Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

404 THE POEMS OF OSSIAN.
shake their groves, and not a blast pours from the
darkened sky !"
Ossian turned sudden on his spear. He raised the
flame of an oak on high. I spread it large, on Mora's
wind. Cathmor stopt in his course. Gleaming ht
stood, like a rock, on whose sides are tlie wanderint
blasts ; which seize its echoing streams, and cloth(
them over with ice. So stood the friend of strangers
The winds lift his heavy locks. Thou art the talles
of the race of Erin, king of streamy Atha !
" First of bards," said Cathmor, " Fonar, call tl
chiefs of Erin. Call red-haired Cormar: dark
browed Malthos: the sidelong-looking glooi
Maronnan. Let the pride of Foldath appear,
red-rolling eye of Turlotlio. Nor letHidalla be for
got ; his voice, in danger, is the sound of a showei
when it falls in the blasted vale, near Atha's fallin)
stream. Pleasant is its sound, on the plain, whilsi
broken thunder travels over tlie sky!"
They came in their clanging arms. They bent foT
ward to his voice, as if a spirit of their fathers spok
from a cloud of night. Dreadful shone they to th
light; like the fall of the stream of Brumo,* whei
the meteor lights it, before the nightly strangci
Shuddering he stops in his journey, and looks u
for the beam of the morn !
" Why delights Foldath," said the king, " to pou
the blood of foes by night; Fails his arm in battli
in the beams of day ? Few are the foes before us
why should we clotlie us in sliades ? The valiant di
light to shine in the battles of their land ! Th
counsel was in vain, chief of Moma ! The eyes
Slorven do not sleep. They are watchful, as eagle
on their mossy rocks. Let eacli collect, beneathh:
cloud, the strength of his roaring tribe. To-mc
I move, in light, to meet the foes of Bolga ! Might
was he that is low, the race of Borbar-duthul !"
" Not unmarked," said Foldath, " were my step
before thy race. In light, I met the foes of Cairbai
* Brumo was a place of worship (Fing. b. 6.) i.
Craca, which is .supposed to be one of the isles fc
Siietland.