re
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 imitation of the boat-song has been rendered
familiar to the English reader by Sir Walter Scott, in the "Roderigh
Vich Alpine Dhu, ho! ieroe," of the "Lady of the Lake." The _Luineag_,
or favourite carol of the Highland milkmaid, is a class of songs
entirely lyrical, and which seldom fails to please the taste of the
Lowlander. Burns[22] and other song-writers have adopted the strain of
the _Luineag_ to adorn their verses. The _Cumha_, or lament, is the
vehicle of the most pathetic and meritorious effusions of Gaelic poetry;
it is abundantly interspersed with the poetry of Ossian.

Among the Gael, blank verse is unknown, and for rhyme they entertain a
passion.[23] They rhyme to the same set of sounds or accents for a space
of which the recitation is altogether tedious. Not satisfied with the
final rhyme, their favourite measures are those in which the middle
syllable corresponds with the last, and the same syllable in the second
line with both; and occasionally the final sound of the second line is
expected to return in every alternate verse through the whole poem. The
Gael appear to have been early in possession of these coincidences of
termination which were unknown to the classical poets, or were regarded
by them as defects.[24] All writers on Celtic versification, including
the Irish, Welsh, Manx, and Cornish varieties, are united in their
testimony as to the early use of rhyme by the Celtic poets, and agree in
assigning the primary model to the incantations of the Druids.[25] The
lyrical measures of the Gael are various, but the scansion is regular,
and there is no