Ossian Collection > Galic antiquities

202
D E R M I D:
branch. — But Oflian is a tree that is withered*. Its branches are
blafted and bare ; no green leaf covers its boughs. From its trunk
no ycjwig fhoot is feen to fpring. The breeze whittles in its gray
mofs : the blafl makes its head of age. — The florin will foon over-
turn it, and drew all its dry branches with thee, O Dermid ! and
with all the reft of the mighty dead, in the green winding vale of
Cona.
How peaceful art thou, O vale of Cona ! Thy warriors and thy
hunters are all gone to reft. Let the bed be alfo made for the bard j
for the fhades of night thicken around him, and his eyes are
heavy.
* No image could better reprefent the guage, and highly congenial to the more
forlorn condition of the poet than this foft and mournful feelings.
which he has Chofen. The Words, too, Tha mife mar gheig na h aonar,
in which he defcribes it, are full of that
foft and mournful found which is expref-
fed in the Galicby the diphthong ao, and
the tripthong<j0«; founds which, fofar as
I know, are peculiar to the Galic lan-
Si gu mofgain maol gan duileach,
Gun mhaothan ri taobh, no ogan,
Ach ofna bhroin a' caoi' na mullach.
'S fogus an doinion, a fgaoileas
A crionach aofd' air feadh a ghlinne.
Mo leabaidh Dhiarmaid s nan laoch lughar
Aig Caothan nan luban uaine.
FINAN