Ossian Collection > Temora, an ancient epic poem, in eight books

184 C A T II - L O D A:
with their woods ; the ocean is rolling near. My fon looks on
fcreaming fea-fowl, young wanderer of the field. Give the head
of a boar to Can-dona *, tell him of his father's joy, when the
briftly ftrength of I-thorno rolled on his lifted fpear.
* Ceao-daona, heaJ of the peoph, the
fon of Dulh-maruno. He became after-
\vards famou5, in the expeditions of OlTian,
after the death of P'ingal, The tradition-
al tales concerning him are verj- numerous,
and, from the epithet, in them, beftowed
on him [Cand-jr.a of boar.') it would ap-
pea.-, that he applied himfelf to that kind
of hunting, which his father, in this para-
graph, is fo anxious to recommend to him.
As I have mentioned the traditional tales of
the Highlands, it may not be improper
here, to give fome account of them. Af-
ter the expulfion of the bards, from the
houfes of the chiefs, they, being an indo-
lent race of men, owed all their fubfiftence
to the generofity of the vulgar, whom they
diverted with repeating the compofitions of
their predeceflbrs, and running up the ge-
nealogies of their entertainers to the family
of their chiefs. As this fubjecl was, how-
ever, foon exhaufted, they were obliged to
have recourfe to invention, and form ftories
having no foundation in fadl which were
fwallowed, with great credulity, by an ig-
norant multitude. By frequent repeating,
the fable grew upon their hands, and, as
each threw in whatever circumflance he
thought conducive to raife the admiration
of his hearers, the fiory became, at laft,
fo devoid of a!l probability, that even the
vulgar themfelves did not believe it. They,
however, liked the tales fo well, that the
bards found their advantage in turning pro-
fefled tale-makers. They then launch-
ed out into the wildeft regions of fi£lion
and romance. 1 firmly believe, there are
more ftories of giants, enchanted caftles,
dwarfs, and palfreys, in the Highlands, than
in any country in Europe. Thefe tales, it
is certain, like other romantic compofitions,
have many things in them unnatural, and,
confequently, difguftful to true tafte, but,
I know not how it happens, they command
attention more than any other fiflions
I ever met with. — The cxtream length of
thefe pieces is very furprifing, fome of them
requiring many days to repeat them, but
fuch hold they take of the memory, that
few circumflances are ever omitted by thofe
who have received them only from oral tra-
dition : AVhat is dill more amazing,
the very language of the bards is ftill
preferved. It is curious to fee, that the
defcriptions of magnificence, introduced
in thefe tales, is even fuperior to all the
pompous oiiental fictions of the kind.
Not