But there is one peculiarity which distinguishes the Gaelic and the whole class of Celtic tongues from all others. Many of the changes included in inflection and regimen occur in the initial consonant of the word. This change is usually held to be distinctive of gender, but its effect is wider than that, as it occurs in cases where no distinction of gender is expressed. This change, usually called aspiration, implies a softening of the initial consonants of words. Thus _b_ becomes _v_, _m_ becomes _v_, _p_ becomes _f_, _g_ becomes _y_, _d_ becomes _y_, _c_ becomes _ch_, more or less guttural, _s_ and _t_ become _h_, and so on. These changes are marked in orthography by the insertion of the letter _h_. This is a remarkable peculiarity converting such a word as _mòr_ into _vòr_, spelled _mhòr_; _bàs_ into _vàs_, spelled _bhàs_; _duine_ into _yuine_, spelled _dhuine_. This peculiarity partly accounts for the number of letters _h_ introduced into Gaelic spelling, loading the words apparently unnecessarily with consonants, but really serving a very important purpose. It is not desirable, however, in a work like this to prosecute this dissertation farther. Suffice it to say, that philologists have come to class the Gaelic with the other Celtic tongues among the great family of Aryan languages, having affinities, some closer, some more distant, with almost all the languages of Europe. It is of much interest to scholars in respect both of the time and the place which it has filled, and fills still, and it is gratifying to all Scottish Celts to know that it has become more than ever a subject of study among literary men. THE MUSIC OF THE HIGHLANDS. Among the Celts, poetry and music walked hand in hand. There need be no controversy in this case as to which is the more ancient art, they seem to have been coeval. Hence the bards were musicians. Their compositions were all set to music, and many of them composed the airs to which their verses were adapted. The airs to which the ancient Ossianic lays were sung still exist, and several of them may be found noted in Captain Fraser’s excellent collection of Highland music. They are well known in some parts of the Highlands, and those who are prepared to deny with Johnson the existence of any remains of the ancient Celtic bard, must be prepared to maintain at the same time that these ancient airs to which the verses were sung were, like themselves, the offspring of modern imposition. But this is too absurd to obtain credence. In fact these airs were essential to the recitation of the bards. Deprive them of the music with which their lines were associated, and you deprived them of the chief aid to their memory; but give them their music, and they could recite almost without end.