Ossian Collection > Fingal

1 14 CONLATH and CUTHONA :
of the night ? The Tons of Httle men are afleep,
and the midnight wind is in my hall. Perhaps it
is the fhield of Fingal that echoes to the blail:, it
hangs in OlTian's hall, and he feels it fometimes
with his hands. — Yes ! — I hear thee, my friend ;
long has thy voice been abfent from mine ear !
What brings thee on thy cloud, to Oirian, fon
of the generous Morni ? Are the friends of the aged
near thee ? Where is Ofcar, fon of fame r — He
was often near thee, O Conlath, when the din of
battle rofe.
GkOST of CoNLATM.
Sleeps the fweet voice of Cona, in the midft
of his ruftlinghall ? Sleeps OlTian in his hail, and
his friends without their fame? The fea rolls
round the dark I-thona *, and our tombs are not
feen by the ftranger. How long fhall our fame
be unheard, fon of ihe echoing Morven ?
OSSIAN.
O T H A T mine eyes could behold thee, as th.ou
fitted:, dim, on thy cloud ! Art thou like the ivMl:
of Lano; or an half extinguiOied meteor? Of
what are the fkirts of thy robe ? Of what is thine
airy
failed after him, and found him on the point of failing for
the coaft of Ireland. They fought ; and they, and their
followers fell by mutual v/ounds. Cuthona did not long
furvive : for fne died of grief the third day after. Fin-
gal, hearing of their unfortunate death, fent Stormal the
fon of Moranto bury them, but forgot to fend a bard to
fmg the funeral fong over their tombs. The ghoft of
Conlath came, long after, to Oilian, to intreat him to
tranfniit, to pofterity, his and Cuthona's fame. For it
was the opinion of the times, that the fouls of the de-
ceafed were not happy, 'till their elegies were com.pofed
by a bard. — Thus is the (lory of the poem handed down
by tradition.
* I-thona i/Iafi^ of ivnves, one of the uninhabited
weftern ifles,