but those of wild superstition and rude
manners, is in the highest degree interesting; and I cannot resist the
temptation of quoting two of the songs of this hitherto unheard-of poet
of humble life.... Rude and bald as these things appear in a verbal
translation, and rough as they might possibly appear, even were the
originals intelligible, we confess we are disposed to think they would
of themselves justify Dr Mackay (editor of Mackay's Poems) in placing
this herdsman-lover among the true sons of song."

Of that department of the Gaelic Minstrelsy admired by Scott and
condemned by Macpherson, the English reader is presented in the present
work with specimens, to enable him to form his own judgment. These
specimens, it must however be remembered, not only labour under the
ordinary disadvantages of translations, but have been rendered from a
language which, in its poetry, is one of the least transfusible in the
world. Yet the effort which has been made to retain the spirit, and
preserve the rhythm and manner of the originals, may be sufficient to
establish that the honour of the Scottish Muse has not unworthily been
supported among the mountains of the Gael. Some of the compositions are
Jacobite, and are in the usual warlike strain of such productions, but
the majority sing of the rivalries of clans, the emulation of bards, the
jealousies of lovers, and the honour of the chiefs. They likewise abound
in pictures of pastoral imagery; are redolent of the heath and the
wildflower, and depict the beauties of the deer forest.

The various kinds of Highland minstrelsy admit of simple classification.
The _Duan Mor_ is the epic song; its subdivisions are termed _duana_ or
_duanaga_. Strings of verse and incidents ([Greek: Rhapsodia]) were intended to
form an epic history, and were combined by successive bards for that
purpose. The battle-song (_Prosnuchadh-catha_) was the next in
importance. The model of this variety is not to be found in any of the
Alcaic or Tyrtaean remains. It was a dithyrambic of the wildest and most
passionate enthusiasm, inciting to carnage and fury. Chanted in the
hearing of assembled armies, and sometimes sung before the van, it was
intended as an incitement to battle, and even calculated to stimulate
the courage of the general. The war-song of the Harlaw has been already
noticed; it is a rugged tissue of alliteration, every letter having a
separate division in the remarkable string of adjectives which a