J. F. Campbell Collection > Temora, an ancient epic poem, in eight books

no T E M O R A:
on Mora, and fearched him along the wind. He thought that the
blue-eyed hunter llept; he lay upon his fhield. No blaft came
over the heath, unknown to bounding Bran.
Cathmor faw the white-breafted dog j he faw the broken
fliield. Darknefs is blown back on his foul; he remembers the
falling away of the people. They come, a ftream ; are rolled
av/ay ; another race fucceeds. — " But fome mark the fields, as they
pais, with their own mighty names. The heath, thro' dark-
brown years, is theirs ; fome blue ftream winds to their fame.—
Of thefe be the chief of Atha, when he lays him down on earth.
Often may the voice of future times meet Cathmor in the air :
when he ftrides from v/ind to wind, or folds himfelf in the wing of
a ftorm."
Green Erin gathered round the king, to hear the voice of his
power. Their joyful faces bend, unequal, forward, in the light of
the oak. They who were terrible were removed : Lubar * winds
again
They did not find him ; and the beautiful
•widow became difconfolate. At length he
was difcovered, by means of his dog, who
fit on a rock befide the body, for fome
days.— The poem is not juft now in my
hands ; otherwife its poetical merit might
i: duce me to prefent the reader with a tranf-
lation of it. The ftanza concerning the
<iog, whofe name was Du-chos, or B!ack-
f.ot, is very defcriptive.
" Dark-fided Du-chos ! feet of wind !
cold is thy feat on rocks. He (the dog)
fees the roe : his ears are high ; and half
6
he bounds away. He looks around ; but
Ullin fleeps ; he droops again his head.
The winds come paft; dark Du-chos
thinks, that Ullin's voice is there. But
flill he beholds him filent, laid amidft the
waving heath. Dark-fided Du-chos, his
voice no more fliall fend thee over the
heath ! "
* In order to illuftrate this pafTage, it is
proper to lay before the reader the fcene
of the two preceding battles. Between
the hills of Mora and Lona lay the plain
of Moi-lena, thro' which ran the river Lu-
bar.