A NEW GAELIC BOOK.
Cóir Fáilte re Fer do sgéil—p. 240.
Reliqiæ Celtiæ, vol. ii.—The second and concluding volume of Dr. Cameron’s unpublished papers is a volume of absorbing interest for all students of Gaelic literature. Like the first, it is edited by Mr. MacBain and the Rev. Mr. Kennedy, and forms a large and beautifully printed volume of 650 pages. The price is not indicated. Even our own large MSS. collections in Dublin have not, to my mind, such an attraction as the few but precious fragments—for many of them are very small—which are preserved in the MS. department of the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh. Dr. Cameron transcribed much of the Gaelic there preserved, and his transcriptions are here published in full. Thus, the Argyllshire Turner MS. xiv. is given in pages 310-420. (The contents are all poetical, and almost all purely Scottish, except the fine cumha nam brathar (page 333), and some good Cuchullin fragments, and some proverbial philosophy). Pages 420-474 contain a version from same library of the “Sons of Usna,” already published in the Irische Texte. But by far the most valuable part is that (pp. 138-309) containing the “Book of Clanranald.”[1] There are two books of the name, similar in the character of their contents. Both were transcribed by the hereditary historians of Clanranald, descendant of Muireaḋaċ Albannaċ, so famous in the whole Gaelic world of the 13th century. Successive members of the family have recorded clan history down to the beginning of the 18th century, and thus in pp. 148-208 we have a rich treat of what ought to be regarded as the best classical Highland Gaelic. This part of the work is of the highest historical as well as literary value. The poetic contents of the books of Clanranald are various, and far more attractive than such collections usually are. The Fernaig MS. occupies pp. 1-137; it is a faithful copy of a MS. written in a rude, phonetic fashion in 16S8. Towards the end of the volume, pp. 475-523 are devoted to a collection of proverbs made by Dr. Cameron as a supplement to Nicholson’s great work. Last, but by no means least, we are given a number of Cameron’s lectures—literary, historical. and philological—which show that Dr. Cameron had realized the truth—that it is impossible to obtain a sure grasp of Highland Gaelic without a close acquaintance with the older Gaelic of the sister isle. The present volume is, I believe, the most valuable that has ever been published in the interests of Scottish Gaelic; it throws light on the past history of many a glen and dismantled fortress; it gives to the world some gems of Gaelic thought, and affords ample material for future work.