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the friends of their fathers, in their sounding arms. Cathmor came from Bolga, to Culgorm, red-eyed king: I aided Suran-dronlo, in his land of boars."

"We rushed on either side of a stream, which roared through a blasted heath High broken rocks were round, with all their bending trees. Near are two circles of Loda, with the stone of power; where spirits descended, by night, in dark-red streams of fire. There, mixed with the murmur of waters, rose the voice of aged men, they called the forms of night, to aid them in their war.

"Heedless I stood with my people, where fell the foamy stream from 1ocks. The moon moved red from the mountain. My song, at times, arose. Dark on the other side, young Cathmor heard my voice; for he lay, beneath the oak, in all his gleaming arms. ing came; we rushed to fight: from wing to wing in the rolling of strife. They fell, like the thistle head, beneath autumnal winds.

Morn

"In armour came a stately form: I mixed my strokes with the king. By turns our shields are pierced: loud rung our steely mails. His helmet fell to the grouud. In brightness shone the foe. His eyes, two pleasant flames, rolled between his wandering locks. I knew the king of Atha, and threw my spear on earth. Dark, we turned, and silent passed to mix with other foes.

Not so passed the striving kings". They mixed in echoing fray; like the meeting of ghosts, in the dark wing of winds. Through either breast rushed the spears; nor yet lay the foes on earth. A rock received their fall; and half reclined they lay in death. Each held the lock of his foe; and grimly seemed to roll his eyes. The stream of the rock leapt on their shields, and mixed below with blood.

g From the circumstance of Ossian not being present at the rites, described in the preceding paragraph, we may suppose that he held them in contempt. This difference of sentiment, with regard to religion, is a sort of argument, that the Caledonians were not originally a colony of scandinavians, as some have imagined. Concerning so remote a period, mere conjecture must supply the place of argument and positive proofs.

b Culgorm and Suran-dronlo. The combat of the kings, and their attitude in doth, are highly picturesque, and expressive of that ferocity of manners, which distinguishe the northern nations.

The battle ceased in I-thorno. The strangers met in peace: Cathmor, from Atha of streams, and Ossian, king of harps. We placed the dead in earth. Our steps were by Runar's bay. With the bounding boat, afar, advanced a ridgy wave. Dark was the rider of seas, but a beam of light was there, like the ray of the sun, in Stromlo's rolling smoke. It was the daughter; of Suran-dronlo, wild in brightened looks. Her eyes were wandering flames, amidst disordered locks, Forward is her white arm, with the spear; her high heaving breast is seen, white as foamy waves, that rise, by turns, amidst rocks. They are beautiful, but they are terrible, and mariners call the winds."

"Come, ye dwellers of Loda! Carchar, pale in the midst of clouds! Sluthmor, that stridest in airy halls! Corchtur, terrible in winds! Receive, from his daughter's spear, the foes of Suran-dronlo.

"No shadow, at his roaring streams; no mildly. looking form was he! When he took up his spear, the hawks shook their sounding wings: for blood was poured around the steps of dark-eyed Suran-dronlo.

"He lighted me, no harmless beam, to glitter on his streams. Like meteors I was bright, but I blasted the foes of Suran- dronlo.".

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Nor unconcerned heard Sul-malla the praise of Cathmor of shields. He was within her soul, like a fire in secret heath, which awakes at the voice of the blast,

Tradition has handed down the name of this princess. The bards call her RunoForlo, which has no other sort of title for being genuine, but its not being of Gaelic o riginal: a distinction, which the bards had not the art to preserve, when they feigned names for foreigners. The Highland senachies, who very often endeavoured to supply the deficiency they thought they found in the tales of Ossian, have given us the con tinuation of the story of the daughter of Suran-dronlo. The catastrophe is so unnatural, and the circumstances of it so ridiculously pompous, that, for the sake of the invertors, I shall conceal them.

The wildly beautiful appearance of Runo-forio, made a deep impression on a chief, some ages ago, who was himself no contemptible poet. The story is romantic, but not incredible, if we make allowance for the imagination of a man of genius. Our chiet, sailing, in a storm, along one of the islands of Orkney, saw a woman in a boat, near the shore, whom he thought, as he expresses it himself, as beautiful as a sudden ray of the sun on the dark-heaving deep. The verses of Ossian, on the attitude of Runo-furle, which was so similar to that of the woman in the boat, wrought so much on his fancy, that he fel desperately in love. The winds, however, drove him from the coast, and after a few days he arrived at his residence in Scotland. There his passion increased to such a degree, that two of his friends, fearing the consequence, sailed to the Orkney, to carry to him the object of his desire. Upon enquiry, they soon found the nymp and car.ied per to the enamoured chief; but mark his surprise, when, instead of a f of the sun, he swa skinny fisher-woman, more than middle-aged, appearing befor Tradition here ends the story; but it may be easily supposed that the passion

The chief soon subsided.

and sends its beam abroad. Amidst the song removed the daughter of kings, like the soft sound of a summerbreeze; when it lifts the heads of flowers, and curls the lakes and streams,

By night came a dream to Ossian, without form stood the shadow of Trenmor. He seemed to strike the dim shield, on Selma's streamy rock. I rose, in my rattling steel; I knew that war was near. Before the winds our sails were spread; when Lumon showed its streams to the morn.

