Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

i62 T E M O R A: Book Yin,
of broad-fhielded Cairbar, from Ullln of the
roes. He liftens to the voice of Condan, as,
grey, he bends in feeble light. He liftens, for
his foes dwell in the ecchoing halls of Temora.
He
ceeded him, and Ros-crana, the firft wife of Fingal. Cair-
bar, long before the death of his father Lormac, had taken
to wife Bos- gala, the daughter of Colgar, one of the m&ft
powerful chiefs in Connaught, and had, by her, Artho,
afterwards king of Ireland. Soon after Artho arrived at man's
eftate, his mother Bos-gala died, and Cairbar married Bel-
tanno, the daughter of Conachar of UUin, who brought him
a fon, whom he called Ferad artho, i» e. a man in the place cf
Artho. The occafion of the name was this. Artho, when his
brother was born, was abfent, on an expedition, in the foutb
of Ireland. A falfe report was brought to his father, that he
was killed. Cairbar, to ufe the words of a poem on the fub-
jeft, darkened /or his fair-haired /on. He turned fo the youn^
beam 0/ light, the /on 0/ Bait anno 0/ Conachar. Thou Jhalt be
Tar ad' artho, he /aid, a /re he/ore thj race. Cairbar, foon'
after, died, nor did Artho long furvive him. Artho was fuc-
ceeded, in the Iriih throne, by his fon Cormac, who, in his
minority, was murdered by Cairbar, the fon of Borbar-duthul.
Ferad-artho, fays tradition, was very young, v/hen the expe-
dition of Fingal, to fettle him on the throne of Ireland, hap-
pened. During the fhort reign of young Cormac, Perad-
artho lived at the royal jeiidence of Temora. Upon the murder
of the king, Condan, the bard, conveyed Ferad-artho, pri-
vately, to the cave of Cluna, behind the mountain Croir.mal, in
Ulfler, where they both lived concealed, during the ufurpation
of the family of Atha. A late bard has delivered the whcfc
hiftory, in a poem juft now in my pofTeffion. It has little me-
rit, if we except the fcene between Ferad-artho, and the raef-
fengers of Fingal, upon their arrival, in the valley of Cluna.
After hearing of the great adlions of Fingal, the young prince
propofcs the following queftions concerning him, to Gaul and
D&rmid, ♦' Is the king tall as the rock of my cave ? Is his
ipear