ment of clanship in the northern part of Scotland, which is itself very ancient; for had clans been then formed and known, they must have made a confiderable figure in the work of a Highland Bard; whereas there is not the leaft mention of them in these poems. It is remarkable that there are found in them no allufions to the Christian religion or worship; indeed, few traces of religion of any kind.. One circumftance feems to prove them. to be coeval with the very infancy. of Christianity in Scotland. In a fragment of the fame poems, which the tranflator has feen, a Culdee or Monk is reprefented as defirous to take down. in writing from the mouth of Ofcian, who is the principal perfonage in feveral. of the following fragments, his warlike: atchievements and thofe of his family.. But Ofcian treats the monk and his religion with disdain, telling him, that the deeds of fuch great men were fubjects too,

high

high to be recorded by him, or by any of his religion: A full proof that Christianity was not as yet established in the country.

Though the poems now published appear as detached pieces in this collection, there is ground to believe that most of them were originally epifodes of a greater work which related to the wars of Fingal. Concerning this hero innumerable traditions remain, to this day, in the Highlands of Scotland. The ftory of Ofcian, his fon, is fo generally known, that to defcribe one in whom the race of a great family ends, it has paffed into a proverb; "Ofcian the last "of the heroes."

There can be no doubt that thefe poems are to be afcribed to the Bards; a-race of men well known to have continued throughout many ages in Ireland

and

and the north of Scotland. Every chief or great man had in his family a Bard or poet, whofe office it was to record in verfe, the illuftrious actions of that family. By the fucceffion of these Bards, fuch poems were handed down from race to race; fome in manufcript, but more by oral tradition. And tradition, in a country fo free of intermixture with foreigners, and among a people fo ftrongly attached to the memory of their ancestors, has preferved many of them in a great measure incorrupted to this day.

They are not fet to mufic, nor fung. The verfification in the original is fimple; and to fuch as understand the language, very smooth and beautiful. Rhyme is feldom ufed: but the cadence, and the length of the line varied, fo as to fuit the fenfe. The tranflation is extremely literal. Even the arrangement of the words in the original has been imitated;

imitated; to which must be imputed fome inverfions in the ftyle, that otherwife would not have been chofen.

Of the poetical merit of these fragments nothing fhall here be faid. Let the public judge, and pronounce. It is believed, that, by a careful inquiry, many more remains of ancient genius, no lefs valuable than those now given to the world, might be found in the fame country where these have been collected. In particular there is reason to hope that one work of confiderable length, and which deserves to be styled an heroic poem, might be recovered and tranflated, if encouragement were given to fuch an undertaking. The fubject is, an invafion of Ireland by Swarthan King of Lochlyn; which is the name of Denmark in the Erfe lan.guage. Cuchulaid, the General or Chief of the Irish tribes, upon intelligence of the

invafion,

invafion, affembles his forces.

At

Councils are held; and battles fought. But af ter feveral unfuceefsful engagements, the Irish are forced to fubmit. length, Fingal King of Scotland, called in this poem, "The Defert of the hills," arrives with his fhips to affift Cuchulaid. He expels the Danes from the country; and returns home victorious. This poem is held to be of greater antiquity than any of the reft that are preferved: And the author fpeaks of himself as present in the expedition of Fingal. The three laft poems in the collection are fragments which the tranflator obtained of this epic poem; and though very imperfect, they were judged not unworthy of being inferted. If the whole were recovered, it might ferve to throw confiderable light upon the Scottish and Irish antiquities.

FRAG