Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

Book VI. Ay EPIC POEM. 129
" Where Is the fon of Sclma, he who led In
war ? I beliold not liis ftcps, among my people,
returning from the field. Fell the young bound-
ing roe, who was fo ftately on my hills r He fell;
for ye are filent. The Ihicld of war is cleft in
twain. Let his armour be near to Fingal ; and the
fword of dark-brown Luno. I am waked on my
hills ; with morning I defccnd to war."
High * on Cormul's rock, an oak Is flaming
to the wind. The grey flvirts of mift are rolled
around j thither ftrode the king In his wrath.
Diflant
on account of family-feuds, the chief was lefs referved in the
execution of his authority j and even then he feldom extended
it to the taking the life of any of his tribe. No crime was
capital, except murder ; and that was very unfrequent in the
Highlands. No corporal punifhment, of any kind, was in-
flided. The memory of an affront of this fort would remain,
for ages, in a family, and they would feize every opportunity
to be revenged, unlefs it came immediately from the hands of
the chief himfelf; in that cafe it was taken, rather as a fa-
therly correftion, than a legal punifliment for offences.
• This rockof Cormul is often mentioned in the preceding
part of the poem. It was on it Fingal and Ofiian flood to view
the battle. The cufiom of retiring from the army, on the
night prior to their engaging in battle, was unlvcrfal among
the kings of the Caledonians. Trenmor, the moft renowned,
of the anceltors of Fing;!!, is mentioned as the firfl who infti-
tuted this cuftom. Succeeding bards attributed it to a hero of
a latter period. In an old poem, which begins with Mac-
Arcath na ceud frol, this cuftom of retiring from the army, be-
fore an engagement, is numbered, among the wife inftitntions
of Fergus, the fon of Arc or Arcath, the firft king of Scots. I
Voi.ir. K foall