Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

TEKORA. 417
them with ice. So stood the friend of strangers ! The
winds hft his heavy locks. Thou art the tallest of the
race of Erin, king of streamy Atha !
" First of bards," said Cathmor, " Fonar, call the
chiefs of Erin. Call red-haired Cormar : dark-browed
RIalthos : the sidelong-looking gloom of Maronnan.
Let the pride of Foldath appear. The red-rolling eye
of Turlotho. Nor let Hidalla be forgot ; his voice, in
danger, is the sound of a shower, when it falls in the
blasted vale, near Atha's falling stream. Pleasant is
its sound on the plain, whilst broken thunder travels
over the sky !"
They came in their clanging arms. They bent for-
ward to his voice, as if a spirit of their fathers spoke
from a cloud of night. Dreadful shone they to the light ;
like the fall of the stream of Bruno,* when the meteor
lights it, before the nightly stranger. Shuddering he
stops in his journey, and looks up for the beam of the
morn !
" Why delights Foldath," said the king, " to pour
the blood of foes by night ? Fails his arm in battle, in
the beams of day ? Few are the foes before us ; why
should we clothe us in shades ? The valiant delight to
shine in the battles of their land ! Thy counsel was in
vain, chief of Moma ! The eyes of Morven do not
sleep. They are watchful as eagles on their mossy
rocks. Let each collect beneath his cloud the strength
of his roaring tribe. To-morrow I move, in light, to
meet the foes of Bolga ! Mighty was he that is low, the
race of Borbar-duthul !"
" Not unmarked," said Foldath, " were my steps be-
fore thy race. In light, I met the foes of Cairbar.
The warrior praised my deeds. But his stone was
* Bruno was a place of worship, (Fing. b. 6.) in Craca, which ia
Bupposed to be one of the isles of Shetland.