Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

AN EPIC POEM. 237
sound, on the broad-skirted host. Carril returned,
with the bards, from the tomb of Dun-lora's chief.
The voice of morning shall not come to the dusky
bed of Duthcaron. No more shalt thou hear the
tread of roes around thy narrow house !
As roll the troubled clouds, round a meteor of
night, when they brighten their sides, with its light,
along the heaving sea : so gathers Erin, around the
gleaming form of Cathmor. lie, tall in the midst,
careless lifts, at times, his spear : as swells or falls
the sound of Fonar's distant harp. * Near him
* In order to illaslrate tliis passage, I shall give, here, the
history on which it is founded, as I have gathered it from
tradition. The nation of the Fiibolg, who inhabited the
south of Ireland, being originally descended from the Bel-
gse, who possessed the south and south-west coast of Britain,
kept up, for many ages, an amicable correspondence with
their mother-country ; and sent aid to the British Belgse,
when tliey were pressed by the Romans or other new-comers
fronj the continent. Coanior, king of Inis-huna (that part
of South Britain which is over against the Irish coast) being
attacked, b^' what enemy is not mentioned, sent for aid to
Cairbar, lord of Alba, the most potent chief of the Firbolg.
Cairbar dispatched his brother Cathmor to the assistance of
Con-mor. Cathmor, after various vicissitudes of fortune,
put an end to the war, by the total defeat of the enemies of
Inis-huna, and returned ni triumph to the residence of Con-
mgr. There, at a feast, Sul-malla, the daughter of Con-mor,
fell desperately in love with Cathmor, who, before her pas-
sion was disclosed, was recalled to Ireland by his brother