85 



Sinclair. The former has more the appearance of an original, being 

 brief and simple compared with the latter, which is amplified, and 

 translated verbatim from Macpherson's English. UAVv>\iwi 



Highland Society's ancient Gaelic. 



Thog sinn Deo.greine re crann 

 Bratach Fhinn 's bu gharbh a greas 

 Lomlan do chlachaibh ann or, 

 'S ann linn fein bu mhor a meas. 



Macpherson's Gaelic. 



Thog sinn Deo-greine ri crann 

 A bhratach mhor aig righ nan lann 

 Bha solas an anam gach triath 

 'Nuair thog i a sgiath ri gaoith. 

 Bha 'gorm-shlios ballach le h-or 

 Mar shlighe ghlais mhoir na h-oidhch* 

 'Nuair sheallas na reiP o n' speur. 



Translation by Doctor Donald Smith. 



We reared the sun-beam to its staff. 



The standard of Fingal of furious sweep;"" ' 



Full-studded with stones in gold ; 



With us it was held in high respect. 



High. See. Report, p. 249. 



Macfarlan's Latin Translation. 



Ereximus nos jubar solis in arboreo hastill 

 Vexillum magnum regis gladiorum ; ^''■'-•'■- 

 Fuit laetitia in animo cuj usque principis 

 Quando elevata est ejus ala ad ventum. 

 Fuit ejus (vexilli) caerulum latus bullatum 



auro 

 Instar conchas cause magnx noctis, 

 Quando despiciunt stellae e coelo. 



Sir John Sinclair's Ossian, 

 vol. ii. pp. 170-171. 



"We were rather startled on finding the Roman architectural idea 

 of the shell of the azure vault of the sky, concha ccerula in the 

 Celtic bard ; the concha being a species of fornix or camerated roof, 

 " which, like a trumpet, grows wider as it lengthens." The testudo, 

 or tortoise shell, also gave a name to the arched dome of temples : 

 thus. Dido sat media testudine templi. The idea was transferred to 

 the arched vault of heaven, and hence Macpherson's " blue wide 

 shell of the nightly sky," translated into Gaelic, " shlighe ghlais 

 mhoir na h-oidhch .'"* But we might have reserved our admiration 



* Laing has observed, " as each language has certain metapborical idioms, easUy distin- 

 guished when transferred to another ; a chest applied to the human trunk or chest, or a trunk 



