Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

FISCAL. 307
of thousands ; my soul shall alighten through the
gloom of the fight I'
' To me,' Cuthullin replies, ' pleasant is the
noise of arms ! pleasant as the thunder of heaven,
before the shower of spring ! But gather all the
shining tribes, that I may view the sons of war !
Let them pass along the heath, bright as the
sun-shine before a storm ; when the west wind
collects the clouds, and Morven echoes over all
her oaks I But where are my friends in battle ?
the supporters of my arm in danger? Where
art thou, white-bosomed Cathba ? Where is
that cloud in war, Duchomar ? Hast thou left
me, O Fergus ! in the day of the storm ? Fer-
gus, first in our joy at the feast ! son of Rossa '
arm of death ! comest thou like a roe from
Malmor? like a hart from thy echoing hills?
Hail, thou son of Rossa ! what shades the soul
of war?*
' Four stones," replied the chief, ' rise on the
grave of Cfithba- These hands have laid in earth
Duchomar, that cloud in war ! Cathba, son of
Torman ! thou wert a sun-beam in Erin. And
thou, O valiant Duchomar ! a mist of the nian^hy
Lano ; when it moves on the plains of autumn,
bearing the death of thousands along. Morna !
fairest of maids ! calm is thy sleep in the cave of
the rock ! Thou hast fallen in darkness, like a
star, that shoots across the desert ; when the
traveller is alone, and mourns the transient beam !'
*Say,' said Semo's blue-eyed son, ' say how fell
• This passage alludes to the rnanner of burial among the
ancient Scots. Tnev opened a grave six orei^ht feet deep:
the Ix^ttom was lined with fine clay ; and on thi-! they laid
the iKidy of the deceased, and, if a warrior, his sword, and
the heads of twelve arrows by his side. Above they laid
another stratum of clay, in which they placed the horn of
a deer, the symbol of hunting. The' whole was covered
with a fine mould, and four stones placed on end to mark
the extent of the grave. These are the four stones alluded
to here.