Their faces brightened round with joy. They fpread over Moi-lena. The feaft of shells is prepared. The fongs of bards arise. We heard (1) the voice of joy on the coaft: we thought that mighty Cathmor came. Cathmor the friend of ftrangers! the brother of red-haired Cairbar. Their fouls were not the fame. The light of heaven was in the bofom of Cathmor. His towers rofe on the

(1) Fingal's army heard the joy that was in Cairbar's camp. The character given of Cathmor is agrecable to the times. Some, through oftentation, were hofpitable; and others fell naturally into a cuftom handed down from their ancestors. But what marks ftrongly the character of Cathmor, is his averfion to praife; for he is reprefented to dwell in a wood to avoid the thanks of his guefts; which is ftill a higher degree of generofity than that of Axylus in Homer for the poet does not fay, but the good man might, at the head of his own table, have heard with pleafure the praife beftowed on him by the people he entertained.

No nation in the world carried hofpitality to a greater length than the antient Scots. It was even infamous, for many ages, in a man of condition, to have the door of his houfe shut at all, LEST, as the bards exprefs it, THE STRANGER

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COME AND BEHOLD HIS CONTRACTED SOUL. Some of the chiefs were poffeffed of this hofpitable difpofition to an extravagant degree; and the bards, perhaps upon a felfish account, never failed to recommend it. in their eulogiums. Cean-uia' na dai', or 'e point to which ali the roads of the Strangers lead, was an invariable epithet given by them to the chiefs; on the contrary, they diftin

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banks of Atha: feven paths led to his halls. Seven chiefs ftood on the paths, and called the ftranger to the feaft; but Cathmor dwelt in the wood to avoid the voice of praise.

Olla came with his fongs. Ofcar went to Cairbar's feaft. Three hundred warriors ftrode along Moi-lena of the ftreams. The grey dogs

guished the inhofpitable by the title of the cloud which the ftrangers shun. This laß however was fo uncommon, that in all the old poems I have ever met with, I found but one man branded with this ignomimous appellation; and that, perhaps, only founded upon a private quarrel, which fubfifted between him and the patron of the bard, who wrote the poem.

We have a story of this hofpitable nature, handed down by tradition, concerning one of the first Earls of Argyle. This nobleman, hearing that an Irishman, of great quality, intended to make him a vifit with a very numerous retinue of his friends and dependants, burnt the caitle of Duaora, the feat of his family, left it should be too fmall to entertain his guests, and received the Irish in tents on the shore. Extravagant as this behaviour might feem in our days, it was admired an applauded in thofe times of hofpitality, and the Earl acquired confiderable fame by it, in the fongs of the bards.

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The open communication with one another which was the confequence of their hofpitality, did little tend to improve the underitaning and enlarge the ideas of the antient Scots. It is to this caufe, we must attribute that fagacity and fenfe, which the common people in the highlands,

bounded on the heath, their howling reached afar. Fingal faw the departing hero: the foul of the king was fad. He dreaded Cairbar's gloomy thoughts, amidst the feaft of shells.

My fon raifed high the fpear of Cormac : an hundred bards met him with fongs. Cairbar concealed with finiles the death that was dark

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poffefs, ftill, in a degree fuperior even to the vulgar of more polished countries. When men are crowded together in great cities, they fee indeed many people, but are acquainted with few. They naturally form themfelves into fmal focieties, and their knowledge fcarce extends beyond the alley or ftreet they live in add to this that the very em-. ployment of a mechanic tends to contract the mind. The ideas of a peafant are ftill more confined. His knowledge is circumfcribed within the compafs of a few acres ; or, at most, extends no further than the nearest market-town. The manner of life among the inhabitants of the highlands is very different from thefe. As their fields are barren, they have fcarce any domeftic employment. Their time is fpent therefore in an extenfiye wilderness, where they feed their cattle, and thefe, by straying far and wide, carry their keepers after them, at times, to all the different fettlements of the clans. There they are received with hospitality and good cheer, which, as they tend to difplay the minds of the hofts, afford an opportunity to the guests to make their obfervations on the different characters of men; which is the true fource of knowledge and acquired fenfe. Hence it is that a common highlander is acquainted with a greater number of characters, than any of his own rank living in the most populous cities.

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in his foul. The feaft is fpread, the shells refound joy brightens the face of the hoft. But it was like the parting beam of the fun, when he is to hide his red head in a ftorm.

Cairbar rofe in his arms; darkness gathered on his brow. The hundred harps ceafed at once. The clang (1) of shields was heard. Far diftant on the heath Olla raised his fong of woe. My fon knew the fign of death; and rifing feized his fpear.

Ofcar! faid the dark-red Cairbar, I behold the fpear (2) of Inisfail. The fpear of Temora (3) glitters in thy hand, fon of

(1) When a chief was determined to kill a perfon already in his power, it was ufual to fignify that his death was intended, by the found of a shield ftruck with the blunt end of a fpear; at the fame time that a bard at a distance raifed the death-fong. A ceremony of another kind was long used in Scotland upon fuch occafions. Every body has heard that a bull's head was ferved up to Lord Douglas in the caftle of Edinburgh, as a certain fignal of his approaching death.

(2) Cormac, the fon of Arch, had given the fpear, which is here the foundation of the quarrel to Ofcar, when he came to congratulate him, upon Swaran's being expelled from Ireland.

(3) Ti-mor-rath, the houfe of good fortune, the name of the royal palace of the fupreme kings of Ireland.

woody Morven ! It was the pride of an hundred (1) kings, the death of heroes of old. Yield it, fon of Oilian, yield it to car-borne Cairbar.

Shall I yield, Ofcar replied, the gift of Erin's injured king: the gift of fair-haired Cormac, when Ofcar fcattered his foes! I came to Cormac's halls of joy, when Swaran fled from Fingal. Gladnefs rofe in the face of youth he gave the fpear of Temora. Nor did he give it to the feeble, O Cairbar, neither to the weak in foul. The darkness of thy face is no ftorm to me; nor are thine eyes the flames of death. Do I fear thy clanging shield Tremble I at Olla's fong? No: Cairbar, frighten the feeble; Ofcar is a rock.

And wilt thou not yield the fpear? replied the rifing pride of Cairbar Are thy words fo mighty, becaufe Fingal is near? Fingal with aged locks, from Morven's hundred groves! He has fought with little men. But he muft vanish before Cairbar, like a thin pillar of mift before the winds of Atha ( 2 ).

(1) Hundred here is an indefinite number, and is only intended to exprefs a great many. It was probably the hyperbolical phrafes of bards, that gave the firft hint to the Irish Senachies to place the origin of their monarchy in fo remote a period, as they have done.

(2) Atha, shallow river: the name of Cairbar's feat in Connaught.