Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

TEMORA 299
him along the wind. He thought that the blue-eyed
hunter slept ; he lay upon his shield. No blast came
over the heath, unknown to bounding- Bran.
Cathmor saw the white-breasted dog; he saw the
broken shield. Darkness is blown back on his soul ; he
remembers the falling away of the people. They come,
a stream ; are rolled away ; another race succeeds.
"But some mark the fields, as they pass, with their
own mighty names. The heath, through dark-brown
years, is theirs ; some blue stream winds to their fame.
Of these be the chief of Atha, when he lays him down
on earth. Often may the voice of future times meet
Cathmor in the air : when he strides from wind to wind,
or folds himself in the wing of a storm."
Green Erin gathered round the king, to hear the
voice of his power. Their joyful faces bend, unequal,
forward, in the light of the oak. They who were
terrible, were removed : Lubar * winds again in their
host. Cathmor was that beam from heaven which
shone when his people were dark. He was honoured
in the midst. Their souls rose with ardour around. The
account of his long delay, alarmed the rest of his tribe, who
went in search of him along the shore. They did not find him;
and the beautiful widow became disconsolate. At length he was
discovered by means of his dog, who sat on a rock beside
the body for some days. The stanza concerning the dog, whose
name was Du-chos, or Blackfoot, is descriptive.
" Dark-sided Duchos ! feet of wind ! cold is thy seat on
rocks. He (the dog) sees the roe : his ears are high ; and half
he bounds away. He looks around; but Ullin sleeps; he droops
again his head. The winds come past ; dark Duchos thinks
that Ullin's voice is there. But still he beholds him silent, laid
amidst the waving heath. Dark-sided Duchos, his voice no
more shall send thee over the heath ! "
* In order to illustrate this passage, it is proper to lay
before the reader the scene of the two preceding battles.
Between the hills of Mora and Lora lay the plain of Moi-lena,
through which ran the river Lubar. The first battle, wherein
Gaul the son of Morni commanded on the Caledonian side, was