It will have been observed that we have said nothing about prose works written in Gaelic. The first printed work is the translation of Knox's Liturgy by Bishop Carsewell, published in 1567 (reprinted in 1873). Calvin's Catechism is said to have been issued in 1631. The Psalms and Shorter Catechism appeared in 1659, while two other psalters saw the light before the end of the century, one by Kirke (1684), the other issued by the Synod of Argyll (1694). The language of all these publications is, how ever, Irish. Apart from reprints of the catechism and psalter, the only other Gaelic matter which appeared in print before 1750 were Kirke's Irish version of the Bible in Roman type with a vocabulary (1690), and the Vocabulary by Alexander Macdonald
But from the middle of the 18th century translations of the works of English religious writers streamed from the various presses. Alleine, Baxter, Boston, Bunyan, Doddridge and Jonathan Edwards were all prime favourites, and their works have gone through many editions. There are also translations of parts of The Arabian Nights and of Robinson Crusoe. James Stewart of Killin's version of the New Testament, published by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, was followed by a trans lation of the Old Testament (1783-1801), the work of John Stewart of Luss and John Smith of Campbeltown. The whole Gaelic Bible saw the light in 1807. But the revision of 1826 is regarded as standard. Of original prose works we can mention two. The one is a History of the Forty-five (Eachdraidh a' Phrionnsa, no Bliadhna Thearlaich), published in 1845 by John Mackenzie, the compiler of the Beauties of Gaelic Poetry (1806 48). A second edition of this book appeared in 1906. The other is the more famous Caraid nan Gaedheal, by Norman Macleod (new ed. 1899). This volume consists mainly of a number of dialogues dealing with various departments of Highland life, which were originally contributed to various magazines from 1829 to 1848. In recent years there have been two or three attempts at fiction and drama, but the achievement has not been noteworthy.
In conclusion we must take notice of the more important col lections of folklore. Gaelic, like Irish, is extraordinarily rich in proverbs. A collection of Gaelic proverbs, published in 1785 by Donald Macintosh, was supplemented and enlarged in 1881 by Alexander Nicolson, whose book contains no fewer than 3,900 short sayings. A large collection of Gaelic folk-tales was published
by J. F. Campbell under the title of Popular Tales of the West Highlands (4 vols., 1862). Alexander Carmichael published a version of the Thin Bo Cualnge, called Toirioc na Tdine, which he collected in South Uist (Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, ii. 25-42), also the story of Deirdre and the sons of Uisneach in prose taken down in Barra (ib. xiii. 241-257). Five volumes of popular stories, collected by J. G. Campbell, D. Mac Innes, J. Macdougall and Lord Archibald Campbell, have been published (1889-95) by Nutt under the title Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition. Seven ballads dealing with the Ulster cycle were collected and printed by Hector Maclean under the title Ultonian Hero-ballads (Glasgow, 1892). Macpherson gave a fillip to collectors of Ossianic lore, and a number of mss. going back to his time are deposited in the Advocates' library at Edinburgh. J. F. Campbell spent 12 years searching for variants, and his results were published in his Leabhar na Feinne (1872). The Edinburgh mss. were transcribed by Alexander Cameron, and published after his death by Alexander Macbain and John Ken nedy in his Reliquiae Celticae. Finally the charms and incan tations of the Highlands have been collected and published by Alexander Carmichael in two volumes under the title Carmina Gadelica (i9oo).
standard work is Magnus Maclean, The Litera ture of the Highlands (i904) ; see also various chapters in the same writer's Literature of the Celts (19o2) ; L. C. Stern, Die Kultur der Gegenwart, i. xi. 1, pp.
; Nigel MacNeill, The Literature of the Highlanders (Inverness, 1892) ; John Mackenzie, Sarobazr nam Bard Gaelach, or The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry (new ed. 1904) ; A. Sinclair, An
(Glasgow, 1879) ; Alexander Macbain, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, vols. xi. and xii.; The Book of the Dear of Lismore, edit. by T. Maclauchlan (1862) ; Alexander Cameron, Reliquiae Celticae (Inverness,
; John Reid, Bibliotheca Scoto Celtica (Glasgow, 1832) ; J. S. Smart, James Macpherson, An Episode in Literature (1905) ; L. C. Stern, Die Ossianischen Heldenlieder, translated by J. L. Robertson in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xxv. . 257-325; M. C. Macleod, Modern Gaelic Bards (Stirling,