Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

A P O E M. 125
that came from generous Torlatli ; he offered him the
fliell of joy, and honoured the fcm of fongs. " Sweet
voice of Lego 1" he faid, " what are the words of Torlath?
Comes he to our feail or battle, the car-borne fon of Cau-
tela* ?"
" He comes to thy battle," replied the bard, " to the
founding ftrife of fpears. When morning is gray on Le-
go, Torlath will fight on the plain : and wilt thou meet
him, in thine arms, king of the ifle of mill ? Terrible is
the fpear of Torlath I it is a meteor of night. He lifts it,
and the people fall: death fits in the lightningof hisfword.
" Do 1 fear," replied Cuchulhn, " the fpear of car-borne
Torlath ? He is brave as a thoufand heroes ; but my foul
dehghts in war. The fword refts not by the lide of Cu-
chullin, bard of the times of old! Morning ihall meet me
on the plain, and gleam on the blue arms of Semo's fon.
But fit thou, on the heath, O bard I and let us hear thy
voice : partake of the joyful lliell : and hear the fongs of
Temora."
" This is no time," replied the bard, " to hear the fong
of joy ; when the mighty are to meet in battle like the
strength of the waves of Lego. Why art thou fo dark, Sli-
moraf I with all thy filent w^oods? No green ftar trembles
on thy top; no moon-beam on thy fide. But the meteors
of death are there, and the gray watry forms of ghoits.
Why art thou dark, Slimora I with thy filent woods ?'*
He retired, in the found of his fong ; Carril accompani-
ed his voice. The mufic was like the memory of joys
that are pall, pleafant and mournful to the foul. The
ghoits of departed bards heard it from Shmora's lide.
Soft founds fpread along the wood, and the filent valleys
of night rejoice. So, when he fits in the filence of noon,
in the valley of his breeze, the humming of the mountain
bee comes to Offian's ear : the gale drowns it often in its
courfe ; but the pleafant found returns again.
" Raife," faid Cuchuliin, to his hundred bards, " the
fong of the noble Fingal ; that fong which he hears at
night,
not liked by their patrons, that they became a public nuifance. Screened under
the charader of heralds, they grolsly abui'ed the enemy when he would not accept
the terms they offered.
* Cean-teola', head of a fapuly:.
f Slia'-nior, great hill.