 

 Scotland. There are several other errors in the Doctor's explanation 

 of this poem, but we consider it unnecessary to refer to them : there 

 are, however, some errors in other places which demand our notice. 

 In giving an account of " the oldest manuscript in the possession of 

 the Society," (Appendix, No. xix. p. 285,) the learned author travels 

 out of his way to give us a specimen of his skill in religious polemics. 

 He tells us about the Bishop of Rome assuming the title of Papa, or 

 Pope; that the Scots, Britons, and Irish, derived their Christianity 

 from Saint John the evangelist, for which he quotes Bede, though 

 Bede, by the way, says no such thing. He talks of Pasch, Bishops, 

 Presbyters, Monks, Abbots, Priors, &c., all of which have as much 

 connexion with the poems of Ossian as with the laws of Confucius. 

 To bring all this about, he seizes upon the word Pupa, which appears 

 on the margin of the manuscript he talks of, and tells us that that word 

 is " equivalent to Pope, or Papa." In this, however, he is egregiously 

 mistaken. Pupa, or, as it is sometime written Popa, has no such 

 meaning. Its true meaning is a master or preceptor. Papa, written 

 with a long a, is a pope, but Popa or Pupa, both words of the same 

 sound, never mean either Lord, Father, Presbyter, Prior, Bishop, or 

 Pope. It must be always held in remembrance by every Irish scholar, 

 that though the broad vowels a, o, and u, are sometimes improperly 

 commuted, when they are not long, yet they are never written one 

 for the other when they require the lengthened sound. Pupa, there- 

 fore, which is always short, never could be written for Papa, or Pope. 

 The Murciusa, therefore, who was the Pupa of the writer alluded to, 

 \vas his preceptor in the college or school. That the word Pupa or 

 Popa was used as a term for a preceptor or master, ancient Irish ma- 



