Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

2^0 T E M o R a: Book IF.
hind a rock, by the blue-winding ftream * of a vale :
where dwelt the dark-brown hind ere yet the war arofe.
Thither came the voice of Cathmor, at times, to Sul-
malla's ear. Her foul is darkly fad ; fhe pours her words
on wind.
" The dreams of Inis-huna departed : they are rolled
away from my foul. 1 hear not the chafe in my land. I
am concealed in the Ikirts of war, I look forth from my
cloud, but no beam appears to hght my path. I behold
my warrior low ; for the broad-lhielded king is near ; he
that overcomes in danger ; Fingal of the fpears. Spirit
of departed Conmor, are thy Iteps on the boibm of winds ?^
Comeft thou, at times, to other lands, father of fad Sul-
malla I Thou doll come, for I have heard thy voice at
night ; while yet I rofe on the wave to ftreamy Inis-fail.
The ghoft of fathers, they fay f , can feize the fouls of
their race, while they behold them lonely in the midll of
woe. .Call me, my father, when the king is low on
earth ; for then I Ihall be lonely in the midft of woe."
2 TEMORA:
* This was not the valley of I.ona to which Sul-malla afterwards retired.
+ Con-mor, the father of Sul-malla, was killed in that war, from which Cath-
mor delivered Inis-huna. Lormar his fon fucceeded Conmor. It was the opinion
of the times, when a perfon was reduced to a pitch of mifery, which could admit
of no alleviation, that the ghofts of his anceftors cal/ed his foul away. This fuper-
natural kind of death was called the voice of the dead; and is believed by the fu-
perftitious vulgar to this day.
There is no people in the world, perhaps, who gave more univerfal credit to
apparitions, and the vifits of the ghofts of the deceafed to their friends, than the
common highlanders. This is to be attributed as much, at leaft, to the fituation
of the country they pofTcfs, as to that credulous difpofition which diftinguifhes an
unenlightened people. As their bufinefs was feeding of cattle, in dark and exten-
iive defarts, fo their journeys lay over wide and unfrequented heaths, where, of-
ten, they were obliged to fleep in the open air, amidft the whiftling of winds, and
roar of water-falls. The gloominefs of the fcenes around them was apt to beget
that melancholy difpofition of mind, which moft readily receives imprelTions of
the extraordinary and fupernatural kind. Falling afleep in this gloomy mood, and
their dreams being difturbed by the noile of the elements around, it is no matter
of wonder, that they thought they heard the "voice of the dead. This iioice of the
dead, however, was, perhaps, no more than a fhriller whiftle of the winds in an
old tree, or in the chinks of a neighbouring rock. It is to this caufe I afcribe
thofe many and improbable tales of ghofts, which we meet with in the highlands:
for, in other refpeiTls, we do not find that the highjanders are more credulous than
their neighbours.