paths, and called the ftranger to the feast! But Cathmor dwelt in the wood, to fhun the voice of praise ! OLLA came with his fongs. Ofcar went to Cairbar's feaft. Three hundred warriors ftrode along Moi-lena of the ftreams. The grey dogs bounded on the heath: Their howling reached afar. Fingal faw the departing hero. The foul of the king was fad. He dreaded Cairbar's gloomy thoughts, amid the feaft of fhells. My fon raised high the fpear of Cormac. An hundred bards met him with fongs. Cairbar concealed, with fmiles, the death that was dark in his foul. The feaft is fpread. The fhells refound. Joy brightens the face of the hoft. But it was like the parting beam of the fun, when he is to hide his red head in a storm! Darkness ga CAIRBAR rifes in his arms. thers on his brow. The hundred harps cease at once. The clang * of fhields is heard. Far diftant on the heath Olla raised a fong of woe. My fon knew the fign of death; and rifing feized his fpear. "Ofcar," faid the dark-red * When a chief was determined to kill a perfon already in his power, it was usual to fignify that his death was intended, by the found of a shield struck with the blunt end of a spear; at the fame time that a bard at a distance raised the death fong. Cairbar, Cairbar, "I behold the fpear* of Erin. The spear of Temora † glitters in thy hand, fon of woody Morven! It was the pride of an hundred kings. The death of heroes of old. Yield it, fon of Offian, yield it to car-borne Cairbar!" "SHALL I yield," Ofcar replied, "the gift of Erin's injured king: the gift of fair-haired Cormac, when Ofcar fcattered his foes? I came to Cormac's halls of joy, when Swaran fled from Fingal. Gladness rofe in the face of youth. He gave the fpear of Temora. Nor did he give it to the feeble: neither to the weak in foul. The darkness of thy face is no ftorm to me: nor are thine eyes the flame of death. Do I fear thy clanging fhield? Tremble I at Olla's fong? No: Cairbar, frighten the feeble: Ofcar is a rock !" * Cormac, the son of Arth, had given the fpear, which is here the foundation of the quarrel, to Ofcar, when he came to congratulate him upon Swaran's being expelled from Ireland. † Ti'mór-i', the boufe of the great king, the name of the royal palace of the fupreme kings of Ireland. Hundred here is an indefinite number, and is only intended to exprefs a great many. It was probably the hyperbolical phrafes of bards, that gave the first hint to the Irish Senachies to place the origin of their monarchy in fo remote a period as they have done. "WILT thou not yield the fpear?" replied the rifing pride of Cairbar. "Are thy words fo mighty, because Fingal is near? Fingal with aged locks, from Morven's hundred groves ! He has fought with little men. But he muft vanish before Cairbar, like a thin pillar of mist before the winds of Atha!" " Were he who fought with little men, near Atha's haughty chief: Atha's chief would yield green Erin to avoid his rage! Speak not of the mighty, O Cairbar! Turn thy fword on me. Our strength is equal but Fingal is renowned! the firft of mortal men !" THEIR people faw the darkening chiefs. Their crowding steps are heard around. Their eyes roll in fire. A thousand fwords are half unfheathed. Red-haired Olla raised the fong of battle. The trembling joy of Ofcar's foul arofe: the wonted joy of his foul when Fingal's horn was heard. Dark as the fwelling wave of ocean before the rifing winds, when it bends its head near the coaft, came on the host of Cairbar! DAUGHTER of Tofcart! why that tear? He is not fallen yet. Many were the deaths of his arm before my hero fell! * Atha, shallow river: the name of Cairbar's feat in Connaught. +Malvina, the daughter of Tofcar, to whom is addreffed that part of the poem which related to the death of Ofcar her lover. BEHOLD BEHOLD they fall before my fon, like groves in the defart; when an angry ghost rushes through night, and takes their green heads in his hand! Morlath falls. Maronnan dies. Conachar trembles in his blood! Cairbar fhrinks before Ofcar's fword! He creeps in darkness behind a stone. He lifts the fpear in fecret; he pierces my Ofcar's fide! He falls forward on his fhield his knee fuftains the chief. But ftill his fpear is in his hand. See gloomy Cairbar falls! The steel pierced his forehead, and di vided The Irish historians place the death of Cairbar, in the latter end of the third century: they fay, he was killed in battle against Ofcar the fon of Offian, but deny that he fell by his hand. It is, however, certain, that the Irish bards disguise, in fome measure this part of their history. An Irish poem on this fubject, which, undoubtedly, was the fource of their information, concerning the battle of Gabhra, where Cairbar fell, is just now in my hands. As a translation of the poem (which, tho' evidently no very ancient compofition, does not want poetical merit) would extend this note to too great a length, I fhall only give the story of it in brief, with fome extracts from the original Irish. Ofcar, fays the Irish bard, was invited to a feast, at Temora, by Cairbar king of Ireland. A difpute arose between the two heroes, concerning the exchange of spears, which was ufually made, between the guests and their hoft, upon fuch occafions. In the courfe of their altercation, Cairbar faid, in a boastful manner, that he would hunt on the hills of Albion, and carry the spoils of it into Ireland, in fpite of all the efforts of its inhabitants. The original words are ; Briathar vided his red hair behind. He lay, like a fhattered rock, which Cromla fhakes from its fhaggy fide; when the green-vallied Erin shakes its mountains, from fea to fea! BUT never more fhall Ofcar rife! He leans on his boffy fhield. His fpear is in his terrible hand. Erin's fons ftand diftant and dark. Their fhouts arife, like crowded ftreams. Moi-lena echoes wide. Fingal heard the found. He took the spear of Selma. His fteps are before us on the heath. He spoke the words of woe. Briathar buan fin; Briathar buan A bheireadh an Cairbre rua', A h'ALBIN an la'r na mhaireach. Ofcar replied, that, the next day, he himself would carry into Albion the spoils of the five provinces of Ireland; in fpite of the oppofition of Cairbar. Briathar eile an aghai' fin A bheirea' an t' Ofcar, og, calma Do dh'ALBIN an la'r na mhaireach, &c. Ofcar, in confequence of his threats began to lay waste Ireland; but as he returned with the spoil into Ulfter, thro' the narrow pass of Gabhra (Caoil ghlen Ghabhra) he was met by Cairbar, and a battle enfued, in which both the heroes fell by mutual wounds. The bard gives a very curious lift of the followers of Ofcar, as they marched to battle. They appear to have been five hundred in number, commanded, as the poet expreffes it, by five heroes of the blood of kings. This poem mentions Fingal, as arriving from Scotland, before Ofcar died of his wounds. << I hear |