84 



But Macpherson, it seems, falls short of his Gaelic original, which 

 lets loose three thousand dogs, and each dog kills a brace of deer; and 

 Bran, though but a whelp, killed one more than any of them ; so that 

 six thousand and one deer must have fallen ! 



Leig sinn ar tri mile cu 



Bu mhor lugh is bu gharg. 



Ts mharbh g^ch cu dhiubh da fhiadh. 



We let loose our three thousand hounds. 

 That excelled in fleetness as in fierceness. 

 And each hound killed two deer. 



Rep. High. Soc. p. 258. 



Well might Doctor O'Conor exclaim : 



" Faustam quidem dies ! iEneas esuriens seplem tantum cervos in Libya occidit, miser ! 

 Si sorte ei evenisset Scotiam adire !" 



The pretended original Gaelic of the foregoing passage, as pub- 

 lished in Sir John Sinclair's volumes, differs very considerably from 

 the Highland Society's version, being translated with more fidelity 

 from the English Ossian : 



All: Chaidh mile cu air falbh san fhraoch iM QiT j 



I „ Thuit fiadh air a thaobh ro' gach cu. (^ ban i r 



'^h fegob \ni. 

 Thus rendered by the Latin translator : [j .,^g.,,, .,,r 'Y 



Canes mille exsoluti sunt in erica 

 -;rc'n . Eversusque est cervus in latus a singulo cane. 



We observe a similar difference in the description of FingaPs 

 standard in the two versions of the Highland Society and Sir John 



