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"Sons of Morven spread the feast; send the night away on song. Ye have shone around me, and the dark storm is past. My people are the windy rocks, from which I spread my eagle's wings, when I rush forth to renown, and seize it on its field. Ossian, thou hast the spear of Fingal: it is not the staff of a boy with which he strews the thistle round, young wanderer of the field. No: it is the lance of the mighty, with which they stretched forth their hands to death. Look to thy fathers, my son; they are awful beams. With morning lead Ferad-artho forth to the echoing halls of Temora. Remind him of the kings of Erin: the stately forms of old. Let not the fallen be forgot; they were mighty in the field. Let Carril pour his song, that the kings may rejoice in their mist. To-morrow I spread my sails to Selma's shaded walls; where streamy Duthula winds through the seats of roes."

Tradition relates, that Fingal was but eighteen years old at the birth of his son Ossian; and that Ossian was much about the same age, when Oscar his son was born. Oscar, perhaps, might be about twenty, when he was killed, in the battle of Gabhra, (Book 1. so the age of Fingal, when the decisive battle was fought between him and Cathmor, was just fifty-six years. In those times of activity and health, the natural strength and vigour of a man was little abated, at such an age; so that there is nothing improbable in the actions of Fingal, as related in this book.

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A POEM.

The Argument.

An address to Malvina, the daughter of Toscar. The poet relates the arrival of Cathlin in Selma, to solicit aid against Duth-carmor of Cluba, who had killed Cathmol, for the sake of kis daughter Lanul. Fingal ceclining to make a choice among his he roes, who were all claiming the command of the expedition: they retired each to his hill of ghosts; to be determined by dreams. The spirit of Trenmor appears to Ossian and Oscar: they sail from the bay of Carmona, and, on the fourth day, appear off the valley of Rath-col, in Inis-huna, where Duth-carmor had fixed his resi dence. Ossian dispatches a bard to Duth-carmor to demand battle. Night comes on. The distress of Cathlin of Clutha. Ossian devolves the command on Oscar, who, according to the custom of the kings of Morven, before battle, retired to a neigh bouring hill. Upon the coming on of day, the battle joins. Oscar and Duth-carmor The latter falls. Oscar carries the mail and helmet of Duth-carmor to Cath lin, who had retired from the field. Cathlin is discovered to be the daughter of Cath mol, in disguise, who had been carried off by force by, and made her escape from, Duth-carmor.

meet.

COME, thou beam that art lonely, from watching in the night! The squally winds are around thee, from all their echoing hills. Red, over my hundred streams, are the light-covered paths of the dead. They rejoice, on the eddying winds, in the still season of night. Dwells there no joy in song, white hand of the harps of Lutha? Awake the voice of the string, and roll my soul to me. It is a stream that has failed. Malvina, pour the song.

a The traditions, which accompany this poem, inform us, that both it, and the suc ceeding piece, went, of old, under the name of Laoi-Ol-lutha; i. e. the hyuns of the maid of Lutha. They pretend also to fix the time of its composition to the third year after the death of Fingal; that is, during the expedition of Fergas the son of Fir gal, to the banks of Visca duthon. In support of this opinion, the Highland senach have prefixet to this poem, an address of Ossian, to Congal the young son of Fergu which I have rejected, as having no manner of connexion with the rest of the pace. It has poetical merit; and, probably it was the opening of one of Ossian's other poem, though the bards injudiciously transferred it to the piece now before us.

"Congal, son of Fergus of Durath, thou light between thy locks, ascend to the rock of Selma, to the oak of the breaker of shields. Look over the bosom of nigh it is streaked with the reds path of the dead look on the night of ghosts, and ki O Congal, thy soul. Be not, like the moon on a stream, lonely in the midst of ches darkness closes around it; and the beam departs. Depart not, son of Fergus, ere the rkest the field with thy sword. Ascend to the rock of Selma; to the oak of tot aker of shields."

I hear thee, from thy darkness, in Selma, thou that watchest, lonely, by night! Why didst thou with-hold the song, from Ossian's failing soul? As the falling brook to the ear of the hunter, descending from his storm-covered hill; a sun-beam rolls the echoing stream; he hears, and shakes his dewy locks: such is the voice of Lutha, to the friend of the spirits of heroes. My swelling bosom beats high. I look back on the days that are past. Come, thou beam that art lonely from the watching of night.

In the echoing bay of Carmona we saw, one day, the bounding ship. On high, hung a broken shield; it was marked with wandering blood. Forward came a youth, in armour, and stretched his pointless spear. Long, over his tearful eves, hung loose his disordered locks. Fingal gave the shell of kings. The words of the stranger arose.

"In his hall lies Cathmol of Clutha, by the winding of his own dark streams. Duth-carmor saw whitebosomed Lanul, and pierced her father's side. In the rushy desart were my steps. He fled in the season of night. Give thine aid to Cathlin to revenge his father. I sought thee not as a beam in a land of clouds. Thou, like the sun, art known, king of echoing Selma."

Selma's king looked around. In his presence, we rose in arms. But who should lift the shield? for all had claimed the war. The night came down; we

& Carmona, bay of the dark-brown hills', an arm of the sea in the neighbourhood of Selma. In this paragraph are mentioned the signals presented to Fingal, by those who came to demand his aid. The suppliants held, in one hand, a shield covered with Llood, and, in the other, a broken spear; the first a symbol of the death of their friends, the last an emblem of their own helpless situation. If the king chose to grant succours, which generally was the case, he reached to them the shell of feasts, as a token of his hospitality, and friendly intentions towards them

It may not be disagreeable to the reader to lay here before him the ceremony of the Cran-tara, which was of a similar nature, and, till very htely, used in the Highlands. When the news of an enemy came to the residence of the chief, he immediately kill ed a goat with his own sword, dipped the end of an half-burnt piece of wood in the blood, and gave it to one of his servants, to be carried to the next hamlet. Erom hamlet to hamlet this tessera was carried with the utmost expedition, and in the space of a few hours the whole clan were in arms, and convened in an appointed place: the name of which was the only word which accompanied the delivery of the Cran-tara. This symbol was the manifesto of the chief, by which he threatened fire and sword to those of his clan, that did not immediately appear at his standard.

