Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

52 OSSIAN
"He spoke to Connal," replied the hero, "though
stars dim-twinkled through his form ! Son of Colgar, it
was the wind that murmured across thy ear. Or if it
was the form* of Crugal, why didst thou not force him
to my sight? Hast thou inquired where is his cave?
The house of that son of wind ? My sword might find
that voice, and force his knowledge from Crugal. But
small is his knowledge, Connal ; he was here to - day.
He could not have gone beyond our hills ! who could
tell him there of our fall?" "Ghosts fly on clouds, and
ride on winds," said Connal's voice of wisdom. "They
rest together in their caves, and talk of mortal men."
" Then let them talk of mortal men ; of every man
but Erin's chief. Let me be forgot in their cave. I
will not fly from Swaran ! If fall I must, my tomb
shall rise, amidst the fame of future times. The hunter
shall shed a tear on my stone ; sorrow shall dwell
round the high -bosomed Bragela. I fear not death, to
fly I fear ! Fingal has seen me victorious ! Thou dim
phantom of the hill, shew thyself to me ! come on thy
beam of heaven, shew me my death in thine hand ; yet
I will not fly, thou feeble son of the wind I Go, son of
Colgar, strike the shield. It hangs between the spears.
Let my warriors rise to the sound, in the midst of the
battles of Erin. Though Fingal delays his coming with
the race of his stormy isles, t we shall fight, O Colgar's
son, and die in the battle of heroes ! "
The sound spreads wide. The heroes rise, like the
* The poet teaches us the opinions that prevailed in his time
concerning the state of separate souls. From Connal's expres-
sion, " that the stars dim-twinkled through the form of Crugal,"
and Cuthullin's reply, we may gather that they both thought the
soul was material : something like the elduXov of the ancient
Greeks.
t Cuthullin, the general of young Cormac, the kinsman of
Fingal, here expresses his expectation of Fingal coming to his
assistance. C.