Ossian Collection > Fingal

150 D A R T H U L A:
?nAthos * is on the deep, and Alilios that beaxii
oF youth, Ardan is near his brothers; they move
in the gloom of their courfe. The fens of Ulhoth
move in darknefs, from the wrath of car-borne
Ciirbart.
Who 15 that dim, by their fide ? the night has
covered her beauty. Her hair fighs on ocean's
wind ; her robe ftreams in duiky wreaths. She is
like the fair ghoft of heaven, in the midft of his
jhadovvy mill:. Who i^ it but Darthula X^ the
hril of Erin*s maids ? She has fled from the love of
Cairbar, with the car-borne Nathos. But the
winds deceive thee, O Darthula ; and deny the
woody Etha, to thy fails. Thefe are not thy
mountains, Nathos, nor is that the roar of thy
climbing waves. The halls of Cairbar are near;
and the towers of tJ:e foe lift their heads. Ullin
ftretchcs it5 green head into the fea ; and Tura's
bay receives the rtiip. Where have ye been, ye
fouthern winds ! when the fons of my love were de-
ceived ? But ye have been fporting on plains, and
purfuing the thiflles beard. O that ye had been
ruftling in the fails of Nathos, 'till the hills of Etha
rofe ! 'till they rofe in their clouds, and faw their
coming chief! Long had: thou been abfent, Na-
thos ! and th.e day of thy return is p.ft t|.
But
* Nathos fignifies ynuthful, Aikhos, exqitijhe beauty^
Arden, priJe.
f Oiirbar, who murdered Ccrmac king of Ireland,
Rnd iifurped the throne. He v/as afterwards killed by
Oicar the fon of Ollian in a iinglc combat. The poet,
upon other occ-afion?, gives him the epithet of red-haired.
X Darthula, or Dari-'iiuile, a ivomnn icith fine eyes.
Khe was the moll famous beauty of antiquity. To this
dav, when a woman is praifcd for her beauty, the com-
inon phrafe is, tho.t /he is as hvely as Darthula.
ii That is, the day appointed hy delliny. We find