stream murmureth hoarsely. The blast groaneth in the aged tree. The lake is troubled before thee. Dark are the clouds of the sky. But thou art like snow on the heath. Thy hair like a thin cloud of gold on the top of Cromleach. Thy breasts like two smooth rocks on the hill, which is seen from the stream of Brannuin. Thy arms, as two white pillars in the hall of Fingal. MORNA. Whence the son of Mugruch, Duchommar, the most gloomy of men? Dark are thy brows of terror. Red thy rolling eyes. Docs Garve appear on the sea? What of the foe, Duchommar? DUCHOMMAR. From the hill return, O Morna, from the hill of the flying deer. Three have I slain with my bow; three with my panting dogs. Daughter of Cormac-Carbre, I love thee as my soul. I have slain a deer for thee. High was his branchy head; and fleet his feet of wind. MORNA. Gloomy son of Mugruch, Duchommar! I love thee not: hard is thy heart of rock; dark thy terrible brow. But Cadmor, the son of Tarman, thou art the sun of Morna! thou art like a sun-beam on the hill, in the day of the gloomy storm., Sawest thou the son of Tarman, lovely on the hill of the chace? Here the daughter of Cormac-Carbre waiteth the coming of Cadmor. DUCHOMMAR. And long shall Morna wait. His blood is on this sword. I met him by the mossy stone, by the oak of the noisy stream. He fought; but I slew him; his blood is on my sword. High black well-shaped man; Murne, or Morna, a woman beloved by all; Cormac-Carbre, an unequalled and rough warrior; Cromleach, a crooked hill; Mugruch, a surly gloomy man; Tarman, thunder; Moinie, soft in temper and person. MACPHERSON. See Fingal, vol. i. p. 25. on the hill I will raise his tomb, daughter of Cormac-Carbre. But love thou the son of Mugruch; his arm is strong as a storm. MORNA. And is the son of Tarman fallen; the youth with the breast of snow! the first in the chace of the hill; the foe of the sons of the ocean! Duchommar, thou art gloomy indeed; cruel is thy arm to me. But give me that sword, son of Mugruch; I love the blood of Cadmor! [He gives her the sword, with which she instantly stabs him.] DUCHOMMAR. Daughter of Cormac-Carbre, thou hast pierced Duchommar! the sword is cold in my breast; thou hast killed the son of Mugruch. Give me to Moinie the maid; for much she loved Duchommar. My tomb she will raise on the hill; the hunter shall see it, and praise me. But draw the sword from my side, Morna; I feel it cold. [Upon her coming near him, he stabs her. As she fell, she plucked a stone from the side of the cave, and placed it betwixt them, that his blood might not be mingled with her's.] XVI. WHERE is Gealchossa 14 my love, the daughter of TuathalTeachvar? I left her in the hall of the plain, when I fought with the hairy Ulfadha. Return soon, she said, O Lamderg! 14 The signification of the names in this fragment are: Gealchossack, white-legged; Tuathal-Teachtmhar, the surly, but fortunate man; Lambhdearg, bloody-hand; Ulfadha, long-beard; Firchios, the conqueror of MACPHERSON. See Fingal, v. Vol. I. p. 166. men. for here I wait in sorrow. Her white breast rose with sighs; her cheek was wet with tears. But she cometh not to meet Lamderg; or sooth his soul after battle. Silent is the hall of joy; I hear not the voice of the singer. Brann does not shake his chains at the gate, glad at the coming of his master. Where is Gealchossa my love, the daughter of Tuathal-Teachvar ? Lamderg! says Firchios, son of Aydon, Gealchossa may be on the hill; she and her chosen maids pursuing the flying deer. Firchios! no noise I hear. No sound in the wood of the hill. No deer fly in my sight; no panting dog pursueth. I see not Gealchossa my love; fair as the full moon setting on the hills of Cromleach. Go, Firchtos! go to Allad 15, the grey-haired son of the rock. He liveth in the circle of stones; he may tell of Gealchossa. Allad! saith Firchios, thou who dwellest in the rock; thou who tremblest alone; what saw thine eyes of age? I saw, answered Allad the old, Ullin the son of Carbre: He came like a cloud from the hill; he hummed a surly song as he came, like a storm in leafless wood. He entered the hall of the plain. Lamderg, he cried, most dreadful of men! fight, or yield to Ullin. Lamderg, replied Gealchossa, Lamderg is not here he fights the hairy Ulfadha; mighty man, he is not here. But Lamderg never yields; he will fight the son of Carbre. Lovely art thou, O daughter of Tuathal-Teachvar! said Ullin. carry thee to the house of Carbre; the valiant shall have Gealchossa. Three days, from the top of Cromleach, will I call Lamderg to fight. The fourth, you belong to Ullin, if Lamderg die, or fly my sword. I Allad! peace to thy dreams !----sound the horn, Firchios! Ullin may hear, and meet me on the top of Cromleach. Lamderg rushed on like a storm. On his spear he leaped over rivers. Few were his strides up the hill. The rocks fly 15 Allad is plainly a druid consulted on this occasion. MACPHERSON back from his heels; loud crashing they bound to the plain. His armour, his buckler rung. FIRST BARD. NIGHT is dull and dark, But distant and dull I hear it. From the tree at the grave of the dead, I see a dim form on the plain, 2 No star with twinkling beam; No moon looks from the skies.] An imitation explained by the Night piece. And not a moon to light my way. No friendly star with golden eye Looks from the cicling of the sky. From POPE's Thebais of Statius, i. 520.; infra, 7. So fares a sailor on the stormy main, When clouds conceal Bootes' golden wain; Nor trembling Cynthia glimmers o'er the deeps. In the second copy, "No star with green-trembling beam; no moon looks from the sky." 3 The lonely screech-owl groans.] In modern poetry, BLAIR's Grave, and GRAY's inimitable Elegy, had rendered the screech-owl a familiar image; but our translator, the very demon of poetry, seems to have disco- · vered the original in Virgil. Æn. iv. 462. |