Cathmor do?His figh arofe: his tears came down. But ftraight he turned away.-This is no time, king of Atha, to wake thy fecret foul. The battle is rolled before thee, like a troubled ftream.

He ftruck that warning bofs, wherein dwelt the voice of war. Erin rofe around him like the found of eagle-wings.-Sul-malla started from fleep, in her difordered locks. She feized the helmet from earth, and trembled in her place. Why fhould they know in Erin of the daughter of Inis-huna? for the remembered the race of kings, and the pride. of her foul arofe.

HER fteps are behind a rock, by the bluewinding ftream of a vale: where dwelt the dark-brown hind ere yet the war arofe. Thither came the voice of Cathmor, at times, to Sulmalla's ear. Her foul is darkly fad; the pours her words on wind.

*In order to understand this paffage, it is neceffary to look to the defeription of Cathmor's fhield, which the poet has given us in the feventh book. This fhield had seven principal bolles, the found of each of which, when struck with a spear, conveyed a particular order from the king to his tribes. The found of one of them, as here, was the fignal for the army to affemble.

This was not the valley of Lona to which Sul-mulla afterwards retired.

THE dreams of Inis-huna departed: they are rolled away from my foul. I hear not the chace in my land. I am concealed in the fkirts of war. I look forth from my cloud, but no beam appears to light my path. I behold my warrior low; for the broad-fhielded king is near; he that overcomes in danger, Fingal of the fpears.-Spirit of departed Conmor, are thy fteps on the bofom of winds ? Comeft thou, at times, to other lands, father of fad Sul-malla? Thou doft come, for I have heard thy voice at night; while yet I rose on the wave to ftreamy Inis-fail. The ghoft of fathers, they fay, can feize the fouls of their race, while

they

Of all paffages in the works of Offian thefe lyric pieces lofe moft, by a literal profe tranflation, as the beauty of them does not fo much depend, on the ftrength of thought, as on the elegance of expreffion and harmony of numbers. It has been obferved, that an author is put to the fevereft teft, when he is ftript of the ornaments of verfification, and delivered down in another language in profe. Thofe, therefore, who have feen how awkward a figure even Homer and Virgil make, in a verfion of this fort, will think the better of the compofitions of Offian.

+ Con-mor, the father of Sul-malla, was killed in that war, from which Cathmor delivered Inis-huna. Lormar his fon fucceeded Conmor. It was the opinion of the times, when a perfon was reduced to a pitch of mifery, which could admit of no alleviation, that the ghofts of his ancestors called his foul away. This fupernatural kind of

death

they behold them lonely in the midft of woe. Call me, my father, when the king is low on earth; for then I fhall be lonely in the midst of woe.

death was called the voice of the dead; and is believed by the fuperftitious vulgar to this day.

There is no people in the world, perhaps, who gave more univerfal credit to apparitions, and the vifits of the ghofts of the deceased to their friends, than the common highlanders. This is to be attributed as much, at least, to the fituation of the country they poffefs, as to that credulous difpofition which diftinguishes an unenlightened people. As their business was feeding of cattle, in dark and extenfive defarts, fo their journeys lay over wide and unfrequented heaths, where, often, they were obliged to fleep in the open air, amidst the whistling of winds, and roar of waterfalls. The gloominess of the scenes around them was apt to beget that melancholy difpofition of mind, which most readily receives impreffions of the extraordinary and supernatural kind. Falling asleep in this gloomy mood, and their dreams being difturbed by the noife of the elements around, it is no matter of wonder, that they thought they heard the voice of the dead. This voice of the dead, however, was, perhaps, no more than a fhriller whistle of the winds in an old tree, or in the chinks of a neighbouring rock. It is to this caufe I afcribe those many and improbable tales of ghofts, which we meet with in the highlands: for, in other refpects, we do not find that the highlanders are more credulous than their neighbours.

TEMOR A: