A green field, in the bofom of hills, winds filent with its own blue ftream. Here, midft the waving of oaks, were the dwellings of kings of old. But filence, for many dark-brown years, had fettled in graffy Rath-col*); 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 fky. He bounds his whitebofomed fails. His courfe is on the hills of Rath col, to the feats of roes.

We came. I fent the bard, with fongs, to call the foe to fight. Duth-carmor heard him, with joy. The 'king's foul was a beam of fire; a beam of fire, marked with fmoak, rufhing, varied, thro' the bofom of night. The deeds

*) Rath-col, woody field, does not appear to have been the refidence of Duth - carinor: he feems rather to have been forced thither by a ftorm; at leaft I fhould think that to be the meaning of the poet, from his expreffion, that Ton-thena had hid her head, and that he bounds his whitebofomed fails; 'which is as much as to say, that the weather was ftormy, and that Duth - carmor put-in to the bay of Rath-col for shelter.

deeds of Duth-carmor were dark, tho' his arm

was ftrong.

Night came, with the gathering of clouds. By the beam of the oak we fat down. At a diftance ftood Cathlin of Clutha. I saw the changing *) foul of the ftranger. As fhadows fly over the field of grafs, fo various is Cathlin's cheek. It was fair, within locks, that rofe on Rath-col's wind. I did not rufh, amidst his foul, with my words. I bade the fong to rife.

Ofcar

*) From this circumftance, fucceeding bards feigned, that Cathlin, who is here in the disguife of a young warrior, had fallen in love with Duthcarmor, at á feast, to which he had been invited by her father. Her love was converted into deteftation for him, after he had murdered her father. But as thofe rain-bows of heaven are changeful, fay my authors, fpeaking of women, she felt the return of her former paffion, upon the approach of Duth - carmor's danger.

I my

felf, who think more favourably of the fex, muft attribute the agitation of Cathlin's mind to her extream fenfibility to the injuries done her by Duth - carmor: and this opinion is favoured by the fequel of the ftory.

G

Ofcar of Lego, I faid, be thine the fecret hill, to night. Strike the thield, like Morven's kings. With day, thou fhalt lead in war. From my rock, I fhall fee thee, Ofcar, a dreadful form afcending in fight, like the appearance of ghofts, amidst the ftorms they raise. Why fhould mine eyes return to the dim times of old, ere yet the fong had burfted forth, like the fudden rifing of winds. But the years, that are paft, are marked with mighty deeds. As the nightly rider of waves looks up

to

*) This paffage alludes to the well-known customi
among the ancient kings of Scotland, to retie
from their army on the night preceding a batt-
le.
The story which Offian introduces in
the next paragraph, concerns the fall of the
Druids, of which I gave fome account in the
disfertation prefixed to the first volume. It
is faid in many old poems, that the Druids,
in the extremity of their affairs, had folicited
and obtained aid from Scandinavia. Among the
auxiliaries there came many pretended magi-
cians which circumftance Offian alludes to, in
his defcription of the fon of Loda. Magic
and incantation could not, however,' prevail :
for Trenmof, asfifted by the valour of his fon
Trathal, entirely broke the power of the Druids.

to Ton-thena of beams: fo let us turn our eyes to Trenmor, the father of kings.

Wide, in Caràcha's ecchoing field, Carmal had poured his tribes They were a dark ridge of waves; the grey-haired bards were like moving foam on their face. They kindled the ftrife around with their red - rolling eyes. Nor alone were the dwellers of rocks; a fon of Loda was there; a voice, in his own dark land, to call the ghofts from high.

On

his hill, he had dwelt, in Lochlin, in the midst of a leaflefs grove. Five ftones lifted, near, their heads. Loud-roared his rufhing ftream. He often raifed his voice to winds, when meteors marked their nightly wings; when the dark-crufted moon was rolled behind her hill. Nor unheard of ghofts was he! They ca me with the found of eagle-wings. They turned battle, in fields, before the kings of men.

But Trenmor they turned not from battle; he drew forward the troubled war; in its dark fkirt was Trathal, like a rifing light. It was dark; and Loda's fon poured forth his figns, on night. The feeble were not

before thee, fon of other lands!

*) Then rofe the ftrife of kings, about the hill of night; but it was foft as two fummergales, fhaking their light wings, on a lake. Trenmor yielded to his fon; for the fame of the king was heard. Trathal came forth

before his father, and the foes failed, in ecchoing Carácha. The years that are past, my son, are marked with mighty deeds **).

In clouds rofe the eastern light. The foe came forth in arms. The ftrife is mixed at Rath-col, like the roar of ftreams. Behold the contending of kings! They meet befide the oak. In gleams of steel the dark forms are loft; fuch is the meeting of meteors, in a vale by night; red light is fcattered round, and men foresee the ftorm. Duth-carmor is low in blood.

The

*) Trenmor and Trathal. Offian introduced this epifode, as an example to his fon, from ancient times.

**) Thofe who deliver down this poem in tradition,

lament that there is a great part of it loft. In particular they regret the lofs of an episode, which was here introduced, with the fequel of the ftory of Carmal and his Druids. Their attachment to it was founded on the defcriptions of magical Inchantments which it contained.