Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

344: TIGHMOKA. [Duan VIII.
Close by him in her flowing locks
Was Suil-malla of chiefs, all faint
With lays of Atha's shielded chief 455
In the days of old that were past.
The sound of war had left his ear ;
Trouble checked his words in his breast ;
Slow sobbings in secret arose.
The spirits of spectres, they'll say, 460
Like lightning often strike his thoughts ;
He espied the brave king of Atha
'Neath a bent mountain-tree behind him.
" Why has darkness come?" said the maiden;
" The sound of war has from us passed ; 465
At its close the great king will come
O'er the plain to his own brown streams.
The sun looketh down from the west ;
The dark mist slants up from the mead,
Spreading thickly upon the moors, 470
Mong rushes by the winding hills.
From the mist thou art coming, king !
See him stepping down in his steel.
Come from battle to Claonmal's cave,
Great hero, for whom is my love." 475
It is the king of Atha's ghost !
With slow great steps, and form in light ;
He has fallen in the bed of streams,
That tumble from the rocks with sound.
" The hunter it is," said the maiden, 480
" Who chases on the hills the deer ;
He steps not to the strife of heroes ;
His true wife, so young, his beloved,