Ossian Collection > Fingal

120 C A R T H O N:
lar, is lovely in mine ear. Dofl thou not be-
hold, Malvina, a rock with its head of heath ?
Three aged firs bend from its face ; green is the
narrow plain at its feet ; there the flower of the
mountain grows, and fhakes its white head in the
breeze. The thiftle is there alone, and fhades
its aged beard. Two ftones, half funk in the
ground, fhew their heads of mofs. The deer of
the mountain avoids the place, for he beholds
the gray ghoft that guards it * ; for the mighty lie,
O Malvina, in the narrow plain of the rock.
A tale of the times of old 1 the deeds of days of other
years !
Who comes from the land of Grangers, with
his
Molna who had been left with child by her hufband,
brought forth a fon, and died foon after. — Reuthamir
named the child Carthon, i. e. the murmur ofnxiauesy
from the ftorm which carried off Clefs an mior his father,
who v.'as fiippofed to have been caft away. When Car-
thon was three years old, Comhal the father of Fingal, in
one of his expeditions againft the Britons, took and burnt
Balclutha. Reuthamir was killed in the attack : and Car-
thon v/as carried fafe av/ay by his nurfe, who fled farther
into the country of the Britons. Carthon, coming to
man's efl:ate, wasrefolved to revenge the fall of Balclu-
tha on Comhal's pofl:erity. He fet fail, from the Clyde,
and, falling on the coaft of Morven, defeated two of
Fingal's heroes, who came to oppofe his progrefs. He
was, at lafl:, unwittingly killed by his father Clefsammor,
in a Angle combat. This fliory is the foundation of the
prefent poem, which opens on the night preceding the
death of Carthon, fo that what pafled before is introiluced
by way of epifode. The poem is addrefied to Malvina
the daughter of Tofcar.
* It was the opinion of the times, that deer fav/ the
ghofts of the dead. To this day, when beaflis fuddenly
ftart v/ithout any apparent caufe, the vulgar think that
thev fee the fiMrits of the deceafcd.