1889-90.] OSSIANIC POETRY. 219 



who that friend was, he says his name was Lachlan Macpherson, of 

 Strathmashie." 



Now the evidence of Rev. Andrew GaUie is far stronger than it is 

 represented in the above statement ; and he is only one of those who 

 reported to the Highland Society. He and James Macpherson being old 

 friends, the latter, along with Lachlan Macpherson and Captain Morison, 

 remained at his house in Brae-Badenoch on their return from the High- 

 lands, arranging and translating the manuscripts procured, which he said 

 were poems of Ossian. 



In a letter (dated I2th March, 1799) to Charles Mcintosh, a member 

 of the committee of the Highland Society, he wrote that he remembered 

 perfectly that at the end of some of these volumes was a statement that 

 they had been collected at the end of the Jith century by Paul Mac- 

 Mhuirich ; that they thought the writing had been done by an ecclesi- 

 astic, for the characters and spelling were most beautiful and correct ; 

 that every poem had the first letter of the first word most elegantly 

 flourished and gilded ; some were green, some red, some blue, and some 

 yellow ; that the material seemed to be limber dark vellum bound in 

 strong parchment, and that Macpherson got them from Macdonald of 

 Clanronald. He said also that they were written in the old Gaelic 

 characters, which he could read, though with difficulty ; that he amused 

 himself in reading these poems while Macpherson was busy with his 

 translations, and that they differed at times as to the meaning of certain 

 words in the original. He sends sixteen lines taken from the manuscript, 

 in the original Gaelic with a literal translation, and his statement as* a 

 whole is most circumstantial and minute. 



The statement of this clergyman is so simple, so ingenuous, and so 

 natural that it is impossible not to believe him. Now, it is to be noted 

 that these very lines appear in Macpherson's " Fingal," with the ortho- 

 graphy modernized but otherwise unchanged. The translation given by 

 Mr. Gallic is as follows : — 



Man was opposed to man and steel to steel, 



Shields sounding, men falling ; 



Like hammers of hundreds on the son of the embers, 



Swords rose and fell. 



Gaul went on like a blast descending from the height, 



As he destroyed heroes. 



Swaran was like a flame of the desert, 



That consumes the sounding heath of Gormal. 



But how shall I relate in song 



The heavy death of spears that was there ? 



Terrible was the strife of battle, — 



High flamed my sword. 



