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

160 tep^ora: Book IVy
hold them lonely in the midst of wo. Call me, my
flitlitr, when the king is low on earth j for then I shall
be lonely in the midst of wo."
penjile. As their business was feeding of cattle, in dark and
fxter.sive deserts, so their journeys l^y over wide and untVe-
cjucnied heatlis, where often they were obliged to sleep in the open
air, aijiidst the whistling of winds and the roar of water falls.
The gloominess of the scenes around them was apt to beget
that melancholy disposition of mind, wliich most readily re-
ceives impressions of the extraordinary and supernatural kind.
1 ailing asleep in this gloomy mood, and their dream)i being dis-tuib-
ed by the noise of the elements around, it is no matter of wonder,
tliat they thoug"t they heard the voice of the dead. This voice of
the dead, however, was, perhaps, no more than a shriller whistle of
the wmdsin an old tree, or in the chinks of a neighbouring rock.
It is to this cause I ascribe those many and improbable tales of ghosts,
whicii we meet with io the Highlands: for in other respects, we da
iKit find tha.t the Highlanders are more criduljus than their ncii^K-
|)tfurs.
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