Ossian Collection > Fingal

254 BERRATHON:
hero fits In darknefs ; his airy fpear is in his hand.
His fhield half covered with clouds, is like the dark-
ened moon ; v/hen one half ftill remains in the
uave, and the other looks fickly on the field.
His friends fit around the king, on mill: ; and
hear the fongs of Ullin : he ftrikes the half-viewlefs
harp ; and raifes the feeble voice. The lefier heroes,
with a thoufand meteors, light the airy hall. Mal-
vina rifes, inthemidll:; a blufh is on her chee-k.
She beholds the unknown faces of her fathers, and
turns afide her humid eyes.
Art thou come fo foon, faid Fingal, daughter
of generous Tofcar ? Sadnefs dwells in the halls of
Lutha. My aged Ton * is fad. I hear the breeze
of Cona, that was wont to lift thy heavy locks. It
comes to the hall, but thou art not there; its voice
is mournful among the arms of thy fathers. Go
with thy rufiling wing, O breeze ! and figh on
Malvina's tomb. It rifes yonder beneath the rock,
at the blue flream of Lutha. The maids f are
departed to their place ; and thou alone, O breeze,
mournert there.
But who comes from the dufky wefi:, fupported
on a cloud ? A imile is on his gray, watry face ;
his locks oFmift fiy on the wind : he bends forward
on his airy fpear: it is thy father, Malvina ! Why
fhinefi: thou, fo foon, on our clouds, he fays, O
lovely light of Lutha! — But thou wert fad, my
daughter, for thy friends were pafTtu away. The
fons
roes, in their fcparate fT:ate, if net entirely happy, is niore
agreeable, than the notions of the aiitient Greeks con-
cerning their departed heroes. See Horn. OdyiT. 1. i i.
* Olhan i v/ho had a great friendfhip for Malvina,
both on account of her love for his fon Ofcar, and her
. ttention to his own poems,
f That is, the young virgins Vv-ho furg the funeral
elegy over her tomb.