my, appeared, Ofcar, very unfortunately, was alleep. Offian and Ca-olt confulted about the method of wakening him; and they, at laft, fixed on the ftone, as the lefs dan gerous expedient. Gun thog Caoilte a chlach, nach gán, a Ca-olt took up a heavy ftone, and ftruck it against the hero's head. The hill shook for three miles, as the ftone rebounded and rolled away.» Ofcar rofe in wrath, and his father gravely defired him to spend his rage on his enemies, which he did to fo good purpose, that he fingly routed a whole wing of their army. The confederate kings advanced, notwithstanding, till they came to a narrow pafs, poffeffed by the 'celebrated Ton-iofal. This name is very fignificant of the fingular property of the hero who bore it. Ton-iofal, though brave, was fo heavy and unwieldy, that, when he fat down, it took the whole force of an hundred men to fets him upright on his feet again. Luckily for the prefervation of Ireland, the hero happened to be standing when the enemy appeared, and he gave fo good an account of them, that Fion, upon his arrival, found little to do, but to divide the spoil among his foldiers. All thefe extraordinary heroes, Fion, Of: fian Ofcar and Ca-olt, fays the poet, were back sih Davis 2son.finisi moit acoli, quico zenka ʼn dɔmobiusalę moj dannot 2 Siol ERIN na gorm lányi ors The fons of ERIN of blue fteel. e Neither shall I much difpute the matter with him: He has my confent alfo to appropriate to Ireland the celebrated Ton-iofal. 3 Ishall only fay, that they are different perfons from thofe of the fame name, in the Scotch poems and that though the ftupendous valour of the firft is fo remarkable, they have not been equally lucky with the latter, in their poet. It is fomewhat extraordinary, that Fion, who lived fome ages before St. Patrick, fwears like a very good christian Air an Dia do chum gach base. By God, who shaped every cafe. It is worthy of being remarked, that, in the line quoted, Offian, who lived in St. Patrick's days, feems to have understood fomething of the English, a language not then fubfifting. A perfon, more fanguine for the honour of his country than I am might argue, from this circumftance, that this pretendedly Irish Offian was a native of Scotland; for my countrymen are universally allowed to have an exclufive right to the fecond-fight. From the inftances given, the reader may form a compleat idea of the Irish compofitions concerning the Fiona. The greatest part of them make the heroes of Fion, Siol ALDIN a n'nioma caoile. The race of ALBION of many firths. ; The reft make them natives of Ireland. But, the truth is, that their authority is of little confequence on either fide. From the instances I have given, they appear to have been the work of a very modern period. The pious ejaculations they contain, their allufions to the manners of the times, fix them to the fifteenth century. Had even the authors of these pieces avoided all allufions to their own times, it is impoffible that the poems could pass for antient, in the eyes of any perfon tolerably converfant with the Irish tongue. The idiom is fo corrupted and fo many words borrowed from the English, that that language must have made confiderable progress in Ireland before the poems were writ. It remains now to shew, how the Irish bards begun to appropriate Offián and his heroes to their own country. After the English conqueft, many of the natives of Ireland, Ireland, averse to a foreign yoke, either actually were in a state of hoftility with the conquerors, or at least, paid little regard to their government. The Scots, in thofe ages, were often in open war, and never in cordial friendship with the English. The fimilarity of manners and language, the traditions concerning their common origin, and above all, their having to do with the fame enemy, created a free and friendly intercourfe between the Scottish and Irish nations. As the cuftom of retaining bards and fenachies was common to both; fo each, no doubt, had formed a fyftem of history, it matters not how much foever fabulous, concerning their respective origin. It was the natural policy of the times, to reconcile the traditions of both nations together, and, if poffible, to deduce them from the fame original stock. The Saxon manners and language had, at that time, made great progress in the fouth of Scotland. The antient language, and the traditional hiftory of the nation became confined entirely to the inhabitants of the Highlands, then fallen, from feveral concurring circumftances, into the last degree of ignorance and barbarifm. The Irish, who, for fome ages before the conqueft, had poffeffed a competent share of that kind of learning, which then prevailed in Europe, VOL. III. C found it no difficult matter to impofe their own fictions on the ignorant Highland fenachies, by flattering the vanity of the Highlanders, with their long lift of Heremonian kings and heroes, they, without contradiction, affumed to themselves the character of being the mother-nation of the Scots of Britain. At this time, certainly, was eftablished that Hibernian fyftem of the original of the Scots, which afterwards, for want of any other, was univerfally received. The Scots of the low-country, who, by lofing the language of their ancestors, loft, together with it, their national traditions, received, implicitly, the history of their country, from Irish refugees, or from Highland fenachies, perfuaded over into the Hibernian fystem. Thefe circumftances are far from being ideal. We have remaining many particular traditions, which bear teftimony to a fact, of itself abundantly probable. What makes the matter inconteftible is, that the antient traditional accounts of the genuine origin of the Scots, have been handed down without interruption. Though a few ignorant fenachies might be perfuaded out of their own opinion, by the fmoothness of an Irish tale, it was impoffible to eradicate, from among the bulk of the people, their own national traditions. Thefe traditions afterwards fo |