Blair Collection > Galic antiquities

A POEM. 163
know, that I am thus low on the fliore of night ? Ye hghts above,
that at times behold me, tell it in Selma,, by yonr red figns, when
the heroes come forth from the feafl to behold your beauty. Ye
ghofts that glide on nightly beams, if through Morven be your
eddying courfe, tell, as you pafs, the tale in the ear of the king.
Tell him, that here I pour out my foul ; that cold in Ifrona is my
dwelling ; that two days have brought me no food, and that my
drink is the briny wave. — But tell not tliis in Strumon ; let not
yotir knowledge come to the dreams of Evirchoma. Be the rufl-
ling of your blafts far from her halls : fliake not rotighly your
wings, as, even at a diftance, you pafs. My love might hear it ;
and feme dark- boding thought might travel, as mill, acrofs her
foul. Be therefore your courfe, ye fpirits of night, far off; and
let the dreams of my love be pleafant. — The morning, Evirchoma,
is yet diftant. Sleep on, with thy lovely child in thy arms, and
pleafant be thy dreams in the murmur of Strumon ! Pleafant, in
the valley of roes, be thy dreams, O Evirchoma ! let no thought of
Gaul difturb thee. His pains are forgot, when the dreams of his
love are pleafant."
*' And doft thou think thy love could fleep, and her Gaul in
pain ? Doft thou think the dreams of Evirchoma could be plea-
fant, while thou wert abfent ? No ; my heart is not unfeeling as
that rock ; nor did I receive my birth in Ifrona's land *. — But how
X 2 fliall
* What this Ifrona was, is uncertain; finiilarity of the names, it is probable it
but it feems to have been remarkable for might have been confidered as a type of
the cruelty of its inhabitants. In the it.
following lines of a fragment concerning i f,i, MmAh na Freoine,
the death of Clonar, who had been flain Le d' thiugheheo buan, "s ied' ua' hheirtan;
there, many properties of the Celtic hell ^ '^'" """ p''"' g^'" "'''"'"^ S"" •'^'^'S'';
r-i_j ■ r u'u j..u_ Dolad' dhail be fnd mo dheifmn.
are afcnbed to it ; from which, and the
" Ifrona,