Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

Book VIII, AN EPIC POEM. 15
heads, on High, as they waved by their fe-
cret ilreams. Thou art dark and filent,
king of Atha of ftrangers !"
"' By Atha of the ftream," he faid,
" there n'fes a moffy rock. On its head is
the wandering of boughs, within the courfe
of winds. Dark, in its face, is a cave, with
its own loud rill. There have I heard the
tread of ilrangers f , v/hen they paiTed to
my hall of fiiells. Joy rofe, like a flame,
on my foul : I bleft the echoing rock. Here
be my dwelling, in darknefs j in my gralTy
vale. From this I fhall mount the breeze,
that purfues my thilUe's beard j or look
«3own, on blue-winding Atha, from its wan-
dering mift."
** Why fpeaks the king of the tomb ?
Offian ! the warrior has failed ! Joy meet
iHaj foul, like a llream, Cathmor, friend of
•♦■ Cathmor refiedls with pleafure, even in his lafl:
Uromcnta, on tl-.e relief he had afforded to ftriingers.
The very tread of their feet was pleufant in his car.
Kishoipitality was not pafled unnoticed by the bards;
for, with them, it became a proverb, when they de-
fcribed the hofpitablc difpofition of a hero, that he
svai Hie Cathmor cf Atha, the friend of Jlrangers. It
will feem flrange, that in ali the Iriih poepis, there
is no mention made of Cathmor, This muft be at-
tributed to the revolutions and domellic confulions
which happened in that ifland, and utterly cut off
aii the real traditions concerning fo ancient a period.
All that we have related of the flate of Ireland be-
fore the fifth century is cf late invention, and the
Vorkpf ill informed feuachies and injudiciouo bards,
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