Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

TEMORA. 343
! his soul, with all his ghastly wounds. The gray form
of the 5'outh appears in darkness. Blood pours from
i his airy side. Cairbar thrice threw his^ spear on earth.
■ Thrice he stroked his beard. His steps are short.
! He often stops. He tosses his sinewy arms. He is
i like a cloud in the desert, varying its form to every
i blast. The valleys are sad around, and fear, by turns,
' the shower ! The king at length resumed his soul.
I He took his pointed spear. He turned his eye to Moi-
lena. The scouts of blue ocean came. They came
■with steps of fear, and often looked behind. Cairbar
knew that the mighty were near! He called his
gloomy chiefs.
The sounding steps of his wamors came. They
drew at once tlieir swords. There Morlath stood with
darkened face. Hidalla's long hau- sighs in the wind.
Red-haired Cormar bends on his spear, and rolls his
i sidelong-looking eyes. Wild is the look of Malthos
; from beneatli two shaggy brows. Foldath stands, like
i an oozy rock, that covers its dark sides with foam.
\ His spear is like Slimora's fir, that meets the wind of
t heaven. His shield is marked witli the strokes of
t battle. His i-ed eye despises danger. These and a
i thousand other chiefs surrounded the king of Erin,
i when the scout of ocean came, ]\Ior-annal, from
I streamy Moi-lena. His eyes hang forward from his
} face. His lips are trembling pale !
■ ' Do the chiefs of Erin stand,' he said, * silent as
f the grove of evening? Stand they, like a silent wood,
, and Fingal on the coast? Fingal, who is terrible in
battle, the king of streamy Morv^en!' 'Hast thoii
' seen the warrior?' said Cairbar with a sigh. 'Are
, his heroes many on the coast? Lifts he the spear of
: battle? or comes the king in peace?' ' In peace he
i comes not, king of Erin ! I have seen his forward
S spear.* It is a meteor of death. The blood of thou-
'I
I * Mor-annal here alludes to the particular appearance of
[ Fing-al's spear. If a man, upon his first landiug- in a strange
f country, kept the point of his spear forward, it denoted in those
t days that he came in a hostile manner, and accordingly he was
I treated as an enemy : if he kept the point behind him, it was a
token of friendship, and he was immediately invited to the feast,
■i ficcording to the hospitality of the times.