Ossian Collection > Fingal, an ancient epic poem

2 F I N G A L, B. I.
ty Carbar *, a hero whom he flew in war ; the
fcout f of the ocean carae Moran ;}: the fon of
Filhil.
RiSF, faid the youth, Cuchullin, rife ; I fee
the fliips of Swaran. CuchulHn, many are the
foe : many the heroes of the dark-roUing fea.
Moran! repHed the blue-eyed chief, thou
ever trembled:, fon of Fithil : Thy fears have
much increafed the foe. Perhaps it is the king ||
of the lonely hills coming to aid me on green Ul-
lin's plains.
I SAW their chief, fays Moran, tall as a rock
of ice. His fpear is like that blafted fir. His
* Cairbar or Cairbre fignifies a ftrong; man.
•f Cuchullin having previous intelligence of the in-
vafion intended by Sv>aran, fent fcouts all ovey the coaft
of Ullin or Ullter, to give early notice of the firll; ap-
pearance of the enemy, at the fame lime that he fent
Munan the fon of Stirn.al to implore the a{ri(lir)c'e of Fin-
gal. He himfelf collected the flower of the Irilh youth
TO Tura, a ccdtle on the coaft, to ll:op the progrefs of
the enemy till Fingal fhould arrive from Scotland.' We
inay conclude from CuchuHin's applying fo early for
foreign aid, that the Irll;i were not then fo numerous as
they have fmce been ; which is a great prefumption a-
galnlt the high Antiquities of that people. We have
the tefi-lmony of Tacitus that one legion only was thought
fufficient, in the time of Agricola, to reduce the whole
ifland under the Roman yoke ; which would not pro-
bablv have been the cafe, had the iiland been inhabited
for any number of centuries before.
:j; Moran fignifies many ; and Firhil, or rather Fili,
an inferior hard.
Ij Fingal the fon of Comhal and Morna the daughter
of 1 haddu His grandfather was Trathal, and great
grandfather Trenmor, both of whom are often mention-
ed in the poem.
lliield