THE "ARYAN ORIGIN OF THE CELTIC RACE AND LANGUAGE."

The above is the title on the outside of a book by the Rev. Canon Bourke, president of St Jarlath's College, Tuam, Ireland. The book is in every respect a wonderful and interesting one to the Celt, at home and abroad, whether he be Scotch or Irish. Time was when the Scottish Celt looked with great suspicion on his Irish cousin, while the Irishman had no great love for his Scottish neighbour. Even yet a good deal of this feeling prevails, particularly among the uneducated.

Our own experience, however, has been that the Irish Celt is not behind the Scotch Gael in generosity and all the other virtues which are the special characteristics of the race. The book before us is in several respects calculated to strengthen the friendship which is being rapidly formed, and which ought to subsist among the intelligent of each of the two great branches of the Celtic family—Scotch and Irish. Frequent references of an appreciating and commendable kind are made in this work to the labours of Scotchmen in the field of Celtic literature. Canon Bourke, like a true-hearted son of Ireland, with that magnanimity characteristic of the race, holds out his right hand to every Scottish scholar in the field of Celtic or Keltic research, and says in effect—Cia mar a tha thu? Buaidh gu'n robh air d'obair!

Although the "Aryan Origin of the Celtic Races and Language" is all the title on the cover, inside the book, the title is much more comprehensive, consisting, as it does, altogether of 27 lines. But even this large and comprehensive title-page does not give anything like an adequate idea of the extent and variety of the contents of the book. Taking it up with the expectation of finding a learned treatise on the Aryan origin of the Celtic race and Celtic languages one will be disappointed; but no one will be disappointed with the work as a whole, for though its contents do not bear throughout on the above subject, they are all thoroughly Celtic; and as a collection of Celtic gleanings, will well repay a perusal. It is, indeed, a sort of Celtic repository—the writer's Celtic reading for many years being apparently thrown into a crucible, and having undergone a certain process there, are forged out into the handsome and bulky volume before us. It has, however, all the appearance of having been very hastily got up. Indeed, in the preface, which is dated, "Feast of the Nativity of the B.V.M., 1875," we are told that a mere accident has given the first impulse to the composition of the work, and that accident appears to have been that at a social meeting of Irish clergymen in 1874 the subject of conversation turned on the language and antiquities of Ireland.

After doing justice to the "Four Masters," of whom Irishmen are, with good reason, so very proud, the decay of the Gaelic language in Ireland is alluded to, and the cause of that decay described at some length, and it is pointed out that, in consequence of this neglect, when an Irish patriot appeals to the sentiment of his race, the appeal must be made, not in the language of old Ireland, but in the language of the conquering Saxon. Father Mullens in his lament for the Celtic language of his countrymen "must wail his plaint in Saxon words and Saxon idiom, lest his lamentation should fall meaningless on the ears of Ireland." And this decay Father Mullens pathetically describes:—

In Ireland as in some other countries (perhaps we may say with some degree of truth in our own Highlands of Scotland) the simple uneducated peasants are, in the law courts, treated with the greatest display of harshness because they cannot give evidence in the English tongue. Canon Bourke refers to a case of this nature that occurred during the last year in Tuam. A witness, Sally Ryan, who appeared to have understood English, but could not speak it, and consequently would not give her evidence in that language, was removed as an incompetent witness! Is that justice? We know that in the courts in Scotland a good deal of harshness is occasionally used towards witnesses who cannot speak English.

The fact remains, that in the Highlands there are many whose only language is Gaelic, and if their Saxon rulers have a desire to administer the law justly they must learn to deal more gently with such as are ignorant of the English language. We also know from personal observation that Gaelic witnesses frequently give evidence by means of very incompetent interpreters, thoroughly ignorant of the idiom of the language, and are thus very often misrepresented. A bungling interpreter bungles a witness, and nothing is more calculated to invalidate evidence than being given in a loose incoherent manner. On this point we are at one with the learned Canon Bourke.

Considerable space is devoted to the pronunciation of the word Celtic—the question being whether it should be pronounced Keltic or Seltic. Professor Bourke argues, and gives good reasons, that it should be written Keltic and pronounced Keltic. He is unquestionably right in his contention for the pronunciation, but as we have no K in the Scotch or Irish Gaelic alphabet it is difficult to agree with him as to the spelling, but the fact remains that it is almost universally pronounced Seltic and written Celtic, and has in that form taken such a root that it can scarcely be ever altered. What then is the use of fighting over it? In the compass of this necessarily short review it is quite impossible to give an adequate idea of the work before us. While the work exhibits great learning and research, we think the rev. author might have bestowed more care on such a valuable work. Several typographical errors present themselves, and in many cases the Professor's composition exhibits clear evidence of undue haste in the writing and arrangement. But humanum est errare. Nothing is perfect, and the book before us is no exception to the general rule. The Celtic student will, however, find it invaluable, and no one who takes an interest in Celtic philology, antiquity, manners, and customs (indeed everything and anything Celtic), should be without a copy; for it is a perfect store of Celtic learning.

THE SCOTTISH GAEL, OR CELTIC MANNERS AS PRESERVED AMONG THE HIGHLANDERS. By the Late James Logan, F.S.A.S. Edited with Memoir and Notes by the Rev. Alex. Stewart, "Nether Lochaber." Issued in 12 Parts at 2s each. Inverness: Hugh Mackenzie, Bank Lane. Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart. Glasgow: John Tweed.

We have before us the first and second parts of this valuable work. The Frontispiece is a coloured plate of two Highland Chiefs dressed in the Stewart and Gordon tartans; and the other engravings, which are well got up, are in every case fac-similes of those in the original Edition, which had become so scarce that it was difficult to procure it even at a very high price. Logan's Scottish Gael has long been held as the best authority on the antiquities and national peculiarities of Scotland, especially on those of the Northern or Gaelic parts of the country where some of the peculiar habits of the aboriginal race have been most tenaciously retained.

The valuable superintendence and learned notes of "Nether-Lochaber," one of our best Celtic scholars and antiquarians, will very materially enhance the value of the work, which is well printed in clear bold type, altogether creditable to the printer and to the editor, but, particularly so, to the public-spirited publisher. We have no hesitation in recommending the work to all who take an interest in the Literature of the Gael.