Note 108 — THE BOOK OF THE DEAN OF LISMORE.

Fergus the Bard was one of the sons of Finn, and consequently brother to Ossian. He was, from all we can learn, the chief Poet of the Feinn. Ossian was both warrior and poet; Fergus was chiefly poet. Fergus was probably somewhat like a modern Gaelic Bard, John Macdonell, commonly called Ian Lom, who, on being urged to fight at the battle between Montrose and Argyle at Inverlochy, replied with well-assumed indignation, “Cha-n e sin mo ghnothuch, cathaichibh sibhse ’us innsidh mise,” that is not my business,—fight you and I’ll relate. In one of the odes preserved in the Dean’s MS., Fergus is called “Filidh Feinn Eirinn,” Bard of the Feinn of Erin.