philology of the language.’ He was then twenty-seven. For this work he set to qualify himself under great difficulties. He lived far from a university town, and far from libraries. The books he used were expensive, and he had to learn French and German to read them, for very little of real value had been done in English. Worst of all, the work had to be done after a hard day’s duty had already been accomplished. In spite of all Macbain toiled on. His philological work was only one part of his output. His first paper to the Gaelic Society of Inverness was contributed on 21st February 1883, on Celtic Mythology. Thereafter he is represented by important papers in every volume of the Society’s Transactions from vol. x to vol. xxiii. inclusive, except vol. xv. His contributions—apart from valuable and informative speeches at the annual dinners—number eighteen in all, and all may be said to be original, and in a greater or less degree foundational. Perhaps the best known of these are his edition of the Book of Deer (vol. xi); Badenoch History, Clans, and Place-Names (vol. xvi,); Ptolemy’s Geography (xviii.), the last of which he himself considered ‘the best thing he had done’; and the ‘Norse Element in Highland Place-Names’ (xix.). In addition to these papers, he wrote that valuable series of introductions to the volumes of the Society’s Transactions from vol. x. onwards, which constitute a history of Celtic literature and of the Gaelic movement for the period covered by them. To the Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club he contributed three papers of great importance–‘Celtic Burial’ (vol. iii.); ‘Who were the Picts?’ (vol. iv.); ‘The Chieftainship of Clan Chattan’ (voL v.). When it is remembered that, in addition to this, Macbain became in 1886 editor of the Celtic Magazine, and was also for five years joint editor of the Highland Monthly, to both of which he contributed much, besides generous contributions to local newspapers, some idea may be formed of the energy and activity of the man during those years 1882-1896.
In each of his articles it was his habit to get to the bottom of a subject, and so far as he could to exhaust it. In all this output there were naturally points that subsequent research showed to need modification or correction. For instance, he departed from the views of Celtic mythology which he had enunciated in his first paper to the Gaelic Society. But in view of the quantity of his work, its originality, and its difficulty, such points are surprisingly few. So far as known to me, apart from the article mentioned above, they were mainly interpretations of place-names. In 1892 appeared his edition of Reliquiae Celticae (two volumes) in conjunction with Rev. John Kennedy, Caticol, Arran, being the literary remains of the Rev. Alex. Cameron, a work which has roused the admiration of all competent critics. His Etymological Gaelic Dictionary appeared in 1896. This was his greatest and crowning achievement, and was at once recognised as marking an epoch in Celtic philology. Since its appearance he has edited Skene’s Highlanders, with most valuable but all too brief notes. He has also, in conjunction with Mr. John Whyte, edited MacEachen’s Gaelic Dictionary, a
