An gaidheal - National Library of Scotland

;—_!October, 1873. THE GAEL. 253it is so distasteful to them as a Campbell in his collection of Ossianicviolation of all their conceptions of Ballads. Your correspondent waswhat is pleasant and proper. It also subsequently put right, but so verycauses Highland congregations very gently that he was even furnishedoften to have two precentors instead with an excuse for his mistake. Notof one, as the one who is able to read satisfied, however, with his escapadeout the line in Gaelic is not considered on that occasion, he now, whenqualified—and indeed in many cases commenting on my " Grammaticalhe really is not qualified—to conductthe psalmody in English. Thisis very unsatisfactory, and it is ajitto be regarded as a I'eflection uponthe qualifications of the Gaelic j^recentor,as if he were necessarily incompetentto lead the praise inEnglish.We come now to ask how thisevil, namely, the very inferiorpsalmody of our Gaelic churches, isto be remedied Ì The answer is easy—the remedy is simple. Let Highlandcongregations bestir themselveslet them, as is so universally done inLowland churches, set a-going classesfor the instruction of the people invocal music; let them remember thatthough the all-important element inacceptable praise is that it come fromthe heart, still it is our duty to offerimto God not only the first,but alsothe best "fruit of our lips," otherwise,though the praise may be earnest andsincere, it can scarcely be said to becomely and pleasant. H. W.GAELIC GRAMMAR ANDORTHOGRAPHY.Sir,—In the June number of theGakl your correspondent "D. C. M."told your readers that the text of theballad, " Oisean agus an Cleireach,"previously published in your columns,was " evidently founded on thatgiven in ' Leabhar na Feinne,'" whichmeant that it was borrowed withoutacknowledgment from the copytranscribed, but not very accurately,by himself, and published by Mr.Notes," goes out of his way to informyour readers that, in a translation ofLongfellow's '' Psalm of Life" whichappeared under my initials in yourMarch number, I had myself—forthe reference is obvious—fallen intoa grammatical error which, in thesame number, I had " severely condemned."I have no objection tobeing put right on any point onwhich I may happen to go wrong,but I would like my critic to knowas much about the subject on whichhe may undertake to correct me aswould, at least, prevent him fromwriting nonsense. The words inwhich " D. C. M." thinks he hasdetected the same grammatical errorof which I gave several examplesfrom a little work published anonymously,are :—" a' bualadhCaismeachd thiamhaidh thruaigh aneig.'\The infinitive in Gaelic governsthe genitive, but " Calum Ciobair"wrote as the first Gaelic sentence inhis book:" Tha gach bliadhn' ùr 'toirt ambàs na's dlùth."In the words above quoted I haveused the genitive after the infinitive" bualadh," but, according to"D. C. M.," I have fallen into theerror so frequently committed by" Calum Ciobair" in not using thegenitive after the infinitiveThe words "a' bualadh caismeachdthiamhaidh thruaigh an èig" are perfectlycoi-rect, but they involve somequestions of Caelic idiom to which itis unnecessary to refer at present as