TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=. A superscript is denoted by ^x or ^{xx}, for example ui^o. There are no Footnotes in this book. The two changes noted in the Errata at the end of the book have been applied to the etext. Many minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. THE LITERATURE OF THE HIGHLANDERS. THE LITERATURE OF THE HIGHLANDERS: A HISTORY OF GAELIC LITERATURE FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY. BY NIGEL MACNEILL, AUTHOR OF “NENLÆ: WITH OTHER POEMS;” “THE HIGHLAND HYMNAL,” ETC. MINISTER OF BEDFORD CHURCH, LONDON. “_Móra ic senaib bar senscéla._”—TOGAIL TROI. INVERNESS: JOHN NOBLE, CASTLE STREET 1892. JOHN NOBLE, PRINTER, INVERNESS PREFACE. It is hoped that the readers of the following chapters will bear in mind the fact that this is the first complete account of Gaelic literature that has yet been offered to the public, and that it must inevitably exhibit traces of the natural imperfections of all pioneer works. To other workers in the same field I am of course greatly indebted; and if any of them had published a fairly full history of our Highland literature it is quite unlikely that the present volume would ever see the light. The names of about one hundred and eighty composers of Gaelic poetry alone occur in this volume, while not more than a third of that number will be found in any previous work on the subject. Still I am aware that some mistakes and omissions will be met with, but these, I trust, will not elicit so much reprehension as material for correction hereafter. On the subject of the science of language and race movements glanced at in the Introduction, the student will find the latest views in the works of Penka, Schrader, Sayce, Hyde Clarke, and others. The “Ultonian Hero-Ballads” of Mr Hector MacLean and the _Reliquæ Celticæ_ of the late Dr Alexander Cameron will be prized by those interested in the fields on which the great Cuchulin fought and Ossian sang. My studies in the Celtic field have been carried on in the midst of duties of a sacred and exacting character; and I have often been hindered by the thought that the attraction in this direction ought to be resisted. Still I have felt like many others the need of making a speciality of some helpful study; and what for me could be more natural as a mental exercise than to be found searching out in those obscure fields of an ancient literature for the intellectual products of my forefathers?