CATH-L O D A. DUAN FIRST. A TALE of the times of old! Why, thou wanderer unfeen! Thou bender of the thiftle of Lora; why, thou breeze of the valley, haft thou left mine * The bards diftinguished thofe compofitions, in which the narration is often interrupted by episodes and apostrophes, by the name of Duän. Since the extinction of the order of the bards, it has been a general name for all ancient compofitions in verfe. The abrupt manner in which the ftory of this poem begins, may render it obfcure to fome readers; it may not therefore be improper, to give here the traditional preface, which is generally prefixed to it. Two years after he took to wife Ros-crana, the daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland, Fingal undertook an expedition into Orkney, to vifit his friend Cathulla, king of Iniftore. After ftaying a few days at Caric-thura, the refidence of Cathulla, the king fet fail, to return to Scotland; but, a violent ftorm arifing, his fhips were driven into a bay of Scandinavia, near Gormal, the feat of Starno, king of Lochlin, his avowed enemy. Starno, upon the appearance of ftrangers on his coaft, fummoned together the neighbouring tribes, and advanced, in a hoftile manner, towards the bay of Uthorno, where Fingal had taken fhelter. Upon difcovering who the ftrangers were, and fearing the va B 2 lour mine ear? I hear no diftant roar of streams! No found of the harp, from the rock! Come, thou huntress of Lutha, Malvina, call back his foul to the bard. I look forward to Lochlin of lakes, to the dark, billowy bay of U-thorno, where Fingal defcends from ocean, from the roar of winds. Few are the heroes of Morven, in a land unknown! Starno fent a dweller of Loda, to bid Fingal to the feaft; but the king remembered the paft, and all his rage arofe. "Nor Gormal's moffy towers, nor Starno, fhall Fingal behold. Deaths wander, like fhadows, over his fiery foul! Do I forget that beam of light, the white-handed daughter of kings? Go, fon of Loda; his words are wind to Fingal: wind, that, to and fro, drives the thistle, in autumn's dufky vale. Duth-maruno †, arm of death! * Crom lour of Fingal, which he had, more than once, experienced before, he refolved to accomplish by treachery, what he was afraid he should fail in by open force. He invited, therefore, Fingal to a feaft, at which he intended to affaffinate him. The king prudently declined to go, and Starno betook himself to arms. The fequel of the ftory may be learned from the poem itself. * Agandecca, the daughter of Starno, whom her father killed, on account of her difcovering to Fingal a plot laid against his life. Her ftory is related at large in the third book of Fingal. + Duth-maruno is a name very famous in tradition. Cromma-glas, of iron fhields! Struthmor, dweller of battle's wing! Cormar, whofe fhips bound on feas, careless as the courfe of a meteor, on dark-rolling clouds! Arife, around me, children of heroes, in a land unknown! Let each look on his fhield, like Trenmor, the ruler of wars. "Come down," thus Trenmor faid, "thou dweller between the harps! Thou fhalt roll this ftream away, or wafte with me in earth." Around the king they rife in wrath. No words come forth: they feize their fpears. Each foul is rolled into itself. At length the fudden clang is waked, on all their echoing fhields. Each takes his hill, by night; at intervals, they darkly ftand. Unequal burfts the hum of fongs, between the roaring wind! Many of his great actions are handed down, but the poems, which contained the detail of them, are long fince loft. He lived, it is fuppofed, in that part of the. north of Scotland, which is over against Orkney. Duth-maruno, Cromma-glas, Struthmor, and Cormar, are mentioned, as attending Comhal, in his laft battle against the tribe of Morni, in a poem, which is ftill preferved. It is not the work of Offian; the phrafeology betrays it to be a modern compofition. It is fomething like thofe trivial compofitions, which the Irish bards forged, under the name of Offian, in the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries. Duth-maruno fignifies, black and steady; Cromma-glas, bending and fwarthy; Struthmor, roaring ftream; Cormar, expert at fea. Broad over them rose the moon! In his arms, came tall Duth-maruno; he from Croma of rocks, ftern hunter of the boar! In his dark boat he rofe on waves, when Crumthormo* awaked its woods. In the chafe he fhone, among foes: No fear was thine, Duth-maruno ! "Son of daring Comhal, fhall my steps be forward through night? From this fhield fhall I view them, over their gleaming tribes? Starno, king of lakes, is before me, and Swaran, the foe of ftrangers. Their words are not in vain, by Loda's ftone of power.Should Duth-maruno not return, his fpoufe is lonely, at home, where meet two roaring ftreams, on Crathmocraulo's plain. Around are hills, with echoing woods, the ocean is rolling near. My fon looks on fcreaming fea fowl, a young wanderer on the field. Give the head of a boar to Can-dona †, tell him of his father's * Crumthormoth, one of the Orkney or Shetland islands. The name is not of Galic original. It was fubject to its own petty king, who is mentioned in one of Offian's poems. + Cean-daona, head of the people, the son of Duthmaruno. He became afterwards famous, in the expeditions of Offian, after the death of Fingal. The traditional tales concerning him are very numerous, and, from the epithet in them, beftowed on him (Candona of boars), it would appear, that he applied himself to that kind of hunting, which his father, in this pa ragraph, father's joy, when the briftly ftrength of I-thorno rolled on his lifted fpear. Tell him ragraph, is fo anxious to recommend to him. As I have mentioned the traditional tales of the Highlands, it may not be improper here to give fome account of them. After the expulfion of the bards, from the houfes of the chiefs, they, being an indolent race of men, owed all their subsistence to the generofity of the vulgar, whom they diverted with repeating the compofitions of their predeceffors, and running up the genealogies of their entertainers to the family of their chiefs. As this subject was, however, foon exhausted, they were obliged to have recourfe to invention, and form ftories, having no foundation in fact, which were swallowed, with great credulity, by an ignorant multitude. By frequent repeating, the fable grew upon their hands, and, as each threw in whatever circumftance he thought conducive to raise the admiration of his hearers, the story became, at last, so devoid of all probability, that even the vulgar themselves did not believe it. They, however, liked the tales fo well, that the bards found their advantage in turning profeffed tale-makers. They then launched out into the wildeft regions of fiction and romance. I firmly believe, there are more ftories of giants, enchanted caftles, dwarfs, and palfreys, in the Highlands, than in any country in Europe. Thefe tales, it is certain, like other romantic compofitions, have many things in them unnatural, and, confequently, difguftful to true taste, but, I know not how it happens, they command attention more than any other fictions I ever met with. The extreme length of thefe pieces is very furprifing, fome of them requiring many days to repeat them, but fuch hold they take of the memory, that few circumstances are ever omitted by thofe who have received them only from oral tradition: What is still more amazing, the very language of the bards is ftill preferved, B 4 |