64 



interwoven branche-; of trees.'""' The Irisli say tiie materials of their 

 bedding were composed of branches of trees, moss, and green 

 ruslies ;"^^' beds unmeet for Phenicians. Cluverius gives them the 

 character of warriors ; so do the Irish. The care of our coast was 

 entrusted to their fidelity ; a confidence, which, it appears, they 

 abused. jgg,. They spoke in a language perhaps peculiar to them- 

 selves and the Lapplanders, and called by the Irish bearla na hhfeine, 

 or the tongue of the Finnlanders ; ^"°- which was probably a dia- 

 lect of the Sclavonic. Ledwich says they were reported to be skil- 

 led in philosophy and magic, and had erected monstrous stone mo- 

 jmments named leabthacha na bhfeinne, or beds of the Finlanders * 

 but which O'Brien aftirms to be Uruidical. O'Flaherty speaks of a 

 marriage, Avhich had taken place between an Irish king and a 

 daughter of a king of Fomoire, Finnlaind ; which denominatioUj, 

 he says, then comprehended all the inhabitants of Scandinavia."'- 



A northern latitude, their mode of living, and a military education, 

 -inspired those Fimiish rovers with a martial spirit, to which we are 

 chiefly indebted for that beautiful poem called the Ossian of Mac- 

 pherson : and, granting all due merit to that genius, which has 

 arranged, connected, and embellished, detached and desultory 

 pieces, Erin may claim an humble share of praise, as the principal 

 theatre, upon which those celebrated actors trod ; and probably, as 

 the maternal parent of the hero of this poem, as well as of those 

 effusions, which became the ground work of the composition. 



167. C. Corn. Tac. de r.ioribus Germ. 1.6. Victui herba, vcstitui pelles, cubile liLinus. i- 



Nec aliud infantibus ferarum imbriumque suft'ii<;iiiiii, qiiam ut in alicjuo ramorum nexu conte- 

 gantur. Hue redeunt juveues, hoc senum reccptaculum. 



168. O'Brien's Diet. 169. Hamner, p. 52. 170. O'Brien. 

 171. Ogyg. p. 303. 



