Before a burning oak Sul-malla touched, at times the harp. She touched the harp, and heard, between, the breezes in her hair. -In darkness near, lay the king of Atha, beneath an aged tree. The beam of the oak was turned from him; he faw the maid, but was not feen. His foul poured forth, in secret, when he beheld her tearful eye. But battle is before thee, son of Borbarduthul. Amidft the harp, at intervals, she liftened whether the warriors flept. Her foul was up; she longed, in fecret, to pour her own fad fong. The field is filent. On their wings, the blafts of night retire. The bards had ceafed; and meteors came; red-winding with their ghofts.-The sky grew dark: the forms of the dead were blended with the clouds. But heedlefs bends the daughter of Conmor, over the decaying flame. Thou wert alone in her fou!, car-borne chief of Atha. She raised the voice of the fong, and touched the harp between. (1) Clun-galo came; she miffed the maid. poetical fervour, which diftinguished their predeceffors, and makes us the lefs regret the extinction of the order. (1) Clun-galo, white knee, the wife of Conmor, king of Inis-huna and the mother of Sul-malla. -Where -Where art thou, beam of light Hunters, from the moffy rock, faw you the blue eyed fair? Are her fteps on graffy Lumon; near the bed of roes? Ah me! I behold her bow in the hall. Where art thou, beam of light? (1) Ceafe, love of Conmor, cease; I hear thee not on the ridgy heath. My eye is turned to the king, whofe path is terrible in war. He for whom my foul is up? feafon of my reft. - Deep-bofomed in war in the he ftands, he beholds me not from his cloud. Why, fun of Sul-mallà, doft thou not look forth? I dwell in darkness here; wide over me flies the shadowy mist. Filled with dew are my locks: look thou from thy cloud, O fun of Sul-malla's soul. She is here reprefented, as miffing her daughter after she had fled with Cathmor. This fong is very beautiful in the original. The expreffive cadences of the measure are inimitably fuited to the fituation of the mind of Sul-malla. (1) Sul-malla replies to the fuppofed questions of her mother. Towards the middle of this paragraph she calls Cathmor the fun of her foul, and continues the metaphor throughout. Those who deliver this fong down by tradition, fay that there is a part of the original loft.- -This book ends, we may suppose, about the middle of the third night, from the opening of the poem. VOL. III. K This book begins, about the middle of the third night from the opening of the poem. The poet defcribes a kind of mift, which rofe, by night, from the lake of Lego, and was the ufual refidence of the fouls of the dead, during the interval between their deceafe and the funeral fong. The appearance of the ghost of Fillan above the cave where his body lay. His voice comes to Fingal, on the rock of Cormul. The king ftrikes the shield of Trenmor, which was an infallible fign of his appearing in arms himself. The extraordinary effect of the found of the shield. Sul-malla, start ing from fleep, awakes Cathmor. Their affecting difcourfe. She infifts with him, to fue for peace; he refolves to continue the war. He directs her to retire to the neighbouring valley of Lona, which was the refidence of an old Druid, until the battle of the next day should be over. He awakes his army with the found of his shield. The shield defcribed. Fonar, the bard, at the defire of Cathmor, relates the first fettlement of the Firbolg in Ireland, under their leader Larthon. Morning comes. Sul-malla retires to the valley of Lona, A Lyric fong concludes the book. |