Blair Collection > Galic antiquities

J
26 The fall of TURA
Malvina f ! my caxife of grief is great. Thou haft loft thy
fifters, fair lights upon the mountains ; but I fui"vive the race of
heroes. I fearch for them with my hands among the filent ftreams
■which they ufcd to haunt ; but their tomb is all I find. Alas ! the
children of the years to come fliall not perceive even this ; they will
feek it on the mountains, but fliall not find it. — The cliief of the
days that fliall be, will ftarid on the green hill where Tura was.
Cona rolls below him in its pebbly bed. Its ftream wanders, lo-
fmg its way, through woods ; herds, along its banks, are feen to
llray. Blue Ocean trembles at a diftance. Ifles lift their green,
freqvient heads, above its wave ; and the bounding mariner is fail-
ing towards the coaft. — " This fpot," the chief will fay, " is lovely:
here raife for me, in view of whales and roes, the lofty houfe." —
They dig the green mound ; the mound where Tura rofe. Spears,
half- burnt, lift before them their heads ; broken fliields, amidft
aflies, begin to appear, " It is the tomb of heroes," he will fay ; " fliut
again the narrow houfe." He calls the gray-haired bard, and aflcs
whofe memory is contained in the tomb. The bard looks around
for the light of the fong : but his foul of age is dark; his memory
has failed. He looks for his companions ; but he fees their tomb.
He ftands, perhaps, a folitary tree like Offian. — A folitary tree am
I,
+ What follows of this poem is gene- to determine the true lift with any degree
rally repeated by itfelf under the title of of certainty. The catalogue of names,
Ojtnn a caoidh nam Fiann : but as it feems when repeated by itfelf, begins generally
to have been originally a part of l.ofga with thcfe lines ;
Taura, it is here reftored to it. The great S" f-"' ^"^ f^" "^' " r'''-'"".
, , , If'.. Climiacas ann Cian apiis Conn,
number of names, towards the end of it, ^ ,_^^_^ ^^.^ .^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^,_^^_
occafions fuch a difference in the recita- Rjuiai' Art is Diarmad clo.nn.
tion of that part, as made it impoITible