Ossian Collection > Fingal

i68 T E M O R A:
Lifts he tlie fpear cf battle ! Or comes the king in
peace ?
He comes not in peace, O Cairbar : for I have
feen his forward fpear *. It is a meteor of death :
the blood of thoufands is on its fteel. — He came
firft to the fliore, flrong in the gray hair of age.
Full rofe his fmewy limbs, as he ftrode in his
might. That fword is by his fide which gives no
fecond f wound. His fhield is terrible, like the
bloody moon, when it rifes in a ftorm. — Then
came OfTian king of fongs ; and Morni's fon, the
firft of men. Connal leaps forward on his fpear :
Dermid fpreads his dark brown locks. — Fillan
bends his bow : Fergus ftrides in the pride of youth.
Who is that with aged locks ? A dark Hiieid is on
his fide. His fpear trembles at every ftep ; and
age is on his limbs. He bends his dark face to the
ground; the king of fpears is fad! It is Ufnothj^
O Cairbar, coming to revenge his fons. He fees
green Ullin with tears, and he remembers the
tombs of his children. But far before the reft, the .
fon of OfTian comes, bright in the fmiles of youth, \'
fair as the firft beams of the fun. His long hair :
falls on his back. — His dark brows are half hid be-
neath r
* Mor-annal here alludes to the particular appearance
of Fingal's fpear. If a man upon his firft landing in
a ftrange country, kept the point of his fpear forward, •
it denoted in thofe days that he came in a hoftile manner,
and accordingly he was treated as an enemy ; if he kept
the point behind him, it was a token of friendlhip, and
he was immediately invited to the feaft, according to the
hofpitality of the times.
t This was the famous fword of Fingal made by Lu-'
no, a fmith of Lochlin, and after him poetically called^
the fon of Liino: it is faid of this fv/ord, that it killed a.
man at every ftioke ; and that Fingal never ufed it but'
in times of the greatell danger.