Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

I^OOk VL A N E P i C P E M, 167
Oiield, which he was wont to ftrike, by night, before he
ruflied. to war. It w as then his warriors knew, when the
king was to lead inftrife; for never was this buckler heard»
till Fingal's wrath arofe. Unequal were his fleps on high^
as he flione in the beam of the oak ; he was dreadful as
the form of the fpirit of night, when he clothes, on hills,
his wild geftures with mift, and, ifluing forth, on the
troubled ocean, mounts the car of winds.
Nor fettled, from the ftorm, is Erin's fea of war ; they
glittered, beneath the moon, and, low-humming, Hill
rolled on the field. Alone are the fteps of Cathmor, be-
fore them on the heath ; he hung forward, with all his
arms, on Morven's flying hoft. Now had he come to the
mofly cave, where Fillan lay in night. One tree was bent
above the ftream, w^hich glittered over the rock. There
flione to the moon the broken fliield of Clatho's fon ; and
near it, on grafs, lay hairy-footed Bran *. He had mif-
fed the chief on Mora, and fearched him along the wind.
He thought that the blue-eyed hunter llept ; he lay up-
on his fhield. No blalt came over the heath, unknown
to bounding Bran.
Cathmor faw the white -breafted dog; he fawthe broken
Ihield. Darknefs is blown back on his foul ; he remem-
bers the falling away of the people. " They come, a
ftream ; are rolled away ; another race fucceeds. But
fome mark the fields, as they pafs, with their own mighty
names. The heath, through dark-brown years, is theirs ;
L 1 ij fome
• This circum (lance, concerning Bran, the favourite dog of Fingal, is, perhaps,
one of the moll affefting paflages in the poem. I remember to have met with an
old jioem, compofed long after the time of OlTian, wherein a ftory of this fort
is very happily introduced. In one of the invaiions of the Danes, UUin-clun-
du, a confiderable chief, on the weflern coafl of Scotland, was killed in a ren-
counter with a flying pai-ty of the enemy, who had landed, at no great diftance,
from the place of his refidence. The few followers who attended him were alfo
llain. The young wife of Ullin-clundu, who had not heard of his fall, fearing
the worll, on account of his long delay, alarmed the reft of his tribe, who went
in fearch of him along the fliore. They did not iind him; and the beautiful
widow became difconfolate. At length he was difcovered, by means of his dog,
who fat on a rock befide the body, for fome days. The poem is not juft now in
my hands; otherwifc its poetical merit might induce me to prefent the reader
with a tranflation of it. The llanza concerning the dog, whole name was Du-
chos, or Blackfoot, is very defcriptive.
" Dark-fided Du-chos! feet of wind! cold is thy feat on rocks. He (the dog)
fees the roe; his ears are high; and half he bounds away. He looks around; but
Ullin fleeps; he droops ajgain his head. The winds come paft; dark Du-chos,
thinks, that UUin's voice is there. But ftill he beholds him filent, laid amidft the
waving heath. Dark-fided Du-chos, his voice i)o more iball fend thee over tlic
heath'."