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

An epic poem. 149
Joy rofe, like a flame, on my foul : I bleft the echoing rock. Here
be my dwelling, in darknefs ; in my graily vale. From this I fhall
mount the breeze, that puriues my thiftlc's beard ; or look down,
on blue-winding Atha, from its wandering mifl-.
Why fpeaks the king of the tomb ? — Oflian f the warrior has
failed! — Joy meet thy foul, like a flream, Cathmor, friend of
flrangers ! — My fon, I hear the call of years ; they take my fpear as
they pafs along. Why does not Fingal, they feem to fay, rell:
within his hall ? Doll: thou always delight in blood ? In the
tears of the fad ? — No : ye darkly-rolling years, Fingal delights not
in blood. Tears are wintry ftreams that wafte away my foul.
But, when I lie down to reil, then comes the mighty voice of
war. It awakes me, in my hall, and calls forth all my fteel.^It
fliall call it forth no more j OHian, take thou thy father's fpear.
Lift it, in battle, when the proud arife.
' -My fathers, Offian, trace my fteps ; my deeds are pleafant to
their eyes. Wherever I come forth to battle, on my field, are
their columns of mift. — But mine arm rcfcued the feeble ; the
haughty found my rage was fire. Never over the fallen did mine
eye rejoice. For this *, my fathers fliall meet me, at the gates of
their
His hofpitality was not pafTecI unnoticed by
"fucceeding bards ; for,with them, it became
a proverb, when they defcribed the hofpi-
table difpofition of a hero, t/.<at he was like
Cathmor of Atha, the friend of Jlrangin.
It will feem ftrange, that, in all the Irifli
traditions, there is no mention made of
Cathmor. This muft be attributed to the
levolutions and domeftic confulions wJjich
happened in that idanJ, and utterly cut off"
all the real traditions concerning fo ancient
a period. All that we have related of the
flate of Ireland before the fifth century is of
late invention, and the work of ill inform-
ed fenachies and injudicious bards.
* We fee, from this paflagc, that, even
in the times of Oflian, and, confequently,
before the iiitrodui5lion of chriftianity, they
b.id