“There is many a book written down, By the melodious sweet sages of the Gaels, Which we in truth are unable to relate to thee, Of the deeds of Fionn and of the Fianna;” he concludes his lengthy relation in these two stanzas:— “I lost the sight of my eyes, My form, my countenance, and my vigour, I was an old man, poor and blind, Without strength, understanding, or esteem. “Patrick! there is to thee my story, As it occurred to myself without a lie, My going and my adventures in certain, And my returning from the ‘Land of Youth.’” Such is the picture we have of Ossian and his life in some of the Irish ballads. There is no resemblance between this poetry and that which Macpherson has given us. _Oisin an Tirna-h-Oige_ is the production of a writer who lived not many centuries ago. It is certainly much more modern than even the Oisian of the older ballads, in which dialogues between the saint and the poet occur. A very fine specimen of the old heroic poem of the Gael is the Battle of _Cnoc-an-air_. Here we have terrible fighting among the “Seven battalions of the standing Fenians.” The Irish versions of the dialogues between Patrick and Ossian are very much like those of Scotland. [Illustration: (decorative end-of-chapter icon)] CHAPTER VII. MEDIEVAL BARDS. “Gach fili ’s bard, gach léigh, aosdan is draoi, Gach seanachaidh fòs, gach eoladhain shaor is saoi; Na diadhairean môr bu chliú, ’s bu ghloir do’n Chléir B’ ann leath’ gu tarbhach labhair iad briathra Dhé.”—MACLEAN. The unwise utterance of Dr Samuel Johnson that no Scottish Gaelic manuscript of an older date than last century existed is amply refuted by the catalogues of British, Irish, and Continental Libraries. Private individuals also are in possession of Gaelic manuscripts, some of which come to light now and then. In 1873 Admiral Macdonald sent to Mr J. F. Campbell of Islay the famous _Leabhar Dearg_, or Red Book of Clan-Ranald, which he had recovered. This was one of the manuscripts which Macpherson was supposed to have used and destroyed; but after having read it in company with Mr Standish O’Grady, Mr Campbell declares that this paper manuscript “does not contain one line of Macpherson’s Ossian.” It is highly probable that many others may have ancient manuscripts among their family archives like this one of Admiral Macdonald, the supposed destruction of which by Macpherson caused so much literary waste in connection with the Ossianic controversy.