Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

TEMORA 289
pierced the king. Nor looks the youth on the fallen,
but onward rolls the war. The hundred voices of death
arise. "Stay, son of Fingal, stay thy speed. Beholdest
thou not that gleaming form, a dreadful sign of death ?
Awaken not the king of Erin. Return, son of blue-eyed
Clatho."
Malthos* beholds Foldath low. He darkly stands
above the chief. Hatred is rolled from his soul. He
seems a rock in a desert, on whose dark side is the
trickling of waters ; when the slow-sailing mist has left
it, and all its trees are blasted with winds. He spoke
to the dying hero about the narrow house. "Whether
shall thy gray stone rise in Ullin, or in Moma'st
Foldath, addressing the spirits of his fathers.
"Dark, I stand in your presence; fathers of Foldath, hear.
Shall my steps pass over Atha, to Ullin of the roes?"
The answer,
"Thy steps shall pass over Atha, to the green dwelling of
kings. There shall thy stature arise, over the fallen, like a pillar
of thunderclouds. There, terrible in darkness, shalt thou stand,
till the refiected beam, or Clon-cath of Moruth come ; Moruth of
many streams, that roars in distant lands."
Cloncath, or reflected beam, say my traditional authors, was
the name of the sword of Fillan ; so that it was in the latent
signification of the word Cloncath that the deception lay. My
principal reason for introducing this note is thai this tradition
serves to show that the religion of the Fir-bolg differed from
that of the Caledonians, as we never find the latter enquiring of
the spirits of their deceased ancestors. J/. — Frequently. C.
* The characters of Foldath and Malthos are sustained.
They were both dark and surly, but each in a different way.
Foldath was impetuous and cruel : Malthos stubborn and in-
credulous. Their attachment to the family of Atha was equal ;
their bravery in battle the same. Foldath was vain and osten-
tatious : Malthos unindulgent but generous. His behaviour
here towards his enemy Foldath shews that a good heart often
lies concealed under a gloomy and sullen character.
t Moma was the name of a country in the south of Connaught
once famous for being the residence of an Arch-Druid. The
cave of Moma was thought to be inhabited by the spirits of the
T