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

( '59 )
CATHLIN OF CLUTHA:
O E
M.
*^^OME, thou beam that art lonely, from watching in the
V^ night ! The fqually winds are around thee, from all their
echoing hills. Red, over my hundred ftreams, are the light-covered
paths of the dead. They rejoice, on the eddying winds, in the
* The traditions, which accompany this
poem, inform us, that both it, and the
Oicceeding piece, went, of old, under the
name of Laoi-Oi-lutha ; i. e. the hymns of
the maid of Lutha. They pretend alfo to
fix the time of its compofition, to the
third year after the death of Fingal ; that
is, during the expedition of Fergus the fon
of Fingal, to the banks of Uifca dutkon.
In fupport of this opinion, the Highland
fenachies have prefixed to this poem, an
addrefs of Offian, to Congal the young
fon of Fergus, which I have rejefled, as
havin-^ no manner of connection with the
reft of the piece. -It has poetical merit ;
and, probably, it was the opening of one
of Oflian's other poems, tho' the bards in-
judicioufly transferred it to the piece now
before us.
" Congal, fon of Fergus of Durath,
thou light between thy locks, afcend to the
rock of Selma, to the oak of the breaker
of fliields. Look over the bofom of night,
it is ftreaked with the red paths of the
dead : look on the night of ghofts, and
kindle, O Congal, thy foul. Be not, like
the moon on a ftream, lonely in the midft
of clouds : darknefs clofes around it ; and
the beam departs. — Depart not, fon of Fer-
gus, ere thou markeft the field with thy
fword. Afcend to the roCk of Selma j ta
the oak of the breaker of fliields."
fea*