Blair Collection > Carmina gadelica > Volume 2

INCANTATIONS
23
FATH-FITH
star of guidance. His mother prepared food and drink and music for Ossian. And
she placed food in a place of eating for him^ and she placed drink in a place of
drinking for him, and she placed music in a place of hearing for him. Ossian took
of the food and of the drink and of the music till he was full satisfied — his seven
full satiations. After feasting, Ossian said to his mother, ' I am going, mother, to
see what Fionn and the Feinne are doing in the hunting-hill.' And his mother
placed her arm around his neck and kissed Ossian with the three kisses of a mother,
and then she opened the door-leaf in the door of the bower and allowed him
out. When she closed it there was no appearance of a door in the rock.
Ossian had been feasting on food and drink and music in the bower with
his mother for the space of three days, as he thought, but he had been in the
bower for the space of three years instead. And he made a song, the first song
he made, warning his mother against the men and the hounds of the Feinne.
In his Leab/iar Na Fcinitc Iain Campbell of Islay says that he liatl received
fom-teen versions of this song of Ossian. Six of these had been sent to him
by the present writer. One of these versions was obtained from Oirig Nic Iain
— Effric or Effie Mac Iain — lineally descended, she said, from Alexander Mac
Iain, chief of the massacred Macdonulds of Glencoe.
Effric Mac Iain was not tall, but she was very beautiful, intelligent, and
pleasant. I obtained a silver brooch from her which, she said, had come down
like herself through the generations from the massacred chief of Glencoe. The
brooch is of silver, circular, and beautifully chased, though much worn.
'SANAS OlSEIN D'A MHATHAIR
' Ma 's tu mo mhathair 's gur a fiadh thu,
Bheir mi hoiriuu ho a liau.
Eiridi niu 'n eirich griau ort.
Blieir mi lioiriou lie a hau,
Eho liir ir i-ibhag o,
Na Lao hi ho a ro hau.
Ma 's tu mo mhathair 's gur a fiadh thu.
Siubhail sliabh mu 'u tig au teasach.
Ma 's tu mo mhathair 's gur a fiadh thu,
Faicill ort romh fhearaibh Fianua.
Ma 's tu mo mhathair 's gur a fiadh thu.
Faicill ort romh chonaibh Fiauna.
Ma tlieid thu do ehoiribh doua,
Faicill ort rumh ghniamh uau coim,
Coiiaibh coiiacliar, conaibh coufhach,
Us iad air mhire-chatha rem had.
OSSIANS WARNING TO HIS MOTHER
If thou be my mother and thou a deer,
Arise ere the sun arises on thee.
If thou be my mother and thou a deer.
Travel the hills ere the heat of the hunt.
If thou be my mother and thou a deer.
Beware thou the men of the Feiuue.
If thou be my mother and thou a deer,
Beware thou the hounds of the Feinne.
If thou shouldst go to hurtful corries.
Beware thou the deeds of the hounds.
Hounds of uproar and liouuds of rage.
And they in battle-play before thee.