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

A POEM. 235
By Col-amon of ftreams, faid the youth, bright
Colna-dona dwelt. She dwelt ; but her courfe is
now in defarts, with the fon of the king ; he that
feized her foul as it wandered through the hall.
Stranger of tales, faid Tofcar, haft thou marked
the warrior's courfe ? He muft fall^ give thou that
boiTy fhield ! In wrath he took the fliield. Fair
behind it heaved the breafts of a maid, white as the
bofom of a fwan, rifing on fwift-rolhng waves. It
was Colna-dona of iiarps, the daughter of the king.
Her blue eyes had rolled on Tofcar, and her lovearofe.
NOTES ON
COLNA-DONA.
* Colna-dona fignifies the love of heroes. Col-amon, nar-^
row river. Car-ul, dark eyed. Col-amon, the refidence of
Car-ul, was in the neighbourhood of Agricola's wall, to-
wards the fouth. Car-ul feems to have been of the race of
thofe Britons, who are diftinguifhed by the name of Maia-
tas, by the writers of Rome. Maiatae is derived from two
Galic words, Moi, a plain, and A;tich, inhabitants ; fo
that the fignification of Maiatas is, the inhabitants of the
I plain country ; a name given to the Britons, who were fet-
tled in the Low-lands, in contradiftinAion to the Caledo-
nians, fi. e. Cael-don, the Gauls of the hills) who were
poffefled of the more mountainous divifion of North-Bri".
fain.
G g z b Crona,