Blair Collection > Galic antiquities

A POEM. 135
voice of the gale when its comfe is part. Our eyes were turned
to the fea. On the diftant wave arofe a cloud. ) We knew the fkifF
of Innisfail. On its marts we faw the Cran-tara * hung. " Spread,"
faid Comhal, " the white wings of my flills. On the waves we fly-
to help oiir friends."
Night met us, with its fliades, on the deep. Waves lifted be-
fore us their white breads, and in our fails was the roar of winds.
" The night of ftorms is dark ; but a defart ifle is nigh. It
fpreads its arms like my bow when bent, and its bofom, like the
breafl of my love, is calm. There let us vv ait the light ; it is the
place where mariners dream of dangers that are over."
Our com-fe is to the bay of Botha. The bird of night howled
above us from its grey rock. A mournful voice welcomed its ful-
len note from a cave. " It is the ghoft of Dargo j"," faid Comhal j
" Dargo, whom we loft returning from Lochlin's wars."
Waves hfted their white heads among the clouds. Blue moun-
tains rofe between us and the fliore. Dargo climbed the maft to
look for Morven ; but Morven he faw no more. The thong broke
in his hand; and the waves, with all their foam, leapt over his
red wandering hair. The fury of the blaft drove our fails, and
we loft fight of the chief. We raifed the fong of grief in his
praife,
* The Cran-tara means in general a fig- either the danger apprehended from the
nal of diftrefs. It was properly a piece invaders, or a threatening to fuch as did
of wood half-burnt, and dipt in blood, not immediately repair to the chieftain's
•which was conveyed with all poflrble ex- ftandard. — ^The cudom feems to have
pedition from one hamlet to another in been common to other northern nations^
cafes of imminent danger. The Cran- See 01. Mag. p. 146.
tara fignifies the « beam of gathering ;" | Dargo^ " red-haired ;" Comhal, " mild-^
and the fire and blood might intimate brow."