43 Trathal placed his fword in the cave, that the fpirit of his fon might rejoice. *COLGAR, fon of Trathal, faid Fillan, thou wert renowned in youth! But the king hath not marked my fword, fword, bright-ftreaming on the field. I go forth with the crowd: I return, without my fame. But the foe approaches, fame.—But Offian. I hear their murmur on the heath. The found of their fteps is like thunder, in the bofom of the ground, when the rocking hills fhake their groves, and not a blast pours from the darkened fky. 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 of ftrangers. The *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. + Cathmor is distinguished, by this honourable title, on account of his generofity to ftrangers, which was fo great as to be remarkable even in those days of hofpitality. winds lift his heavy locks. Thou art the tallest of the race of Erin, king of streamy Atha! FIRST of bards, faid Cathmor, Fonar call the chiefs of Erin. Call red-hair'd Cormar, dark-browed Malthos, the fide-long-looking 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 fhower, 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 fhone they to the light; like the fall of the ftream of Brumo, when the meteor lights it, before the nightly ftranger. Shuddering, he Fónar, the man of fong. Before the introduction of Christianity a name was not impofed upon any person, till he had diftinguished himself by fome remarkable action, from which his name fhould 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. 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 ften, they faid, the ghosts of the dead howled round the ftone of fear. Fing. ftops ftops in his journey, and looks up for the beam of the morn. *WHY delights Foldath, faid the king, to pour the blood of foes, by night? Fails his arm in battle, in the beams of day? Few are the foes before us, why fhould we clothe us in mift? The valiant delight to fhine, in the battles of their land. THY Counsel was in vain, chief of Moma; the eyes of Morven do not fleep. They are watchful, as eagles, on their moffy rocks.---Let each collect, beneath his cloud, the ftrength of his roaring tribe. To-morrow I move, in light, to meet the foes of Bolga !---Mighty was he, that is low, the race of Borbar-Duthul! Nor unmarked, faid Foldath, were my fteps before thy race. In light, I met the foes of Cairbar; the warrior praised my deeds.---But his * From this paffage, it appears, that it was Foldath who had advised the night-attack. The gloomy character of Foldath is properly contrasted to the generous, the open Cathmor. Offian is peculiarly happy in oppofing different characters, and, by that means, in heightening the features of both. Foldath appears to have been the favourite of Cairbar, and it cannot be denied but he was a proper enough minister to such a prince. He was cruel and impetuous, but feems to have had great martial merit. By this exclamation Cathmor intimates that he intends to revenge the death of his brother Cairbar. 4 ftone ! ftone was raised without a tear? No bard fung over Erin's king; and fhall his foes rejoice along their moffy hills ?---No: they muft not rejoice: he was the friend of Foldath. Our words were mixed, in fecret, in Moma's filent cave; whilft thou, a boy in the field, pursuedst the thiftle's beard.---With Moma's fons I fhall rush abroad, and find the foe, on his dufky hills. Fingal fhall lie without his fong, the grey-haired king of Selma. DOST thou think, thou feeble man, replied the chief of Atha; doft thou think that he can fall, without his fame, in Erin? Could the bards be filent at the tomb. of the mighty Fingal ? The fong would burst in fecret; and the spirit of the king rejoice.It is when thou fhalt fall, that the bard fhall forget the fong. Thou art dark, chief of Moma, tho' thine arm is a tempeft in war.---Do I forget the king of Erin, in his narrow houfe? My foul is not loft to Cairbar, the brother of my love. I marked the bright beams of joy, which travelled over his cloudy mind, when I returned, with fame, to Atha of the ftreams. To have no funeral elegy fung over his tomb, was, in those days, reckoned the greatest misfortune that, could befal a man; as his foul could not otherwise be admitted to the airy ball of his fathers. TALL TALL they removed, beneath the words of the king; each to his own dark tribe; where, humming, they rolled on the heath, faintglittering to the stars: like waves, in the rocky bay, before the nightly wind.-Beneath an oak, lay the chief of Atha: his shield, a dusky round, hung high. Near him, against a rock, leaned the ftranger* of Inis-huna: that beam of light, with wandering locks, from Lumon of the roes-At diftance rofe the voice of Fonar, with the deeds of the days of old. The fong fails, at times, in Lubar's growing roar. CROTHAR, begun the bard, firft dwelt at Atha's moffy ftream. A thoufand oaks, from By the ranger of Inis-buna, is meant Sulmalla, the daughter of Conmor king of Inis-huna, the ancient name of that part of South-Britain, which is next to the Irish coaft. She had followed Cathmor in difguife. Her ftory is related at large in the fourth book. + Crothar was the ancestor of Cathmor, and the first of his family, who had fettled in Atha. It was in his time, that the first wars were kindled between the Fir-bolg and Caël. The propriety of the epifode is evident; as the conteft which originally rofe between Crothar and Conar, fubfifted afterwards between their pofterity, and was the foundation of the ftory of the poem. From this circumftance we may learn that the art of building with ftone was not known in Ireland fo early as the days of Crothar. When the colony were long fettled in the country, the arts of civil life began to increafe among I them, |