Page images
PDF
EPUB

- I hear the

[ocr errors]

eyes of Fingal. voice of the king, on Mora's misty top! He calls his two fons; I come, my father, in my grief. I come like an eagle, which the flame of night met in the defart, and spoiled of half his wings.

(1) Distant, round the king, on Mora, the broken ridges of Morven are rolled. They turned their eyes : each darkly bends, on his own ashen fpear.-Silent ftood the king in the midft. Thought on thought rolled over his foul. As waves on a fecret mountain-lake, each with its back of foam. He looked; no fon appeared,with his long-beaming spear. The fighs rofe, crowding, from his foul; but he concealed his grief.-At length I stood beneath an oak. No voice of mine was heard. What could I say to Fingal in his hour of woe-His words rofe, at length, in the

(1) This fcene is folemn. The poet always places his chief character amidst objects which favour the fublime. The face of the country, the night, the broken remains of a defeated army, and, above all, the attitude and filence of Fingal himself, are circumstances calculated to imprefs an awful idea on the mind. Offian is moft fuccefsful in his nightdefcriptions. Dark images suited the melancholy temper of his mind. His poems were all compofed after the active part of his life was over when he was blind and had furvived all the companions of his youth we therefore find a veil of melancholy thrown over the whole.

[ocr errors]

midft the people shrunk backward as he spoke (1).

(1) The abashed behaviour of the army of Fingal proceeds rather from shaine than fear. The king was not of a tyrannical difpofition : He , as he profeffes himself in the fifth book, never was a dreadful form, in their prefence, darkened into wrath. His voice was no thunder to their ears his eye fent forth no death. The firft ages of fociety are not the times of arbitrary power. As the wants of mankind are few, they retain their independence. It is an advanced state of civilization that moulds the mind to that fubmiffion to government, of which ambitious magiftrates take advantage, and raise themselves into abfolute power.

It is a vulgar error, that the common Highlanders lived in abject slavery under their chiefs. Their high ideas of, and attachment to the heads of their families, probably, led the unintelligent into this mistake. When the honour of the tribe was concerned, the conmands of the chief were obeyed, without reftriction : but, if individuals were oppreffed, they threw themselves into the arms of a neighbouring clan, affumed a new name, and were encouraged and protected. The fear of this defertion, no doubt, made the chiefs cautious in their government. As their confequence, in the eyes of others, was in proportion to the number of their people, they took care to avoid every thing that tended to diminish it.

It was but very lately that the authority of the laws extended to the Highlands. Before that time the clans were governed, in civil affairs, not by the verbal commands of the chief, but by what they called Clechda or the traditional precedents of

[ocr errors]

Where is the fon of Selma, he who led in war? I behold not his steps, among my people, returning from the field. Fell the young bounding roe, who was fo ftately on my hills-He fell ;-for ye are filent. The shield of war is broke.-Let his armour be near to Fingal; and the fword of dark-brown Luno. I am waked on my hills with morning I defcend to war.

:

(1) High on Cormul's rock, an oak flamed

[ocr errors]

their ancestors. When differences happened between individuals, fome of the oldeft men in the tribe were chofen umpires between the parties, to decide according to the Clechda. The chief interpofed his authority, and, invariably, enforced the decifion. -In their wars, which were frequent, on account of family-feuds the chief was lefs referved in the execution of his authority, and even then he feldom extended it to the taking the life of any of his tribe.No crime was capital, except murder, and that was very unfrequent in the highlands No corporal punishment, of any kind was inflicted. The memory of an affront of this fort would remain, for ages in a family, and they would feize every opportunity to be revenged, unlefs it came immediately from the hands of the chief himself; in that cafe it was taken, rather as a fatherly correction, than a legal punishment for offences.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

(1) This rock of Cormul is often mentioned in the preceding part of the poem. It was on it Fingal and Offian ftood to view the battle. The custom of retiring from the army, on the night prior to their engaging in battle was univerfal among the

1

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 strike, 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 fteps 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

[ocr errors]

kings of the Caledonians.- -Trenmor, the most 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 custom of retiring from the army, before an engagement, is numbered among the wife inftitutions of Fergus, the fon of Arc or Arcath the first king of Scots. I shall here tranflate the paffage; in fome other note I 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, fon 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.

[ocr errors]

geftures with mift, and, iffuing forth, on 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 stream, 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. mer with an old poem, compofed long after the time of Offian, wherein a story 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 reft 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 discovered, by means of his dog who fat

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »