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

An epic POE M. 131
feen from thy furze ; the deer lifts his branchy head ; for he fees, at
times, the hound, on the half-co^^ered heath. Slow, on tlie vale,
are the fieps of maids ; the white-armed daughters of the bow :
they lift their blue eyes to the hill, from amidft their wandering
locks. — Not there is the ftride of Larthon, chief of Inis-huna.
He mounts the wave on his own dark oak, in Cluba's ridgy bay.
That oak which he cut from Lumon, to bound along the fea.
The maids turn their eyes away, left the king fliould be lowly-laid j
for never had they feen a fliip, dark rider of the wave !
Now he dares to call the winds, and to mix with the mift of
ocean. Blue Inis-fail rofe, in fmoak; but dark-ikirted night came
down. The fons of Bolga feared. The fiery haired Ton-thena
rofe. Culbin's bay received the fliip, in the bofom of its echoing
woods. There, iflued a ftream, from Duthuma's horrid cave ;
where fpirits gleamed, at times, with their half-finiflied forms.
Dreams defcended on Larthon : he faw feven fpirits of his fa-
thers. He heard their half-formed words, and dimly beheld the
times to come. He beheld the kings of Atha, the fons of future
days. They led their hofts, along the field, like ridges of mift,
which winds pour, in autumn, over Atha of the groves.
Larthon raifed the hall of Samla *, to the mufic of the harp.
He went forth to the roes of Erin, to their wonted flreams. Nor
ceding note, was a hill, in Inis-huna, near rious dcfcriptlon of his invention of fliip-
the rcfiu'erce of Sul-malla. This epifode building. This concif?, but expreflive,
has an immediate connexion with \vh:'t epifode has been much admired in the ori-
is Lid of Larthon, in the defcripti;in of ginal. Its brevity is remarkably fuited to
Cathtr.or's fhield. We have there hinted the hurry of the occafion.
to us only Larthon's firft voyage to Ireland; * Samlj, apparitions, (o called fr-m the
litre hisftory is related, at large, and a cu- viHon of Larthon, concerning his pofterity.
S 2 did