Come from the watching of night, Malvina, lonely beam!

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A POEM.

The Argument.

Fingal, in one of his voyages to the Orkney islands, was driven, by stress of weather, into a bay of scandinavia, near the residence of Starno, king of Lochlin. Starno in vites Fingal to a feast. Fingal, doubting the faith of the king, and mindful of his former breach of hospitality, (Fingal, B. III.) refuses to go. Starno gathers together his tribes; Fingal resolves to defend himself. Night coming on, Duth-maruno proposes to Fingal, to observe the motions of the enemy. The king himself undertakes the watch. Advancing towards the enemy, he, accidently, comes to the cave of Tur thor, where Starno had confined Conban-carglas, the captive daughter of a neighbouring chief. Her story is imperfect, a part of the original being lost. Fingal comes to a place of worship, where Starno, and his son Swaran, consulted the spirit of Loda, concerning the issue of the war. The rencounter of Fingal and Swaran. The Duan concludes with a description of the airy hail of Cruthloda, supposed to be the Odin of Scandinavia.

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A TALE of the times of old! Why, thou wanderer unseen, that bendest the thistle of Lora, why, thou breeze of the valley, hast thou left mine ear? I hear no distant roar of streams, no sound of the harp from the rocks! Come, thou huntress of Lutha, send back his soul to the bard.

I look forward to Lochlin of lakes, to the dark ridgy bay of U-thorno, where Fingal descended from ocean, from the roar of winds. Few are the heroes of Morven, in a land unknown! Starno sent a dweller of Loda, to

a The bards distinguished those compositions, in which the narration is often interrupted by episodes and apostrophes, by the name of Duan. Since the extinction of the order of the bards, it has been a general name for all ancient compositions in verse. The abrupt manner in which the story of this poem begins, may render it obscure to some readers; it may not therefore be improper, to give here the traditional preface, which is generally prefixed to it. Two years after he took to wife Kos-crana, the daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland, Fingal undertook an expedition into Orkney, to visit his friend Cath-uila, king of Inistore. After staying a few days at Carric-thura, the residence Catr-ulla, the king set sail, to return to Scotland; but a vellent storm arising, his chips were driven into a bay of Scandinavia, near Gorinal, the seat of Starno, king of Lochin, his avowed eneiny. Starno, upon the appearance of strangers on his coast, summoned together the neighbouring tribes, and advanced, in a hostile manner, towards the la of J-thorno, where Fingal had taken shelter. Upon discovering who the strangers re, and fearing the valour of Fingal, which he had, more than once, experienced te ve, he resolved to accomplish by treachery, what he was afraid he should fail in by en force. He invited, therefore, Fingal to a feast at which he intended to assassinate The king prudently declined to go, and Starno betook himself to arms. The s of the story inay be learned from the poem itself.

bid Fingal to the feast: but the king remembered the past, and all his rage arose.

"Nor Gormal's mossy towers, nor Starno, shall Fingal behold. Deaths wander, like shadows, over his hery soul. Do I forget that beam of light, the whitehanded daughter' of kings? Go, son of Loda, his words are but blasts to Fingal: blasts, that, to and fro, roll the thistles in autumnal vales.

"Duth-maruno', arm of death! Cromma-glas, of iron shields! Sruthmor, dweller of battle's wing! Cormar, whose ships bound on seas, careless as the course of a meteor, on dark-streaming clouds! arise around me, children of heroes, in a land unknown. Let each look on his shield, like Trenmor, the ruler of battles. "Come down," said the king, "thou dweller between the harps. Thou shalt roll this stream away, or dwell

with me in earth."

:

Around him they rose in wrath. No words came forth they seized their spears. Each soul is rolled into itself. At length, the sudden clang is waked, on all their echoing shields. Each took his hill; by night, at intervals, they darkly stood. Unequal burst the hum of songs, between the roaring wind. Broad over them rose the moon. In his arms, came tall Duth-maruno; he from Croma-charn of rocks, stern hunter of the boar. In his dark boat he rose on waves, when Crum-thormoth awaked its woods. In the chase he shone, among his foes: No fear was thine, Duth-maruno.

"Son of Comhal," he said," my steps shall be forward through night. From this shield I shall view them, o

b Agandecca, the daughter of Starno, whom her father killed, on account of her discovering to Fingal a plot laid against his life. Her story is related at large, in the third book of Fingal.

Duth-maruno is a name very famous in tradition. Many of his great actions are handed down, but the poems which contained the detail of them, are long since lost. He lived, it is supposed, in that part of the north of Scotland, which is over against Orkney. Duth-maruno, Cromma-glas, Struthmor, and Cormar, are mentioned as attending Comhal, in his last battle against the tribe of Morni, in a poem which is still preserved. It is not the work of Ossian, the phraseology betrays it to be a modern composition. It is something like the trivial compositions, which the Irish bards forged under the name of Ossian, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Duth-maruno signifies black and steady,' Cromma-gias, bending and swarthy: Struth-mor, roaring stream;' Cormar, expert at sea.'

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d Crumthormoth, one of the Orkney or Shetland islands. The name is not of Gaelic original. It was subject to its own petty king, who is mentioned in one of Ossian's

poems.

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