of morning shall not come, to the dusky bed of the hero. No more shalt thou hear the tread of roes, around thy narrow house.

(1) As roll the troubled clouds, round a meteor of night, when they brighten their fides, with its light, along the heaving fea: fo gathered Erin, around the gleaming form of Atha's king. He, tall in the midft, careless lifts, at times, his fpear as fwells or falls the found of Fonar's diftant harp.

(2) Near him leaned, against a rock, Sul

(1) The poet changes the fcene to the Irish camp. The images introduced here are magnificent, and have that fort of terrible beauty, if I may ufe the expreffion, which occurs fo frequently in the compofitions of Offian. The troubled motion of the army, and the fedate and careless attitude of Cathmor, form a contrast, which as I have before remarked, heightens the features of defcription, and is calculated to enliven poetry.

(2) In order to illuftrate this paffage I shall give, here, the hiftory on which it is founded, as I have gathered it from other poems. The nation of the Fir-bolg who inhabited the fouth of Ireland, being originally defcended from the Belgæ, who poffeffed the fouth and fouth-west coast of Britain, kept up, for many ages, an amicable correfpondence with their mother-country; and fent aid to the British Belga, when they were preffed by the Romans or other new-comers from the con. tinent. Con-mor, king of Inis-huna, that part of South-Britain which is over against the Irish coaft)

malla (1) of blue eyes, white-bofomed daughter of Conmor king of Inis-huna. To his aid came blue-shielded Cathmor, and rolled his foes away. Sull-malla beheld him ftately in the hall of feasts; nor careless rolled the eyes of Cathmor on the long-haired maid.

The third day arose, and Fithil (2) came

being attacked, by what enemy is not mention ed, fent for aid to Cairbar, lord of Atha, the moft potent chief of the Firbolg. Cairbar difpatched his brother Cathmor to the affiftance of Conmor. Cathmor after various viciffitudes of for. tune, put an end to the war, by the total defeat of the enemies of Inis-huna and returned in triumph to the refidence of Con-mor. There, at a feaft, Sul malla, the daughter of Con-mor fell defperately in love with Cathmor, who, before her paffion was difclofed, was recalled to Ireland by his brother Cairbar, upon the news of the intended expedition of Fingal, to re-cftablish the family of Conar on the Irish throne.wind being contrary, Cathmor remained three days, in a neighbouring bay, during which time Sul-malla difguifed herself, in the habit of a young warrior, and came to offer him her fervice, in the war. Cathmor accepted of the propofal, failed for Ireland, and arrived in Ulfter a few days before the death of Cairbar.

-The

for

(1) Sul-malla, flowly rolling eyes, Caon-mór, mild and tall. Inis-huna, green ifland.

(2) Fithil, an inferior bard. It may either be taken here for the proper name of a man, or in the literal fenfe, as the bards were the heralds

from Erin of the ftreams. He told of the lifting up of the shield (1) on Morven, and the danger of red-haired Cairbar. Cathmor raised the fail at Cluba; but the winds were

and meffengers of thofe times. Cathmor, it is probable, was abfent, when the rebellion of his brother Cairbar and the affaffination of Cormac, king of Ireland, happened. The traditions, which are handed down with the poem, fay that Cathmor and his followers had only arrived from Inishuna, three days before the death of Cairbar, which fufficiently clears his character from any impatation of being concerned in the conspiracy with his brother.

(1) The ceremony which was used by Fingal, when he prepared for an expedition, is related, by Offian, in one of his leffer poems. A bard, at midnight " went to the hall, where the tribes feafted upon folemn occafions, raifed the war-fong and thrice called the Spirits of their deceased anceftors to come, on their clouds, to behold the actions of their children. He then fixed the shield of Trenmor on a tree on the rock of Selma, ftriking it, at times, with the blunt end of a spear and finging the war-fong between. Thus he did, for three fucceffive nights, and in the mean time messengers were dispatched to convene the tribes or as Offian expreffes it, to call them from all their ftreams. This phrafe alludes to the fituation of the refidences of the clans, which were generally fixed in valleys, where the torrents of the neighbouring mountains were collected into one body, and became large ftreams or rivers. -The lifting up of the shield, was the phrafe for beginning a war.

GY

in other lands. Three days he remained on the coaft, and turned his eyes on Conmor's halls. He remembered the daughter of ftrangers, and his figh arofe.-Now when the winds awaked the wave: from the hill came a youth in arms; to lift the fword with Cathmor in his echoing field.-It was the white-armed Sul malla: fecret she dwelt beneath her helmet. Her fteps were in the path of the king; on him her blue eyes rolled with joy, when he lay by his roaring ftreams. But Cathmor thought, that, on Lumon, she ftill purfued the roes: or fair on a rock, ftretched her white hand to the wind ; to feel its courfe from Inisfail the green dwelling of her love. He had promised to return, with his white-bofomed fails.The maid is near thee, king of Atha, leaning on her rock.

The tall forms of the chiefs ftood around: all but dark-browed Foldath (1). He stood beneath a distant tree, rolled into his haugh

(1) The furly attitude of Foldath, is a proper preamble to his after behaviour. Chaffed with the difappointment of the victory which he promifed himfelf, he becomes paffionate and over-bearing. The quarrel which fucceeds between him and Malthos was, no doubt, introduced by the poet, to raife the character of Cathmor, whofe fuperior worth shines forth, in his manly manner of ending the difference between the chiefs.

ty foul. His bushy hair whiftles in wind. At times, burfts the hum of a fong.-He ftruck the tree, at length, in wrath, and rushed before the king.

Calm and ftately, to the beam of the oak, arofe the form of young Hidalla. His hair falls round his blushing cheek, in wreaths of waving light. Soft was his voice in Clonra (1), in the valley of his fathers; when he touched the harp, in the hall, near his roaring ftreams.

King of Erin, faid the youth, now is the time of feafts. Bid the voice of bards arife, and roll the night away. The foul returns, from fong, more terrible to war.-Darkness fettles on Inis-fail: from hill to hill bend the skirted clouds. Far and grey, on the heath, the dreadful ftrides of ghofts are seen the ghofts of thofe who fell bend forward to their fong.-Bid thou the harps to rife, and brighten the dead, on their wandering blafts.

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Be all the dead forgot, faid Foldath's bursting wrath. Did not I fail in the field, and shall I hear the fong? Yet was not my courfe harmless in battle: blood was a ftream around my steps. But the feeble were behind

(1) Claon-rath, winding field. The th are seldom pronounced audibly in the Galic language.