Scottish origin. Accordingly in his dissertation he pointed out that purity of language and freedom from anachronism marked the Scottish poems as original and antique. In the Irish versions, on the other hand, there occurred references to Christianity, the Crusades, and the witchcraft superstitions of the fifteenth century. They also contained words and phrases borrowed from English, a language not in existence in the Ossianic age; and they distorted Fingal and his heroes into mediæval giants and dwarfs. These characteristics, he argued, led to the conclusion that the poems found in Ireland were versions borrowed and "improved upon" at a late period by the senachies of the sister country. He also pointed out that many of these Irish compositions themselves referred the Ossianic heroes to Scotland, such phrases occurring as—
Siol Albin a n' nioma caoile.
The race of Albin of many firths.
And Comhal na h' Albin, Comhal of Albion.
It must be allowed that the whole topography of the poems themselves supports Macpherson's argument. Fingal was King of Morven, and Ossian dwelt in Glencoe. As for Shaw's assertion that the Highlanders were ignorant of Fingal, it has already been answered by the references to that
