on Mora, and fearched him along the wind. He thought that the blue-eyed hunter flept; he lay upon his shield. No blaft 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 prefent the reader with tranflation of it. The ftanza concerning the dog, whofe name was Du-chos, Blackfoot, is very defcriptive. ΟΙ « Dark-fided Du-chos! feet of wind! cold is thy feat on rocks. He (the dog) fees the roe; his ears 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-sided 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 ftorm ». 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 first 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 pofitions. 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 (r), 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 streams. Often did he feel, with his hands, the fteel which, they faid, had pierced his foe. He felt it with his hands, for Borbar-duthul's Seyes 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 island. Calmar, the fon 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, voices (1) of Erin raise the foul of the king; he that shone when war was dark, and laid the mighty low.-Fonar, from that greybrowed rock, pour the tale of other times: pour it on wide-skirted Erin, as it fettles round. To me,faid Cathmor,no fong shall rife: nor Fonar fit on the rock of Lubar. The mighty there are laid low. Difturb not their rushing ghofts. Far, Malthos, far remove the found of Erin's fong. I rejoice not over the foe, when he ceases to lift the fpear. With morning we pour our ftrenght abroad. Fingal is wakened on his echoing hill. Like waves, blown back by fudden winds, Erin retired, at the voice of the king. Deeprolled into the field of night, they spread their humming tribes. Beneath his own tree, at intervals, each (2) bard fat down with his during the invafion of Swaran. The indecent joy, which Borbat-duthul expressed, upon the death of Calmar, is well fuited with that fpirit of revenge, which fubfifted, univerfally, in every country where the feudal fyftem was established.-It would ap pear that fome perfon had carried to Borbar-duthul that weapon, with which, it was pretended, Calmar had been killed. (1) The voices of Erin, a poetical expreffion for the bards of Ireland. (2) Not only the kings, but every petty chief, harp. They raised the fong, and touched the ftring each to the chief he loved. had their bards attending them, in the field, in the days of Offian; and thefe bards, in propor. tion to the power of the chiefs, who retained them, had a number of inferior bards in their train. Upon folemn occafions all the bards, in the army, would join in one chorus; either when they celebrated their victories, or lamented the death of a perfon, worthy and renowned, flain in the war. The words were of the compofition of the archbard, retained by the king himself, who generally attained to that high office on account of his fuperior genius for poetry. As the perfons of the bards were facred, and the emoluments of their office confiderable, the order. in fucceeding times, became very numerous and infolent. It would appear, that, after the introduction of Christianity, fome ferved in the double capacity of bards and clergymen. It was, from this circumftance, that they had the name of Chlére, which is, probably, derived from the latin Clericus. The Chlére, be their name derived from what it will became > laft, a public nuisance; for, taking advantage of their facred character, they went about, in great bodies, and lived, at difcretion, in the houses of the chiefs; till another party, of the fame order, drove them away by mere dint of fatire. Some of the indelicate difputes of thefe worthy poetical combatants are handed down, by tradition, and shew how much the bards, at last, abused the privileges which the admiration of their countrymen had conferred on the order.It was this infolent be haviour that induced the chiefs to retrench their number, and to take away those privileges which they were no longer worthy to enjoy. Their indolence, and difpofition to lampoon, extinguished all the 9 at |