Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

Book VI. Ak EPIC POEM. 135
They raifcd the fong, and touclied the ftring :
each to the chief he loved. Before a burn-
ing oak Sul-malla touched, at times, the harp.
She touched the harp, and heard, between, the
breezes in her hair. In darknefs near, lay the
king of Atha, beneath an aged tree. The beam
of the oak was turned from him -, he faw the
inaid, but was not fecn. His foul poured forth,
death of a perfoh, worthy and renowned, flain in the war.
The words were of the compofuion of the arch-bard, retained
by the king himfelf, who generally attained to that high office
on account of his fuperior genius for poetry. As the perfons
of the bards were facred, and the emoluments of their office
confiderable, the order, in fucceeding times, became very
numerous and infolent. It would appear, that, after the in-
troduftion of ChrilHanity, fome ferved in the double capacity
of bards and clergymen. It was, from this circumftance, that
they had the name of Chlere, which is, probably, deriv'cd from
the Latin Clericus. The Chlere, be their name derived from
what it will, became, at lall, a public nuifance; for, taking
advantage of their facred charafler, they went about, in great
bodies, and lived, at dilcretion, in the houfes of the chiefs ;
till another party, of the fame order, drove them away by
mere dint of fatire. Some of the indelicate difputes of thefe
v.'Orthy poetical combatants are handed down, by tradition,
and fl-iCvv how much the bards, at lail, abafc-d the privileges,
which the admiration of their countrymen had conferred on
the order. It was this infolent behaviour that induced the
chiefs to retrench their number, and to take away thofe privi-
leges which they were no longer worthy to enjoy. Their in-
dolence, and difpofition to lampoon, extinguiihed all the poe-
tical fcrVour, which dilUnguiftied their prcdcccflbrs, and makes
us the lefs regret the extlndlion of the order.
K 4 itt