Bleft be thy foul, fon of Semo; thou wert mighty in battle.---Thy ftrength was like the ftrength of a ftream: thy fpeed like the eagle's wing.Thy path in the battle was terrible: the fteps of death were behind thy fword.Bleft be thy foul, fon of Semo; carborne chief of Dunfcaich!

THOU haft not fallen by the fword of the mighty, neither was thy blood on the fpear of the valiant.---The arrow came, like the fting of death in a blaft: nor did the feeble hand, which drew the bow, perceive it. Peace to thy foul, in thy cave, chief of the ifle of Mift!

THE mighty are difperfed at Temora: there is none in Cormac's hall. The king mourns in his youth, for he does not behold thy coming. The found of thy fhield is ceafed his foes are gathering round. Soft be thy reft in thy cave, chief of Erin's wars!

BRAGELA will not hope thy return, or fee thy. fails in ocean's foam. Her fteps are not on the fhore nor her ear open to the voice of thy

*This is the fong of the bards over Cuchullin's tomb. Every ftanza clofes with fome remarkable title of the hero, which was always the cuftom in funeral elegies.-The verse of the fong is a lyric meafure, and it was of old fung to the harp.

lions.

They were fwifter than eagles, they were ftronger than 2 Sam. i. 23.

rowers,

rowers.---She fits in the hall of fhells, and fees the arms of him that is no more.---Thine eyes. are full of tears, daughter of car-borne Sorglan -Bleft be thy foul in death, O chief of shady Cromla!

DAR-THULA,

DAR-THULA:

A PO E M*.

AUGHTER of heaven †, fair art thou! the filence of thy face is pleasant, Thou comeft forth in lovelinefs: the stars attend thy blue fteps in the east. The clouds rejoice in thy prefence,

* It may not be improper here, to give the ftory which is the foundation of this poem, as it is handed down by tradition.Ufnoth, lord of Etha, which is probably that part of Argylefhire which is near Loch Eta, an arm of the fea in Lorn, had three fons, Nathos, Althos, and Ardan by Sliffáma, the daughter of Semo and fifter to the celebrated Cuchullin. The three brothers, when very young, were fent over to Ireland, by their father, to learn the use of arms, under their uncle Cuchullin, who made a great figure in that kingdom. They were juft landed in Ulfter when the news of Cuchullin's death arrived. Nathos, though very young, took the command of Cuchullin's army, made head against Cairbar the ufurper, and defeated him in feveral battles. Cairbar at last having found means to murder Cormac the lawful king, the army of Nathos shifted fides, and he himself was obliged to return into Ulfter, in order to pafs over into Scotland.

Dar-thula, the daughter of Colla, with whom Cairbar was in love, refided, at that time, in Seláma a castle in Ulfter: fhe faw, fell in love, and fled with Nathos; but a storm rifing at fea, they were unfortunately driven back on that part of the coast of Ulfter, where Cairbar was encamped with his army, waiting for Fingal,

wha

*

prefence, O moon, and brighten their darkbrown fides, Who is like thee in heaven, daughter of the night? The stars are ashamed in thy prefence, and turn afide their green, fparkling eyes.---Whither doft thou retire from thy course, when the darkness of thy countenance grows? Haft thou thy hall like Offian? Dwelleft thou in the fhadow of grief? Have thy fifters fallen from heaven? Are they who rejoiced with thee, at night, no more ?---Yes !---they have fallen, fair light! and thou doft often retire to mourn. But thou thyself shalt fail, one night; and leave thy blue path in heaven. The ftars will then lift their green heads: they who were afhamed in thy prefence, will rejoice.

who meditated an expedition into Ireland, to re-establish the Scotch race of kings on the throne of that kingdom. The three brothers, after having defended themselves, for some time, with great bravery, were overpowered and flain, and the unfortunate Dar-thula killed herself upon the body of her beloved Nathos.

Offian opens the poem, on the night preceding the death of the fons of Ufnoth, and brings in, by way of episode, what paffed before. He relates the death of Dar-thula differently from the common tradition; his account is the most probable, as fuicide seems to have been unknown in those early times: for no traces of it are found in the old poetry.

+ The address to the moon is very beautiful in the original. It is in a lyric meafure, and appears to have been fung to the harp.

*The poet means the moon in her wane.

THOU

- THOU art now clothed with thy brightness q look from thy gates in the fky. Burft the cloud, O wind, that the daughter of night may look forth, that the fhaggy mountains may brighten, and the ocean roll its blue waves in light.

NATHOS* is on the deep, and Althos that beam of youth, Ardan is near his brothers; they move in the gloom of their courfe. The fons of Ufnoth move in darkness, from the wrath of car-borne Cairbar .

WHO is that dim, by their fide? the night has covered her beauty. Her hair fighs on ocean's wind; her robe ftreams in dufky wreaths. She is like the fair fpirit of heaven, in the midst of his fhadowy mist. Who is it but Dar-thula +, the firft of Erin's maids? She has fled from the love of Cairbar, with the car-borne Nathos. But the winds deceive thee, O Dar-thula; and deny the woody Etha to thy fails. These are not thy

* Nathos fignifies youthful, Ailthos, exquifite beauty, Ardan, pride.

Cairbar, who murdered Cormac king of Ireland, and ufurped the throne. He was afterwards killed by Ofcar the fon of Offian in a single combat. The poet, upon other occafions, gives him the epithet of red-haired.

Dar-thúla, or Dart-'huile, a woman with fine eyes. She was the most famous beauty of antiquity. To this day, when a woman is praised for her beauty, the common phrafe is, that he is as lovely as Dar-thula.

mountains,