OSSIAN. 
*¢ Great Gow Mac ian and Fin Mac Coul, and how 
They fhould be gods in Ireland, as men fay. 
There is another circumftance, which confiderably ftrength- 
n that the Fions were natives of Ireland. Bou 
ther the name o Almhut in 
8 
Es, 
* be 
paffage ng remarks: “ The palace of Fin Mac 
Cumhal in Leiniter was feated on the dimmit of the hill of 
‘ "Thefe t two lines are omitted in the 
.’ Irith Tranfa&tions, i. 76. 
e Dublin copy of the poem on the invafion of 
Ireland ie Erragon, which Macpherfon appears to have 
made ufe of in his battle of Lora, thefe words occur: 
«To sees in Leinfter refidence of the Fions, they took 
their voyage acrofs the fea:’? in this place, Macpherfon has 
fubftituted ie od Albin, though, as Dr. Young remarks, 
there can be no excufe for this alteration, ‘as the king of 
Lochlin is reprefented ing his fleet boldly to the coafts 
e heroes of Innisfail. The 
they are the heroes of Tonisfail who fell in battle.’ 
As, therefore, the Irifh traditions relpeding the Fions 
are uniform and confiftent; as, even in the poems w a 
ftrengthened if we examine the vague and inconfiftent notices, 
which Scotch tradition and hiftory records of Offian and his 
the proverbs which are current in the 
relpedting Offian, and the names of places comcieonding 
with the names of his heroes: O/fian dale, seed gery ig a 
perfon as well known there as ftrong Sampfon, fe Solo- 
mon: the very boys, in their fports, cry out i ye play; 
&¢ the equal com at of the Fin alians ad « Offi e 
In anfwer to the 
nown cave of Staffa, firft made kno 
defcription of fir Jofeph Banks; the whirlpool, or Be call fet 
down in Blair’s Atlas Scotiz, publithed A.D. 1662, called 
M i f 
509 
— 
S 
inftances may not be found.” Report on the Peems of 
Offian, p. 79. 
But all thefe circumftances, even er colle&ed and 
taken together, do not amount to a proof that Offian and 
his heroes were natives of the Highlands of Scotland: they 
merely prove the antiquity of the tradition and belief re- 
{pecting them. Jn Ireland, on the other hand, there are 
not only fimilar eect and local notices (if the ex- 
preflion may be allowed) of Offian and his heroes; but 
there is hiftorical evidence that the Fions were Inifh, and 
the palace of their chief is ftill recognifed and pointed out. 
None of the traditions, or genuine poems, preferved in the 
Highlands, which have reference to them, name or claim 
them as natives of that country: whereas, in feveral paflages 
of the latter, they are clearly and exprefsly declared to have 
been natives of Ireland, and to have refided there, and there 
have carried on their military exploits. But it may be 
afked, how happens it, if Offian and his heroes were Irifh, 
that the tradition of them is fo ftrong and prevalent in the 
Highlands, the proverbial expreffions. relatmg to them fo 
marked and numerous, and the places named after them fo 
common : the folution of this difficulty is very eafy : it is well 
known, that at the period when the Fions lived, the inter- 
courfe between that part of Ireland, where they are faid to 
have refided, and the Highlands of Scotland, was frequent ; 
and it is alfo highly probable, as will afterwards be fhewn, 
that an Irifh colony, nearly at, or immediately fubfequent 
to this period, pafled over to that part of the ia pas 
where a traditions and notices of Offian are moft com 
peried when Fingal and Offian flourifhed : ae era — 
° er Irifh 
lands, reprefent Offian as contemporary with St. Patrick ; 
but if we may depend on the account of the Irifh militias 
of Ulfter and Lemiter, Fingal muft have fucceeded St. 
cording to the Trifh annals (on the au henticity of which, 
owever, bee ftrefs ought not to be laid), Fingal flourithed 
under Corma O 
