J. F. Campbell Collection > Temora, an ancient epic poem, in eight books

68 T E M O R A:
ling eyes. She was like a fpirit * of heaven half-folded in the fkirt
cf a cloud.
Three days we feafted at Moi-lena : flie rofc bright amidfl my
troubled foul. — Cormac beheld me dark. He gave the white-bo-
fomed maid. — She came with bending eye, amidH: the wandering
of her heavy locks. — She came. Straight the battle roared. —
Colc-uUa came : I took my fpear. My fword rofe, with my peo-
ple, againft the ridgy foe. Alnecma fled. Colc-uUa fell. Fingal
returned with fame.
■* The attitude of Ros-crana is aptly
illuftratd by tliis fimile ; for the ideas of
thofe times, concerning the fpirits of the
deceafed, were not fo gloomy and dif-
agreeable, as thofe of fucceeding ages.
The fpirits of women, it was fuppofed, re-
tained that beauty, which they pofleffed
while living, and tranfpoited themfclves,
from place to place, with that gliding mo-
tion, which Homer afcribes to the gods.
The defcriptions which poets, lefs ancient
than Offian, have left us of thofe beautiful
figures, that appeared fometimes on the
hills, are elegant and piiSlurefque. They
compare them to the rain-bcw onjlreams ;
or, the gliding of fun-beams en the hUh. 1
{hall here tranflate a paflage of an old fong,
where both thefe beautiful images aie men-
tioned together.
A chief who lived three centuries ago,
returning from the war, underftood that
his wife or miftrefs was dead. The bard
introduces him fpeaking the following fo-
liloquy, wh.n he came, within fight of the
place, where he had left her, at his depar-
ture.
" My foul darkens in forrow. I be-
hold not the fmoak cf my hall. No grey
dog bounds at my flreams. Silence dwells
in the valley of trees.
"Is that a rain bow on Crunath ? It
flies : — and the Iky is dark. Again, thou
moveft, bright, on the heath, thou fun-
beam cloathed in a (howcr ! — Hah ! it is
fhe, my love: her gliding courfe on the
bofom of winds ! "
In fucceeding times the beauty of Ros-
crana pafTed into a proverb ; and the high-
eft compliment, that could be paid to a
woman, was to compare her pcrfon with
the daughter cf Coima:,
'S tu fein an Ros-cruna.
Siol Chonnacc na n'ioma Ian.
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