But a much more distinguished author in recent times, the French Comte de Montalembert, has not hesitated to connect the ruin of the family fortunes with the sinister “word” of the famous Columcille: “Whosoever shall come against it, let him not be many-yeared or victorious.” The scribes who inserted the later entries had kept up the ominous prediction by concluding the fourth with the sentence, “And the Lord’s blessing on every mormaer and on every toisech who shall fulfil this, and to their seed after them;” and the fifth, with the alternative, “And his blessing on every one who shall fulfil this after him, and his curse on every one who shall go against it.” In Gaelic entry No. 2 we suddenly emerge from the traditionary elements of the first into the region of historical fact. We need not detail the various grants referred to in the entries 2 to 6 or the names of the donors. Our chief interest in these vernacular addenda lies in the circumstance that they throw an ancient and fresh light on the language and history of the period. Philologically, they are of great value as the earliest specimens of Scottish Gaelic extant. In Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_ there are, of course, some Celtic words, but these are merely names of persons or places and the book is the work of a scholar born and educated in Ireland. Hitherto, therefore, so far as the Gaelic literary monuments of Scotland have survived, they may all be regarded as more or less of Irish origin, character, and inspiration. But here at length and for the first time we have one that is distinctly Scottish, both in language and the manner of writing. As Windisch has expressed it in his _Celtic Speeches_, “the oldest source for Scottish Gaelic is the Book of Deer.” After it there is no other for 400 years, till the Dean of Lismore’s book is produced between 1512 and 1526. Before the sixteenth century you will look in vain for a scrap of any literature or even record in Scottish Gaelic outside the Book of Deer. The arguments that may be adduced to show that in the latter we have the genuine native vernacular, as distinct from the Irish Gaelic in vogue in contemporary MSS., are these. First, the book was evolved in a corner of Scotland as remote as could be from Ireland. The district formed part of the country of the Picts, who had asserted a kind of independence in ecclesiastical affairs. Second, the Norsemen by their frequent incursions had inserted a wedge as it were between the two countries that hitherto had so much in common. They destroyed Iona and forced the Church to adopt Dunkeld as its chief abbatial centre. Since Malcolm Canmore’s time, Scotland was thus becoming a separate kingdom, independent of English and Irish influences, and the establishment of bishoprics by the Kings Alexander and David freed even the Church from both England and Ireland. The twelfth century was therefore a likely time for the birth of a native literature.