224 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTK. [VoL. I. 



The topography of Scotland in almost every district, especially to the 

 north of the Clyde, bears testimony to the prevalence in ancient times of 

 Ossianic ideas. Every man, every woman, and I might say every child 

 in the Highlands, even at the present day, is familiar with the names and 

 deeds of the Fingalian heroes. Perhaps no name has ever been so 

 familiar to Highlanders as the name of " Blind Ossian " (for it is believed 

 that he was blind in his old age). I am told that this is also the case in 

 Ireland, where the name is pronounced with the accent on the last sylla- 

 ble. In 1567, when Bishop Carswell printed the Gaelic prayer book, the 

 first book printed in the Gaelic language, he complained that the people 

 were so much taken up with the tales of the Peine that the clergy could 

 not command their attention. " The Celts," he says, " desire and 

 accustom themselves more to compose, maintain, and cultivate lying 

 worldly stories concerning Finn MacCumhaill and the Peine rather than 

 teach and write the faithful words of God." The clergy, if any, had good 

 reason to denounce the tales in which the people took so much delight ; 

 and from which they found it so difficult to turn their attention to the 

 Gospel. Por at least five centuries, then, these names have been familiar 

 throughout Scotland. We can see the grand figure of the Ossianic 

 characters receding back into the ages till they were lost in the mists of 

 antiquity, and have, to use the beautiful language of Tasso, 



" Vanished to a fable and a sound." 



The Book of Leacan contains a poem in very old Irish, which, 

 probably, has come down from some period beyond the eleventh century ; 

 and which has been translated as follows ; — 



Whence the origin of the Gaidhil, 

 Of high renown in stiff battles ? 

 Whence did the mighty stream of ocean 

 Waft them to Krin .'' 



What was the land in which they lived ? 

 Lordly men, the Fene ; 

 What brought them for want of land 

 To the setting sun ? 



What was the proper name for them 



As a nation .'' 



By which they were called in their own land — 



Sguitt or Gaidhil ? 



Why was Fene said to be 



A name for them ? 



And Gaidhil — which is the better ? — 



Whence was it derived } 



