216 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Vor. ITT. 
In Campbell’s Leabhar na Feinne, there are many Gaelic poems which 
are arranged in Quatrains or in stanzas containing four lines or verses. 
Such poems, however, are manifestly of later date than the poems of 
Ossian. I am disposed to find an additional argument in favour of the 
Scottish nationality of Ossian and his poems, in the different com- 
plexion of his versification and in the absence from his poems of those 
rigid regulations which seem to lie at the very foundation of Irish poetry. 
The opening verses of /om-Chetst Ghuill in Smith’s Sean Dana, for 
example, contain several of the peculiarities of Celtic poetry. 
’S am bheileam fein am aonar, 
Am measg nan ceuda colg; 
Gun lann liomhaidh leam 
*S a chath dhorcha. 
Here we have very fair examples of concord and correspondence. A 
similar remark has to be made concerning the first verses of Dzarmad in 
the same collection: 
Cia tiamhaidh thu nochd, a Ghleann Caothan! 
Gun ghuth gaothar thu ’s gun cheol: 
Tha suinn na seilg’ an suain gun eiridh, 
’S na filidh aoibhinn gun aon diubh beo. 
Iarmbearla is a term which old Irish grammarians were wont to em- 
ploy, to show that the article, possesstve pronoun, adverb, preposition or con- 
junction coming between any two words, neither forms nor hinders a 
concord. Even when the most careful compliance with that regulation is 
given, it will appear that in the verses which have been cited, an improper 
concord obtains between ghuth and gaothar, between suznn, sedlg and 
suain, and as some grammarians would contend, between Gh/eann and 
Caothan. A striking peculiarity appears in those verses ; for the last word 
of the first verse corresponds with the middle word of the second verse, 
2. €., Caothan corresponds with gaothar, and ezridh the last word of the 
third verse corresponds with aozbhinn, the middle word of the last verse- 
In Caomh-mhala, one of the poems of Ossian which MacPherson trans- 
lated into English, these verses occur, exhibiting, as they do, some of the 
peculiar characteristics of Celtic poetry: 
Taom, a Charuinn taom do shruth; 
An aoibhneas an diugh siubhal sios; 
Theich coigrich a b’ airde guth. 
Cha-n fhaicear an steud-each ’san t-sliabh, 
Tha sgaoileadh an sgiath an tir thall. 
oe a aad a —_ 
