Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

TKMORA. 415
mor. Their gathering is on the heath. Shall my steps
approach tlieir host ? I yielded to Oscar alone in the
strife of the race of Cona !"
" Fillan, thou shalt not approach their host ; nor fall
before thy fame is known. My name is heard in song ;
when needful, I advance. From the skirts of night I
shall view them over all their gleaming tribes. Why,
Fillan, didst thou speak uf Oscar ? Why awake my
sigh ! I must forget the warrior, till the storm is rolled
away. Sadness ought not to dwell in danger, nor the
tear in the eye of war. Our fathers forgot their fallen
sons, till the noise of arms was past. Then sorrow
returned to the tomb, and the song of bards arose.
The memory of those who fell quickly followed the
departure of war : when the tumult of battle is past,
the soul in silence melts away for the dead.
" Conar was the brother of Trathal, first of mortal
men. His battles were on every coast. A thousand
streams rolled down the blood of his foes. His fame
filled green Erin, like a pleasant gale. The nations
gathered in Ullin, and they blessed the king ; the king
of the race of their fathers, from the land of Selma.
" The chiefs of the south were gathered, in the dark-
ness of their pride. In the horrid cave of Moma they
mixed their secret words. Thither often, they said,
the spirits of their fathers came ; showing their pale
forms from the chinky rocks ; reminding them of the
honor of Bolga. ' Why should Conar reign,' they
said, ' the son of resounding Morven V
" They came forth, like the streams of the desert.,
with the roar of their hundred tribes. Cona was a rock
before them : broken, they rolled on every side. But
name of Bolga, frcm the Fir-bolg or Belgae of Britain, who settled
a colony there " Bolg" signifies a " qviiver," from which proceeds
" Fir-holg," i. e., " bowmen :" so called from (heir using bows more
than any of the neighboring nations.