Ossian Collection > Fingal

A P O E M. 115
ig the king among his chiefs ! he is Uke the darkened moon, amidfl
the meteors of night.
Come, faidFingal, from thy hall, thou daughter of my love ; come
from thy hall, Bofmina *, maid of ftreamy Morven ! Narthmor,
take the fteeds -f- of the ftrangcrs, and attend the daughter of Fingal :
let her bid the king of Sora to our fealT:, to Selma's fliaded wall.
Offer him, O Bofmina, the peace of heroes, and the wealth
of generous Aldo : our youths are far diftant, and age is on our
trembling hands.
She came to the hofl: of Erragon, like a beam of light to a cloud.
In her right hand flione an arrow of gold : and in her left a
iparkling fhell, the fign of Morven's peace.
Erragon brightened in her prefence as a rock, before tJie fud-
den beams of the fun ; when they iflue from a broken cloud, divid-
ed by the roaring wind.
Son of the diftant Sora, begun the mildly blufhing maid, come to
the feaft of Morven's king, to Selma's fhaded walls. Take the peace
of heroes, O warrior, and let the dark fword reft by thy fide. — And
if thou chufeft the wealth of kings, hear the words of the generous
Aldo. He gives to Erragon an hundred fteeds, the children of
the rein ; an hundred maids from diftant lands ; an hundred hawks
with fluttering wing, that fly acrofs the fky. An hundred girdles ;};
fhall alfo be thine, to bind high-bofomed women j the friends of
the
* Bo(-mh'inz, /oft and ten Jir f^an J. She Roman province, which feems to be inti-
was the youngeft of Fingal's children. mated in the phrafe of thejleeds ofjlrangen.
f Thefe were probably horfes taken in % Sandlified girdles, till very lately, were
the incurfions of the Caledonians into the kept in many families in the north of Scot-
er 2 liind ;