Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Ossiank and other Early Legends. 201
to a similar auxiliary. This scealuidhe was Tim or
Thigue O'SuUivan, a man without education, but rich in
1v
the second sta.c^e of Ossianic lore^ in which all the
original poetic form is lost, with the exception of some
remarkable quatrains appearing here and there through
the prose.
He, taking his station near the good clergyman's bed,
would commence, and conduct his mighty men of old
through their trials ; and by dint of the soft, guttural,
gliding sounds of the Gaelic, uniform pitch of voice, and
frequent repetitions, such as may be found even in
Homer, would at last bring the thick folds of slumber
down on the priest's eyes. He was very caremi, how-
ever, not to cease his monotonous lay on the first ap-
pearance of sleep, nor for several minutes afterwards ; for
he had found by experience that the change from the
uniform hum to absolute silence would rouse his pa-
tient, and reimpose his own tiresome task.
Even when story-telling was a national institution, the
highest professors were not expected to have in their
mental storehouse more than seven times fifty separate
tales : the ordinary professors had by no means so many.
So the patient had probably already heard all in the pos-
session of his literary retainer.
The readers of the tales here collected are necessarily
unconscious of the pleasure which the recitals of the
originals gave the Irish-speaking listeners of former days.