xiv INTRODUCTION 



considered by any means ])erfect or complete ; indeed, it is far 

 from being that, and my thinking so might justifiably be taken 

 as an evidence of gross self-satisfaction or vanity, which is always 

 a bar to progress. Desj)ite this, it has been thought, in order to 

 give it a definite chance of becoming complete, that the best course 

 was to issue it as it stood, as a basis at least for a better and more 

 complete work. This falls to be supplied by my fellow-countrymen 

 and women, and others who can and should fill up the many 

 blanks. 



The leading difficulty in such a work as the present, has been 

 that almost necessarily I have had to depend on myself mainly. 

 Now that the work is in the hands of competent scholars, as well 

 as those who are more or less acquainted with and interested in 

 one or more of the subjects, what is wanting can be supplied, and 

 what is wrong or faulty corrected. 



It may be alleged that much of what is in this work has been 

 already published somewhere. This is true, so far, but, as my 

 experience enables nie to say, this has been done only to a Ihnitcd 

 extent, and in a manner which renders it almost totally useless, 

 scattered as it was, or is, over hundreds of different works, etc., 

 and no possible plagiarism has been committed by bringing the 

 materials together in a readable and interesting shape, suitable 

 for ready reference. Though a part of what is here given is 

 sometimes, and in some respects, accepted as history, strictly speak- 

 ing, it may be alleged that it has truly not much of the historical 

 about it, unless the fact of its having come or been handed down 

 to us in a fair sequence of tradition from ancient times renders it 

 so. All, however, is derived and extracted from old cosmogonical 

 tales, myths of the forces of nature, and mythological legends, 

 without which the history of the Celts — and perhaps many other 

 races — can neither be projierly understood nor written. The works 

 I have gone over and consulted are very numerous, and the few 

 lists of names found, chiefl}^ of birds, given by others, were mostly 

 in my possession from various other sources in some shape or other. 

 All honour and thanks, however, to previous workers in this field, 

 especially the late " Nether Lochaber," and Mr A. Carmichael, 

 whom I rejoice to feel is still with us. It is recognised as fair 

 enough for a writer to borrow from any printed material without 

 special acknowledgment, though it is an indispensable ceremony 

 to do so when indebted to the MS. of another for anything that 

 is printed as one's own. This I have adhered to scrupulously. 

 The opportunity, however, is here taken of expressing my great 

 indebtedness to my Irish brethren for the benefit I have derived 

 from the many Celtic works they have published and made avail- 

 able, and to the writers in the Revue Celtiqiie for the guidance 

 given throughout its learned tomes to such works, which go back, 

 as in the Annals of Tigernach, The Four Masters, etc., to the year 

 322 B.C. or thereabouts. 



