Ossian Collection > Waifs and strays of Celtic tradition > Volume 4

The Fians.
OlDHCHE DHOIRBH (STORMY NiGHT).
When Ossian was an old blind man, he had three
men-servants and a servant-maid ; and every night he
sent one of the men to see what kind of night it was,
and however wild it might be, he took one of them on his
shoulders, and went to the cattle-fold. The men con-
spired to represent the night as excessively stormy, and if
Ossian went as usual, to take a tubful of water and a
birch broom, and dash water in his face the whole way.
The maid persuaded him to go on his usual round.
When he reached the fold, and found the night calm, he
sent his servants no more.
First said —
Outside there is deep murmuring.
With heavy rain from the tops of trees,
And I cannot hear the sound of waves ( i )
For the heavy splash of dripping rain. (2)
Second said —
The trees of the wood are trembling,
And the birch becoming black-matted masses ;
Snow ever killing birds: (3)
Such is the tale outside.
TJiird said —
The face of the elements is to the east,
White snow and black deluge:
What makes the field so cold
Is the hard-drifting and falling snow.
Servant-maid said —
Rise now, Ossian,
To see the white-shouldered, white headed cows,
As the cold, thawing wind
Is taking the slender trees of the woods from the
hillocks.