Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 2

52 THE SONGS OF SELMA :
with the tuneful voice, and the soft complaint of Mino-
na ! How are ye changed, my friends, since the days of
Selma's feast ! when we contended, Hke the gales of
tJie spring, that, Hying over the hill, by turns bend the
feebly-whistling grass.
Minona came toi th in her beauty ; with down-
cast look and tearful eye ; her hair Hew slowly on the
blast that rushed unfrequent frorn the hill. The souls
ot the heroes were sad when she raised the tuneful voice :
for often had they seen the grave of SaJgar '>, and the
dark dwelling of white-bosomed Colma i-. Colma left
alone on the hill, with all her voice of music ! Salgar
promised to come : but the night descended round.
Hear the voiceof Colma, when she sat alone on the hill!
Colma. It is night ; I am alone, forlorn on the hill of
storms. The wirid is heard in the mountain. The
torrent shrieks down the rock. No hut receives me
from the rain ; forlorn on tlie hill of winds.
^ Rise, moon ! from behind thy clouds ; stars of the
night appear ! Lead me, some light, to the place where
my love rests from the toil of the chase ; his bow near
him, unstrung ; his dogs pimting around him. But
here I must sit alone, by the rock of the mossy stream.
The stream and the wind roar, nor can I hear the
voice of my love. Why delays my Salgar, why the son
of the hill, his promise ? Here is the rock, and the tree ;
and here tlie roaring stream. Thou didst promise with
night to be here. Ah ! whither is my Salgar gone ?
With thee I v\'ould fly, my father ; with thee, my bro-
ther of pride. Our race have long been foes ; but we
are not foes, O Salgar !
Cease a little while, O wind ! stream, be thou silent a
while ! let my voice be heard over the heath ; let my
v/anderer hear me.* Salgar ! it is I who call. Here is
* varicsaterl Uland,' so called from the face of the country, from the
natives paiuting themselves, or from their party-coloured cloiths,
b Sealg-'er. ♦ a hunter."
c Cul-aiatl!, ' a woxan with fine kair.'