Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

TEMORA 285
fire that consumes. Son of Cul-allin, retire. Your
fathers were not equal, in the glittering strife of the
field. The mother of Culmin remains in the hall. She
looks forth on blue-rolling Strutha. A whirlwind rises,
on the stream, dark-eddying round the ghost of her son.
His dogs* are howling in their place. His shield is
bloody in the hall. ' ' Art thou fallen, my fair-haired
son, in Erin's dismal war ? "
As a roe, pierced in secret, lies panting, by her
wooded streams ; the hunter surveys her feet of wind.
He remembers her stately bounding before. So lay the
son of Cul-allin beneath the eye of Fillan. His hair is
rolled in a little stream. His blood wanders on his
shield. Still his hand holds the sword, that failed him
in the midst of danger. "Thou art fallen," said Fillan,
"ere yet thy fame was heard. Thy father sent thee to
war. He expects to hear of thy deeds. He is grey,
perhaps, at his streams. His eyes are toward Moi-lena.
But thou shalt not return with the spoil of the fallen
foe."
Fillan pours the flight of Erin before him, over the
resounding heath. But, man on man, fell Morven before
the dark-red rage of Foldath ; for, far on the field, he
poured the roar of half his tribes. Dermid stands
before him in wrath. The sons of Selma gathered
* Dogs were thought to be sensible of the death of their
master, let it happen at ever so great a distance. It was also
the opinion of the times that the arms which warriors left at
home became bloody when they themselves fell in battle. It
was from these signs that Cul-allin is supposed to understand
that her son is killed ; in which she is confirmed by the appear-
ance of his ghost. Her sudden and short exclamation is more
judicious in the poet than if she had extended her complaints to
a greater length. The attitude of the fallen youth, and Fillan's
reflections over him, come forcibly back on the mind when we
consider that the supposed situation of the father of Culmin
was so similar to that of P'ingal after the death of F'illan him-
self.