one day, the bounding ship. On high, hung abroken shield; it was marked with wandering blood. Forward came a youth, in armour, and ftretched his pointless fpear. Long, over his tearful eyes, hung loose his difordered locks. Fingal gave the shell of kings. The words of the ftranger arose.

arm of the fea, in the neighbourhood of Selma.In this paragraph are mentioned the fignals prefented to Fingal, by those who came to demand his aid. The fuppliants held, in one hand, a shield covered with blood, and, in the other, a broken fpear; the first a symbol of the death of their friends, the laft an emblem of their own helpless fituation. If the king chofe to grant fuccours, which generally was the cafe, he reached to them the shell of feafts, as a token of his hofpitality and friendly intentions towards them.

It may not be difagreeable to the reader to lay here before him the ceremony of the Cran-tara, which was of a fimilar nature, and, till very lately, ufed in the Highlands. When the news of an F enemy came to the refidence of the chief, he immediately killed a goat with his own fword, dipped the end of an half-burnt piece of wood in the blood, and gave it to one of his fervants, to be carried to the next hamlet. From hamlet to hamlet this tessera was carried with the utmoft expedition, and, in the fpace of a few hours, the whole clan were in arms, and convened in an appointed place; the name of which was the only word that accompanied the delivery of the Cran-tara. This fymbol was the manifefto of the chief, by which he threatened fire and fword to those of his clan, that did not immediately appear at his standard,

In his hall lies Cathmol of Clutha, by the winding of his own dark streams. Duth-carmor faw white-bofomed Lánul (1), and pierced her father's fide. In the rushy defart were my fteps. He fled in the feafon of night. Give thine aid to Cathlin to revenge his father.- I fought thee not as a beam, in a land of clouds. Thou, like that fun, art known, king of echoing Selma.

Selma's king looked around. In his prefence, we rofe in arms. But who should lift the shield for all had claimed the war. The night came down; we ftrode, in filence; each to his hill of ghofts: that fpirits might defcend, in our dreams, to mark us for the field.

We ftruck the shield of the dead, and raifed the hum of fongs. We thrice called the ghofts of our fathers. We laid us down in dreams. Trenmor came, before mine eyes, the tall form of other years. His blue hofts were behind him in half-diftinguished rows. Scarce feen is their ftrife in mift, or their ftretching forward to deaths. I liftened; but

(1) Lánul, full-eyed, a furname which, according to tradition, was bestowed on the daughter of Cathmol, on account of her beauty; this tradition, however, may have been founded on that partiality, which the bards have shewn to Cathlin of Clutha; for according to them, no falshood could dwell in the foul of the lovely.

no found was there. The forms were empty wind.

I ftarted from the dream of ghofts. On a fudden blaft flew my whiftling hair. Lowfounding, in the oak, is the departure of the dead. I took my shield from its bough. Onward came the rattling of fteel. It was Ofcar (1) of Lego. He had seen his fathers.

As rushes forth the blast, on the bosom of whitening waves; fo careless shall my course be, thro' ocean, to the dwelling of foes. I have feen the dead, my father. My beating foul is high. My fame is bright before me, like the ftreak of light on a cloud, when the broad fun comes forth, red traveller of the sky.

Grandson of Branno, I said, not Oscar alone shall meet the foe. I rush forward, thro'ocean, to the woody dwelling of heroes. Let us contend, my fon, like eagles, from one rock; when they lift their broad wings,

(1) Ofcar is here called Ofcar of Lego, from his mother being the daughter of Branno, a powerful chief, on the banks of that lake. It is remarkable that Offian addreffes no poem to Malvina, in which her lover Ofcar was not one of the principal actors. His attention to her, after the death of his fon, shews that delicacy of fentiment is not confined as fome fondly imagine, to our own polished times.

against the stream of winds. We raised our fails in Carmona. From three ships, they marked my shield on the wave, as I looked on nightly Ton-thena (1), red wanderer between the clouds. Four days came the breeze abroad. Lumon came forward in mift. In winds were its hundred groves. Sun-beams marked, at times, its brown fide. White, leapt the foamy ftreams from all its echoing rocks.

A green field, in the bofom of hills, winds filent with its own blue-ftream. Here, midft the waving of oaks, were the dwellings of kings of old. But filence, for many darkbrown years, had fettled in graffy Rath-col (2),)

(1) Ton-thena, fire of the wave, was that remark able ftar, which, as has been mentioned in the seventh book of Temora, directed the courfe of Larthon to Ireland. It feems to have been well known to thofe, who failed on that fea, which divides Ireland from South-Britain. As the course of Offian was along the coast of Inis-huna, he mentions with propriety, that star which directed the voyage of the colony from that country to Ireland.

(2) Rath-col, woody field, does not appear to have been the refidence of Duth-carmor: he seems rather to have been forced thither by a ftorm; at leaft I should think that to be the meaning of the poet, from his expreffion, that Ton-thena had hid her head, and that he bound his white-bosomed fails; which is as much as to fay, that the weather was ftormy, and that Duth carmor put into the bay of Rath-col for shelter.

for the

for the race of heroes had failed, along the pleasant vale. Duth-carmor was here, with his people, dark rider of the wave. Tonthena had hid her head in the sky. He bound his white-bofomed fails. His courfe is on the hills of Rath-col, to the feats of roes.

We came. I fent the bard, with fongs, to call the foe to fight. Duth-carmor heard him, with joy. The king's foul was a beam of fire; a beam of fire, marked with fmoak, rushing, varied, thro' the bofom of night. The deeds of Duth carmor were dark, tho' his arm was ftrong.

Night came, with the gathering of clouds. By the beam of the oak we fat down. At a diftance ftood Cathlin of Clutha. I faw the changing (1) foul of the ftranger. As shadows fly over the field of grafs, fo various is Cathlin's

(1) From this circumftance, fucceeding bards feigned that Cathlin, who is here in the difguife of a young warrior, had fallen in love with Duth-carmor at a feaft, to which he had been invited by her father. Her love was converted into deteftation for him, after he had murdered her father. But as those rain-bows of heaven are changeful, fay my authors, fpeaking of women, she felt the return of her former paffion, upon the approach of Duth-carmor's danger. -I myfelf, who think more favourably of the fex, muft attribute the agitation of Cathlin's mind to her extream fenfibility to the injuries done her by Duth-carmor and this opinion is favoured by the fequel of the ftory,

:

VOL. IV.

B