Ferguson — Alleged Forgery respecting Mount- Callan. 317 



counterpart in the compositions published by the Ossianic Society ; 

 and this diversity of copies is well worthy of consideration in estimat- 

 ing the value of O'Curry's arg'ument. 



The expression on which I would first remark is, "Ho cloidh a 

 Feart" — that is, "his grave was dug." This corresponds accurately 

 to the character of the flat covering stone actually existing over what 

 appears to have been an interment beneath the surface. It is obvious 

 there never was any tumulus, pillar-stone, or other erection, but that 

 the Ogham-inscribed flagstone was designed to lie flat on an ordinary 

 grave. Yet O'Elanagan, with a disregard of his opportunities, which, 

 to most minds, will appear unaccountable in the preparer of such a 

 corroboration, translates the passage thus: — "His sepulchral monu- 

 ment was raised." The mistake appears attributable to mere careless- 

 ness — for no one can suppose him ignorant of the meaning of a phrase 

 so vernacular — and strongly suggests the absence of any consciousness 

 that he was dealing with a dangerous and questionable test. 



Passing, for the present, over the remaining portion of this line, 

 " thiar bo thuaigh," I would next refer to the succeeding line, " A 

 cluithe caointe bo diol truaigh." Here we may observe an artifice 

 often resorted to in such compositions, where the poet, being in want 

 of something to say in concord with something said already, employs 

 a phrase of little or no relevancy for the mere purpose of completing 

 the rhyme. " Bo diol truaigh," rhyming to " Thiar bo thuaigh" may 

 be translated either relatively, with the preceding "cluithe caointe" as, 

 " His funeral games were a wretched ending," or absolutely, as, " His 

 funeral games [were celebrated]. It was a wretched ending." In 

 either case, the composer of the Irish has placed before us a set of 

 phrases which, in whatever English dress we array them, wear but a 

 jejune and incondite appearance. O'Elanagan, apparently conscious 

 of the very verbose character of his original (which, you will observe, 

 we are asked to believe he had himself, as Irish forger, prepared for 

 his own embarrassment as English translator), escapes the risk of 

 provoking his reader's comment, that " bo diol truaigh" is, indeed, a 

 wretched literary ending for a production of the Muse of Ossian, by 

 passing over it altogether, and rendering the passage generally: "His 

 wailing dirge was sung." 



Here, we may see, he quite fails to utilise the "cluithe" of his 

 text, being the equivalent of the ludi funebres of classical antiquity.*' 

 He had classical knowledge enough to have read of the games cele- 

 brated round the tumuli of Patroclus and of Anchises, and could hardly 

 have failed — had he given the words a moment's deliberate attention — 

 to see the interesting analogies suggested. Yet, here he omits to make 

 the least use of the argument, so easy to be built on what we are now 

 assuming to be his own foundation — a pregnant evidence, to my mind, 

 that he was unconscious of danger, and innocent of any preparation of 



* , Oofe|\AT> a cluic1ii CA11H— His " game of sorrow" was celebrated; literally 

 " game of lamentation." — Book of Fenagh, p. 262. 



