Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

3^
THE DEATH OF CUCHULLIN.
he sits in the silence of noon, in the valley of his breeze, the hum-
ming of the mountain bee comes to Ossian's ear : the gale drowns
it often in its course ; but the pleasant sound returns again.
*' Raise," said Cuchullin, to his hundred bards, " the song of
the noble Fingal : that song which he hears at night, when the
dreams of his rest descend : when the bards strike the distant harp,
and the faint light gleams on Selma's walls. Or let the grief of
Lara rise, and the sighs of the mother of Calmar,* when he was
sought, in vain, on his hills j and she beheld his bow in the hall.
Carril, place tlie shield of Caithbat on that branch -, and let the
spear of Cuchullin be near ; that the sound of my battle may rise,
with the gray beam of the east." The hero leaned on his father's
shield : the song of Lara rose. The hundred bards were distant
far : Carril alone is near the chief. The words of the song were
his ; and the sound of his harp was mournful.
y « Alclethaf witli the aged locks ! mother of car-borne Calmar !
why dost thou look towards the desart, to behold the return of
thy son .? These are not his heroes, dark on the heath : nor is that
the voice of Calmar : it is but the distant grove, Alcletha ! but
the roar of the mountain wind !" Who J bounds over Lara's stream,
sister of the noble Calmar ? Does not Alcletha behold his spear ?
But her eyes are dim ! Is it not the son of Matha, daughter of my
love r"
*« It is but an aged oak, Alcletha I" replied the lovely weeping
AIona.§ " It is but an oak, Alcletha, bent over Lara's stream.
Bur who comes along the plain ? sorrow is in his speed. He lifts
high the spear of Calmar. Alcletha, it is covered with blood !"
" But it is covered witli the blood of foes, !J sister of car-borne
Calmar I
* Calmar the son of Matha. His death is related at large, in the third book of
Iinga!. He was the only son of Matha : and the family was extintSt in hira. The
seat of the family was on the banks of the river Lara, in the neighbourhood of I-ego,
and probably near the place where Cuchullin lay; which circumstance suggested to
him, the lamentation of Alcletha over her son.
f Ald-cb'tha, decaying beauty; probably a poetical name given the mother of
Calmar. by the bard himself.
t Alcletha speaks. Calmar had promised to return, by a certain day, and his
mother and his sister Alona are represented by the bard as looking, with impatience,
towards that (juiirter where they expeded Cahr.ar would make his firtt appearance.
§ Aluine, exquisitely LcaiiTifuL
I Alcletha speaks.