Ossian Collection > Morison's edition of the Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

NOTES ON TEMORA.
rcqueft to Gaul the fon of Morni, which immediately fol-
lows this paragraph, alludes to the tomb of Clono, and his
oivn connection with that unfortunate chief.
^ Fingal and Cathmor.
• The fall of Foldath, if we may believe tradition, wa?
predidted to him, before he had left his own country to
join Cairbar, in his defigns on the Irifh throne. He went
to the cave of Moma, to inquire of the fpirits of his fathers,
■concerning the fuccefs of the enterprife of Cairbar. The
relponfes of oracles are always attended with obfcurity, and
liable to a double meaning : Foldath, therefore, put a far
vourable interpretation on the predidlon, and purfued his
adopted plan of aggrandizing himfclf with the family of A-
tha. I fliall, here, tranflate the anfwer of tbe ghojls of his
ancefiors, as it was handed down by tradition. Whether
the legend is really ancient, or the invention of a late age^
I iliall not pretend to determine, though, from the phrafc-
ology, I fliould fufpedl the laft.
Foldath, addreftng the fpirits of his fathers.
Dark, I ftand in your prefence ; fathers of Foldath, hear.
Shall my fteps pafs over Atha, to Ullin of the roes ?
The Arifiver.
Thy fteps fiiall pafs over Atha, to the green dwelling of
tings. There (hall thy ftature arife, over the fallen, like a
pillar of thunder-clouds. There, terrible in darknefs, flialt
thou ftand, till the refeSed beam, or Clon-cath of Moruth,
come ; Moruth of many ftreams, that roars in diftant lands."
Cloncath, or refeSed beam, fay my traditional authors,
was the name of the fword of Fillan ; fo that it was, in the
latent fignification of the word Clon-cath, that the decep-
tion lay. My principal reafon for introducing this note, \z,
that if this tradition is equally ancient with the poemj
T 3 %vhich,