Ossian Collection > Temora, an ancient epic poem, in eight books

6 T E M O R A:
Do the chiefs of Erin ftand, he faid, filent as the grove of even-
ing ? Stand they, Hke a filent wood, and Fingal on the coaft ?
Fingal, who is terrible in battle, the king of ftreamy JVIorven. —
Haft thou feen the warrior, faid Cairbar with a figh ? Are his he-
roes many on the coaft ? Lifts he the fpear af battle ? Or comes
the king in peace ?
In peace he comes not, Cairbar. I have feen his forward fpear*.
It is a meteor of death : the blood of thoufands is on its fteel. .
He came tirft to the fhore, ftrong in the grey hair of age. Full
rofe his finewy limbs, as he ftrode in his might. That fword I's
by his fide which gives no fecond -f- wound. His fliield is terrible,
like the bloody moon afcending thro' a ftorm. — Then came Oflian
king of fongs ; and Morni's fon, the firft of men. Connal leap^
forward on his fpear : Dermid fpreads his dark-brown locks.
Fillan bends his bow, the young hunter of ftreamy Moruth t. —
But \\'ho is that before them, like the terrible courfe of a ftream !
It is the fon of OfTian, bright between his locks. His long hair
falls on his back. — His dark brows are half-inclofed in fteel. His
* Morannal here alludes to the parti- made by Luno, a ftnith of Lochlin, and
cular appearance of Fingal's fpear. If a after him poetically called the /on cf Luko :
man, upon his firft landing in a (Irargc it is faid of this fword, that it killed a
country, kept the point of his fpear fo.'- man at every ftroke ; and that Fingal never
ward, it denoted in thofe days that he "fed it but in ti.-nes of the greateft danger,
came in a hoftile manner, and accordingly % In fome traditions Fergus the fon of
l-.e was treated as an enemy ; if he kept the Fingal, and Ufnoth chief of Etha, imme-
point behind him, it was a token of friend- diately followr Fillan in the lift of the chiefs
fhip, and he was immediately invittd to of Morven ; but as they are not afterwards
the feaft, according to the hofpitality of mentioned at all in the poem, I look upon
the times. the whole fentence to be an interpolation,
f This was the famous fword of Fingal, and have therefore rejeifled it.
fword