Ossian Collection > Fingal

178 T E M O R A:
brother of red-haired Cairbar. But their fouls were not the fame :
for the hght of heaven was in the bolbm of Cathmor. His towers
rofe on the banks of Atha : feven paths led to his halls. Seven chiefs
flood on thofe paths, and called the liranger to the feafl ! But Cath-
mor dwelt in the wood to avoid the voice of praife.
Olla came with his fongs. Ofcar went to Cairbar's feaft. Three
hundred heroes attended the chief, and the clang of their arms is
terrible. The gray dogs bounded on the heath, and their howling
is frequent. Fingal faw the departure of the hero : the foul of the
king was fad. He dreads the gloomy Caixbar : but who of the race
of Trenmor feared the foe ?
My fon lifted high the fpear of Cormac : an hundred bards met
Iiini with fongs. Cairbar concealed with fmiles the death that was
dark in his foul. The feaft is fpread, the fliells refound : joy bright-
ens the fitce of the hoft. But it was like the parting beam of the
fun, when he is to hide his red head, in a ftorm.
through oftentatlon, were hofpitable ; and
others fell naturally in;o a cuftom handed
down from their anceftors. But what
marks flrongly the character of Cathmor, is
his averfion to praife ; for he is repreferted
tj dwell in a wood to avoid the thanks of
his guefts ; which is ftill a higher degree
of generofity than that of Axylus in Ho-
mer : for the port does not fay, but the
good man might, at the head of his own
table, have heard with pleafure the praife
beftowed on him by the people he en-
(iTtained,
XlavTa; yap (piKiKxtv, ofd m oixia vxyct.
HoM. 6. 12.
Next Teuthras' fbn diAain'd the fands
with blood,
Axylus, hofpitable, rich and good :
In fair Arifbe's walls, his native place.
He held his featj a friend to human race.
Fafl by the road, his ever open door
Oblig'd the wealthy, and relieved the poor.
Pope.
Cairbar