to the wind. The grey skirts of mist are rolled around; thither ftrode the king in his wrath. Diftant from the hoft he always lay when battle burnt within his foul. On two fpears hung his shield on high; the gleaming fign of death; that shield, which he was wont to ftrike, by night, before he rushed to war. It was then his warriors knew when the king was to lead in ftrife; for never was this buckler heard, till Fingal's wrath arofe. Unequal were his steps on high, as he shone in the beam of the oak; he was dreadful as the form of the spirit of night, when he cloaths, on hills, his wild

-Trenmor, the most

kings of the Caledonians. renowned of the ancestors of Fingal, is mentioned as the first who inftituted this cuftom. Succeeding bards attributed it to a hero of a latter period.

-In an old poem, which begins with MacArchath nan ceud frôl this cufton of retiring from the army, before an engagement, is numbered among the wife inftitutions of Fergus, the ion of Arc or Arcath the first king of Scots. I shall here tranflate the paffage; in fome other note ( may, probably, give all that remains of the poem. Fergus of the hundred ftreams, fon of Arcath who fought of old thou didst first retire at night: when the foe rolled before thee in echoing fields. Nor bending in reft is the king: he gathers battles in his foul. Fly, son of the stranger; with morn he shall rush abroad. When or by whom, this poem was writ, is uncertain. It has much of the fpirit of the ancient compofition of the Scotish bards; and feems to be a clofe imitation of the manner of Offian,

geftures with mift, and, ifsuing forth the troubled ocean mounts the car of winds.

,

Nor fettled, from the ftorm, is Erin's fea of war; they glittered, beneath the moon, and, low-humming, ftill rolled on the field. -Alone are the fteps of Cathmor, before them on the heath; he hung forward, with all his arms on Morven's flying hoft. Now had he come to the moffy cave, where Fillan lay in night. One tree was bent above the ftream, which glittered over the rock.There shone to the moon the broken shield of Clatho's fon; and near it, on grafs, lay hairy-footed Bran (1). He had miffed the chief

(1) This circumftance, concerning Bran, the favourite dog of Fingal, is perhaps, one of the most affecting paffages in the poem. I remember to have met with an old poem, compofed long after the time of Offian, wherein a ftory of this fort is very happily introduced. In one of the invafions of the Danes, Ullin-clundu, a confiderable chief, on the western coaft of Scotland was killed in a rencounter with a flying party of the enemy, who had landed, at no great distance, from the place of his refidence. The few followers who attended him were alfo flain.The young wife of Ullinclundu, who had not heard of his fall, fearing the worst, on account of his long delay, alarmed the rest of his tribe, who went in fearch of him along the shore. They did not find him; and the beautiful widow became difconfolate. At length he was difcovered, by means of his dog who fat

on Mora, and fearched him along the wind. He thought that the blue-eyed hunter flept; he lay upon his shield. No blast came over the heath, unknown to bounding Bran.

Cathmor faw the white-breafted dog; he faw the broken shield. Darkness is blown back on his foul; he remembers the falling away of the people. They come, a ftream; are rolled away; another race fucceeds.« But fome mark the fields, as they pafs, with their own mighty names. The heath thro' dark-brown years, is theirs; fome blue ftream, winds to their fame. Of thefe be the chief of Atha, when he lays him down

on a rock befide the body, for fome days.The poem is not juft now in my hands; otherwife its poetical merit might induce me to present the reader with a tranflation of it. The stanza concerning the dog, whofe name was Du-chos Blackfoot, very descriptive.

or

cold is

« Dark-fided Du-chos feet of wind thy feat on rocks. He (the dog) fees the roe; his cars are high; and half he bounds away. He looks around; but Ullin fleeps; he droops again his head. The winds come paft; dark Du-chos thinks, that Ullin's voice is there. But ftill he beholds him filent, laid amidst the waving heath. Dark-fided Du-chos, his voice no more shall fend thee over the heath »!

on earth. Often may the voice of future times meet Cathmor in the air : when he ftrides from wind to wind, or folds himself in the wing of a storm ».

Green Erin gathered round the king, to hear the voice of his power. Their joyful faces bend, unequal, forward, in the light of the oak. They who were terrible, were removed: Lubar (1) winds again in their hoft. Cathmor was that beam from heaven, which shone when his people were dark. He was honoured in the midft. Their fouls rofe trembling around. The king alone no gladness shewed; no ftranger he to war!

Why is the king fo fad, faid Malthos eagle

(1) In order to illuftrate this paffage, it is proper to lay before the reader the fcene of the two preceding battles. Between the hills of Mora and Lona lay the plain of Moi-lena thro' which ran the river Lubar. The firft battle, wherein Gaul, the fon of Morni, commanded on the Caledonian fide,' was fought on the banks of Lubar. As there was little advantage obtained, on either fide, the armies, after the battle, retained their former positions.

In the fecond battle, wherein Fillan commanded, the Irish, after the fall of Foldath were driven up the hill of Lona; but, upon the coming of Cathmor to their aid, they regained their former fituation, and drove back the Caledonians, in their turn: fo that Lubar winded again in their hoft.

eyed-Remains there a foe at Lubar? Lives there among them, who can lift the fpear? Not fo peaceful was thy father, Borbar-duthul (1), fovereign of fpears. His rage was a fire that always burned: his joy over fallen foes was great. Three days feafted the greyhaired hero, when he heard that Calmar fell: Calmar, who aided the race of Ullin, from Lara of the ftreams. Often did he feel, with his hands, the fteel which, they said, had pierced his foe. He felt it with his hands, for Borbar-duthul's eyes had failed.-Yet was the king a fun to his friends; a gale to lift their branches round. Joy was around him in his halls he loved the fons of Bolga. His name remains in Atha, like the awful me mory of ghofts, whose presence was terrible. but they blew the ftorm away. Now let the

(1) Borbar-duthul, the father of Cathmor, was the brother of that Colc-ulla, who is faid, in the beginning of the fourth book, to have rebelled against Cormac king of Ireland. Borbar-duthul feems to have retained all the prejudice of his family against the fucceffion of the pofterity of Conar, on the Irish throne. From this short episode we learn fome facts which tend to throw light on the hiftory of the times. It appears, that, when Swaran invaded Ireland, he was only oppofed by the Caël, who poffeffed Ulfter, and the north of that ifland. Calmar, the son of Matha, whofe gallant behaviour and death are related in the third book of Fingal, was the only chief of the race of the Firbolg, that joined the Caël, or Irish Caledonians