Ossian Collection > Fingal

A P O E M. 115
airy bow ? — But he is gone on his blail like the
Ihadow of mirt. — Come from thy wall, m.y harp,
and let me hear thy found. Let the light of me-
mory rife on I-thona; that I may behold my
friends. And OiTian does behold his friends, on
the dark-blue ifle. — The cave of Thona appears,
with its mofly rocks and bending trees. A ftream
roars at its mouth, and Tofcar bends over its
courfe. Fercuth is fad by his fide : and the maid *
of his love fits at adiftancc, and weeps. Does the
wind of the waves deceive me ? Or do I hear them
fpeak ?
ToscAR.
The night was ftormy. From their hills the
groaning oaks came down. The fea darkly-
mmbled beneath the blail, and the roaring waves
were climbing againft our rocks. — The lightning
came often and fhewed the blafted fern. — Fercuth !
I faw the ghoft of night f. Silent he flood, on
that bank; his robe of mi ft flew on the wind. — I
could behold his tears : an aged man he feemed^
and full of thought.
Fercuth.
I T was thy f^uher, O Tofcar ; and he forefccs
fonie death among his race. Such was his appear-
ance on Cromla, before the great Ma-ronnan %
fell.
* Cuthona the daughter of Rumar, whom Tofcar
had carried away by force.
f It was long thought, in the North of Scotland, that
ftorms were raifed by the ghofts of the deceafed. This
notion is ftiil entertained by the vulgar ; for they think
that v/hirlwinds, and fudden fqualls of wind are occa-
fioned by fpirits, who tranfport themfelves, in that man-
ner, from one place to another.
X Ma-ronnan was the brother of Tofcar : the tranf-
lator has a poem in his poflellion concerning the extraor-
dinary death of that hero.