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THE CELTIC jMAGAZINE. 307"il/or Nigliean Mhln" lie cursed the midwife avIio usliered him into theAvoiid for not smothermg him alive on the threshold of life, as follows :Mallachd an tus aig a rahnaoi-gliluin,Nach d' adhlaic sa chuil beo mi,Mu'n d'fhuair mi ort iuil, ainnir dheas ilr,'S nach duirig thu fiu pog dhomh, &c., &o.He also keenly felt and often gave expression to his regret for havingcomposed and written in his " Orcui Cumhaidh" for Marion Eoss :Carson nach d' nigadh dall mi,Gun chainnt no gun Icirsinn ?Mas facas t'aghaidh bhaindidh,Rinn aimhleas nan ceudan,O'n chunna mi air thus thu,Bii chliuiteach do bheusan,'S cha'n fhasa leum nam busA bhi lathaii- as t'eugmhais.And the residt of this condition of mind was that, as I have alreadystated,a few days before his death, he committed all his manuscript tothe flames. What my young friend John ^Mackenzie, Inverewe, puhlishedis only a small proportion of what was known to me in my youngerdays of Eoss's poems.""All the greater reason," shouted the company, "why you should getyours taken down by some one, while that can be done faithfully andfully."" Indeed, I have now, and no wonder, bordering as I am on five score,forgotten most of them myself, and could not recite them even wereit easier than it is to meet with one capable of taking them down in mynative language. I have recited a few to my friend Ca'dean Rnairidh*(by the way, teacher at present in William Eoss's school) who wrotetliem down, as he is well able to do ; but, it is, perhaps, better that theyshould never see the light of day."" AVeU Alastalr" said Ian Taillenr (a perfect encyclopredia oflegendary lore, ancient and modern Gaelic poetry ; who hitherto satsilent, but all attention to what was going on, and taking special stockof Xorman), " you are very foolish. Oh ! if our immortal Ossian onlyhad the chance. If any one had lived in his day Avho could liave writtenhis immortal compositions we would not now be having that P>adenochcattle-lifter (for were not all the Badenoch INIacphersonst cattle-lifters andiiltimately brought on a consumption, and he was for some time bedridden. On a fineevening in May, he rose and walked out through the woods to indulge his melancholyalone. Arriving at a large tree, he threw himself on the green sward beneath its branches,and was not long in his sequestered sylvan situation ere the cuckoo began to carolabove him. 'The sou of song and sorrow immediately tunes ' his lyre, and sings an addressto the feathered vocalist. He pours out his complaints before the shy bird, andsolicits its sympathies. Had Burns been a Gaelic scholar, we should have no hesitatiouin accusing him of plagiarism when he sangHow can ye chaunt ye little birds,While I'm so wae an' fu' o' care ?But Ross embodies finer feelings and sentiments into his fugitive pieces than even theBard of Coila."* The Rev. Colin Fraser, now Free Church Minister, Fasnakyle, Strathglass. "Weunderstand he has MSS. of several of Ahtstair Buidhc's Poems which, we trust, he mayfeel disposed to give us for publication here, with those we liavo been able to procureourselves from the Bard's late sons, John and Donald. — [^,0.]t Ian Ta'dkar waa a Macpherson himself.—[vl.O,].