rolled away. Sadness ought not to dwell in danger, nor the tear in the eye of war. Our fathers forgot their fallen fons, till the noise of arms was paft. Then forrow returned to the tomb, and the fong of bards arose.

Conar (1) was the brother of Trathal, firft of mortal men. His battles were on every coaft. A thousand streams rolled down the blood of his foes. His fame filled green Erin, like a pleasant gale. The nations gathered in Ullin, and they bleffed the king of the race of their fathers, from the land of hinds.

(1) Conar, the firft king of Ireland, was the fon of Trenmor, the great-grand-father of Fingal. It was on account of this family-connection, that Fingal was engaged in fo many wars in the cause of the race of Conar. Tho' few of the actions of Trenmor are mentioned in Offian's poems, yet from the honourable appellations bestowed on him we may conclude that he was, in the days of the poet, the most renowned name of antiquity. The moft probable opinion concerning him is, that he was the firft, who united the tribes of the Caledonians, and commanded them, in chief, against the incurfions of the Romans. The genealogifts of the North have traced his family far back, and given a lift of his ancestors to Cuanmór nan lan, or Conmor of the fwords, who according to them, was the firft who croffed the great fea, to Caledonia, from which circumftance his name proceeded, which fignifies Great ocean. Genealogies of fo ancient a date however, are little to be depended upon.

The

The chiefs (1) of the fouth were gathered, in the darkness of their pride. In the horrid cave of Moma, they mixed their fecret words. Thither often, they faid, the fpirits of their fathers came; shewing their pale forms from the chinky rocks, and reminding them of the honor of Bolga.-Why should Conar reign, the son of streamy Morven ?

They came forth, like the ftreams of the defart, with the roar of their hundred tribes. Conar was a rock before them: broken they rolled on every fide. But often they returned, and the fons of Ullin fell. The king stood, among the tombs of his warriors, and darkly bent his mournful face. His foul was rolled into itself; he marked the place, where he was to fall; when Trathal came, in his ftrength, the chief of cloudy Morven. -Nor did he come alone; Colgar (2) was

(1) The chiefs of the Fir-bolg who poffeffed themfelves of the fouth of Ireland, prior, perhaps, to the fettlement of the Caël of Caledonia, and the Hebrides, in Ulfter. From the fequel, it appears that the Fir-bolg were, by much, the most powerful nation; and is probable that the Caël must have fubmitted to them, had they not received fuccours from their mother-country, under the command of Conar.

(2) Colg-er. fiercely-looking warrior. Sulin-corma, blue eyes. Colgar was the eldeft of the fons of Trathal: Comhal, who was the father of Fingal, was very young when the prefent expedition to VOL. III.

E

at his fide; Colgar the fon of the king and of white-bofomed Solin-corma.

As Trenmor, cloathed with meteors; defcends from the halls of thunder, pouring the dark storm before him, over the troubled fea: fo Colgar defcended to battle, and waf ted the echoing field. His father rejoiced over the hero: but an arrow came. His tomb was raised, without a tear. The king was to revenge his fon. He lightened forward in battle, till Bolga yielded at her streams.

When peace returned to the land, and his blue waves bore the king to Morven : then he remembered his fon, and poured the filent tear. Thrice did the bards, at the cave of Furmóno, call the foul of Colgar. They called him to the hills of his land; he heard them in his mift. Trathal placed his sword in the cave, that the fpirit of his fon might rejoice.

Ireland happened. It is remarkable, that, of all his ancestors, the poet makes the leaft mention of Comhal, which, probably, proceeded from the unfortunate life and untimely death of that hero. From fome paffages, concerning him, we learn indeed, that he was brave, but he wanted conduct, and, as Offian expreffes it, his foul was dark. This impartiality, with respect to a character fo near him, reflects honour on the poet,

(1) Colgar, fon of Trathal, faid Fillan, thou wert renowned in youth! But the king hath not marked my fword, bright-ftreaming on the field. I go forth with the crowd; I return, without my fame.-But the foe approaches, Offian. I hear their murmur on the heath. The found of their steps is like thunder, in the bofom of the ground, when the rocking hills shake their groves, and not a blast pours from the darkened sky.

Sudden I turned on my fpear, and raised the flame of an oak on high. I fpread it large, on Mora's wind. Cathmor ftopt in his courfe.-Gleaming he ftood, like a rock, on whofe fides are the wandering of blafts; which feize its echoing ftreams and clothe them over with ice. So ftood the friend (2) of strangers. The winds lift his

(1) The poet begins here to mark ftrongly the character of Fillan, who is to make fo great a figure in the fequel of the poem. He has the impatience, the ambition and fire which are peculiar to a young hero. Kindled with the fame of Colgar, he forgets his untimely fall.—From Fillan's expreffions in this paffage, it would feem, that he was neglected by Fingal, on account of his youth.

(2) Cathmor is diftinguished, by this honourable title, on account of his generofity to strangers, which was fo great as to be remarkable even in those days of hofpitality,

heavy locks. Thou art the talleft of the race of Erin, king of ftreamy Atha!

First of bards, said Cathmor, Fonar (1), call the chiefs of Erin. Call_red - hair'd Cormar, dark-browed Malthos, the fide-longlooking gloom of Marónan. Let the pride of Foldath appear: the red-rolling eye of Turlótho. Nor let Hidalla be forgot; his voice, in danger, is like the found of a shower, when it falls in the blasted vale, near Atha's failing ftream.

They came, in their clanging arms. They bent forward to his voice, as if a spirit of their fathers fpoke from a cloud of night.Dreadful shone they to the light; like the fall of the ftream of Brumo (2), when the meteor

(1) Fónar, the man of fong. Before the introduction of Christianity a name was not impofed upon any perfon, till he had diftinguished himflf by fome remarkable action, from which his name should be derived. Hence it is that the names in the poems of Offian, fuit fo well with the characters of the perfons who bear them.

(2) Brumo was a place of worship (Fing. b. 6.) in Craca, which is fuppofed to be one of the ifles of Shetland, It was thought, that the fpirits of the deceased haunted it, by night, which adds more terror to the defcription introduced here. The horrid circle of Brumo, where often, they faid, the ghosts of the dead howled round the tone of fear. Fing.