Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

AN EPIC POEM. 173
libing pride of Cairbar. " Arc thy words so
mighty, because Fingal is near ? Fingal with
aged locks, from IMorven's hundred groves ! He
has fought with little men. But he must vanish
before Cairbar, like a thin pillar of mist before
the winds of Atha* !" " Were he who fought
with little men, near Atha's haughty chief:
Atha's chief would yield green Erin to avoid his
rage ! Speak not of the mighty, O Cairbar ! Turn
thy sword on me. Our strength is equal : but
Fingal is renowned ! the first of mortal men !"
Their people saw the darkening chiefs. Their
crowding steps are heard around. Their eyes
roll in fire. A thousand swords are half un-
sheathed. Red-haired Oila raised the song of
battle. The trembling joy of Oscar's soul arose :
the wonted joy of his soul when Fingal's horn
was heard. Dark as the swelling wave of ocean
before the rising winds, when it bends its head
near the coast, came on the host of Cairbar !
Daugliter of Toscar + ! why that tear ? He
is not fallen yet. ]Many were the deaths of his
arm before my hero fell :
• Atlia, shallow river : the name of Cairbar's seat in
Coniiaualit.
t Malvina, the daughter of Toscar, to wliom is address-
ed that part of the poem wluch related to the death of
Oscar, her lover.