, in its poetry, is one of the least transfusible in the
world. Yet the effort which has been made to retain the spirit, and
preserve the rhythm and manner of the originals, may be sufficient to
establish that the honour of the Scottish Muse has not unworthily been
supported among the mountains of the Gael. Some of the compositions are
Jacobite, and are in the usual warlike strain of such productions, but
the majority sing of the rivalries of clans, the emulation of bards, the
jealousies of lovers, and the honour of the chiefs. They likewise abound
in pictures of pastoral imagery; are redolent of the heath and the
wildflower, and depict the beauties of the deer forest.

The various kinds of Highland minstrelsy admit of simple classification.
The _Duan Mor_ is the epic song; its subdivisions are termed _duana_ or
_duanaga_. Strings of verse and incidents ([Greek: Rhapsodia]) were
intended to form an epic history, and were combined by successive bards
for that purpose. The battle-song (_Prosnuchadh-catha_) was the next in
importance. The model of this variety is not to be found in any of the
Alcaic or Tyrtaean remains. It was a dithyrambic of the wildest and most
passionate enthusiasm, inciting to carnage and fury. Chanted in the
hearing of assembled armies, and sometimes sung before the van, it was
intended as an incitement to battle, and even calculated to stimulate
the courage of the general. The war-song of the Harlaw has been already
noticed; it is a rugged tissue of alliteration, every letter having a
separate division in the remarkable string of adjectives which are
connected to introduce a short exordium and grand finale. The _Jorram_,
or boat-song, some specimens of which attracted the attention of Dr
Johnson,[21] was a variety of the same class. In this, every measure was
used which could be made to time with an oar, or to mimic a wave, either
in motion or sound. Dr Johnson discovered in it the proceleusmatic song
of the ancients; it certainly corresponds in real usage with the poet's
description:--

"Stat margine puppis,
Qui voce alternos nautarum temperet ictus,
Et remis dictet sonitum pariterque relatis,
Ad numerum plaudet resonantia caerula tonsis."

Alexander Macdonald excels in this description of verse. In a piece
called Clanranald's _Birlinn_, he has summoned his utmost efforts in
timing the circumstances of a voyage with suitable metres and
descriptions. A happy im