Lanul, full eyed,' a surname which, according to tradition, was bestowed on the daughter of Cathmol, on account of her beauty: this tradition, however, may have been founded on that partiality which the bards have shown to Cathlin of Clutha; for, according to them, no falsehood could dwell in the soul of the lovely.

strode, in silence; each to his hill of ghosts: that spirits might descend in our dreams, to mark us for the field.

We struck the shield of the dead, and raised the hum of songs. We thrice called the ghosts of our fathers. We laid us down in dreams. Trenmor came, before mine eyes, the tall form of other years. His blue hosts were behind him in half-distinguished rows. Scarce seen is their strife in mist, or their stretching forward to deaths. I listened; but no sound was there. The forms were empty wind.

I started from the dreams of ghosts. On a sudden blast flew my whistling hair. Low-sounding, in the oak, is the departure of the dead. I took my shield from its bough. Onward came the rattling of steel. It was Oscar of Lego. He had seen his fathers.

"As rushes forth the blast, on the bosom of whitening waves; so careless shall my course be through ocean, to the dwelling of foes. I have seen the dead, my father. My beating soul is high. My fame is bright before me, like the streak of light on a cloud, when the broad sun comes forth, red traveller of the sky."

"Grandson of Branno," I said; "not Oscar alone shall meet the foe. I rush forward, through ocean, to the woody dwelling of heroes. Let us contend, my son, like eagles, from one rock; when they lift their broad wings, against the stream of winds." We raised our sails in Carmona. From three ships, they marked my shield on the wave, as I looked on nightly Tonthena red wanderer between the clouds. Four days came the breeze abroad. Lumon came forward in mist.

d Oscar is here called Oscar of Lego, from his mother being the daughter of Branno, a powerful chief, on the banks of that lake. It is remarkable that Ossian addresses no poem to Malvina, in which her lover Oscar was not one of the principal actors. His attention to her, after the death of his son, shows that delicacy of sentiment is not confined, as some fondly imagine, to our own polished times.

eTon-thena, fire of the wave,' was that remarkable star, which, as has been mentioned in the seventh book of Temora, directed the course of Larthen to Iveland It seems to have been well known to those who sailed on that sea which divides Ireland from South Britain. As the course of Ossian was along the coast of Inis.huna, mentions with propriety, that star which directed the voyage of the colony from the country to Ireland.

In winds were its hundred groves. Sun-beams marked, at times, its brown side. White, leapt the foamy streams from all its echoing rocks.

A green field, in the bosom of hills, winds silent with its own blue stream. Here, midst the waving of oaks, were the dwellings of kings of old. But silence, for many dark-brown years, had settled in grassy Rathcolf, for the race of heroes had failed, along the pleasant vale. Duth-carmor was here with his people, dark rider of the wave. Ton-thena had hid her head in the sky. He bound his white-bosomed sails. His course is on the hills of Rath-col, to the seats of roes.

We came. I sent the bard, with songs, to call the foe to fight. Duth-carmor heard him with joy. The king's soul was a beam of fire: a beam of fire, marked with smoke, rushing, varied, through the bosom of night. The deeds of Duth-carmor were dark, though his arm was strong.

Night came, with the gathering of clouds; by the beam of the oak we sat down. At a distance stood Cathlin of Clutha. I saw the changing soul of the strangers. As shadows fly over the fields of grass, so various is Cathlin's cheek. It was fair, within locks, that rose on Rathcol's wind. I did not rush, amidst his soul, with my words. I bade the song to rise.

"Oscar of Lego," I said, " be thine the secret hill, to-night strike the shield, like Morven's kings. With

f Rath-col, woody field,' does not appear to have been the residence of Duth-carmor; he seems rather to have been forced thither by a storm; at least I should think that to be the meaning of the poet, from his expression, that Ton-thena had hid her head, and that he bound his white-bosomed sails; which is as much as to say, that the weather was stormy, and that Duth-carnior put into the bay of Ratheel for shelter. g From this circumstance, succeeding bards feigned that Cathlin, who is here in the disguise of a young warrior, had fallen in love with Duth-carter at a feast, to which I had been invited by her father. Her love was converted into detestation for him, after he had murdered her father. But as those rainbows of heaven are changeful, say my authors, speaking of women, she felt the return of her former passion, upon the approach of Duth-carmor's danger. I myself, who think more favourably of the sex, must attribute the agitation of Cathlin's mind to her extreme sensibility of the injuries done her by Duth-carmor; and this opinion is favoured by the sequel of the story.

b This passage alludes to the well-known custom among the ancient kings of Scotland, to retire from their army on the night preceding a battle. The story which Ossian introduces in the next paragraph, concerns the fall of the druids, of which I have given some account in the Dissertation. It is said in many old poems, that the druids, in the extremity of their affairs, had solicited, and obtained, aki from Scandinavia. Among the auxiliaries there came many pretended magicians, which circumstance Ossian alludes to, in his description of the son of Lodt. Magic and incantation could not, however, prevail: for Trenmor, assisted by the valour of his son Trathal, entire broke the power of the druids.

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