now are thy steps, by Lulan? Thou hast failed "at thine own dark streams, father of Conban"cârgla! But I behold thee, chief of Lulan, sport→

'ing by Loda's hall, when the dark-skirted night " is rolled along the sky. Thou sometimes hidest "the moon with thy shield. I have seen her dim "in heaven. Thou kindlest thy hair into me"teors, and sailest along the night. Why am I "forgot, in my cave, king of shaggy boars? Look "from the hall of Loda on thy lonely daughter." "Who art thou," said Fingal, "voice of night ?" She, trembling, turned away.

"Who art thou, in thy darkness ?"

She shrunk into the cave.

The king loosed the thong from her hands. He asked about her fathers.

"Torcul-torno," she said, " once dwelt at Lu"lan's foamy stream: he dwelt-but now, in Lo"da's hall, he shakes the sounding shell. He met "Starno of Lochlin in war; long fought the dark

eyed kings. My father fell, in his blood, blue"shielded Torcul-torno! By a rock, at Lulan's it, with the danger of the chase. A quarrel arose, the kings came to battle, with all their attendants, and the party of Torcul-torno were totally defeated, and he himself slain. Starno pursued his victory, laid waste the district of Carthlun, and, coming to the residence of Torcul-torno, carried off by force Conban-carglas, the beautiful daughter of his enemy. Her he confined in a cave, near the palace of Gormal, where, on account of her cruel treatment, she became distracted. The paragraph, just now before us, is the song of Conban-carglas, at the time she was discovered by Fingal. It is in lyric measure, and set to music, which is wild and simple, and so inimitably suited to the situation of the unhappy lady, that few can hear it without tears.

"stream, I had pierced the bounding roe. My "white hand gathered my hair from off the rush"ing winds. I heard a noise. Mine eyes were up.

My soft breast rose on high. My step was for"ward, at Lulan, to meet thee, Torcul-torno! It "was Starno, dreadful king! His red eyes rolled

on me in love. Dark waved his shaggy brow above his gathered smile. Where is my father, “I said, he that was mighty in war? Thou art “left alone among foes, O daughter of Torcul"torno! He took my hand. He raised the sail. "In this cave he placed me dark. At times he comes a gathered mist. He lifts before me my "father's shield. But often passes a beam* of youth, far distant from my cave. The son of "Starno moves in my sight. He dwells lonely in my.soul."

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"Maid of Lulan," said Fingal, "white-handed "daughter of grief! a cloud, marked with streaks " of fire, is rolled along thy soul. Look not to "that dark-robed moon; look not to those me"teors of heaven. My gleaming steel is around "thee, the terror of thy foes! It is not the steel of "the feeble, nor of the dark in soul! The maids

are not shut in ourt caves of streams. They

*By the beam of youth, it afterwards appears, that Conban-carglas means Swaran, the son of Starno, with whom, during her confinement, she had fallen in love.

+ From this contrast which Fingal draws between his own nation and the inhabitants of Scandinavia, we may learn that the former were much less barbarous than the latter. This distinction is so much observed throughout the poems of Ossian, that there can be no

"toss not their white arms alone. They bend "fair within their locks above the harps of Selma. "Their voice is not in the desert wild. We melt along the pleasing sound!"

Fingal again advanced his steps, wide through the bosom of night, to where the trees of Loda shook amid squally winds. Three stones, with heads of moss, are there; a stream with foaming course: and dreadful, rolled around them, is the dark-red cloud of Loda. High from its top looked forward a ghost, half-formed of the shadowy smoke. He poured his voice, at times, amidst the roaring stream. Near, bending beneath a blasted tree, two heroes received his words: Swaran of lakes, and Starno foe of strangers. On their dun shields they darkly leaned: their spears are forward through night. Shrill sounds the blast of darkness in Starno's floating beard.

They heard the tread of Fingal. The warriors rose in arms. "Swaran, lay that wanderer low," said Starno, in his pride. "Take the shield of

thy father. It is a rock in war." Swaran threw his gleaming spear. It stood fixed in Loda's tree. Then came the foes forward with swords. They mixed their rattling steel. Through the thongs

doubt that he followed the real manners of both nations in his own time. At the close of the speech of Fingal there is a great part of the original lost.

of Swaran's shield rushed the blade of Luno. The shield fell rolling on earth. Cleft the helmet + fell down. Fingal stopt the lifted steel. Wrathful stood Swaran, unarmed. He rolled his silent eyes; he threw his sword on earth. Then slowly stalking over the stream, he whistled as he went.

Nor unseen of his father is Swaran. Starno turns away in wrath. His shaggy brows wave dark above his gathered rage. He strikes Loda's tree with his spear. He raises the hum of songs. They come to the host of Locklin, each in his own dark path; like two foam-covered streams from two rainy vales!

To Turthor's plain Fingal returned. Fair rose the beam of the east. It shone on the spoils of Lochlin in the hand of the king. From her cave came forth, in her beauty, the daughter of Torcultorno. She gathered her hair from wind. She wildly raised her song. The song of Lulan of shells, where once her father dwelt. She saw Starno's bloody shield.

Gladness rose a light on her face. She saw the cleft helmet of Swaran‡.

* The sword of Fingal, so called from its maker, Luno of Lochlin. The helmet of Swaran. The behaviour of Fingal is always consistent with that generosity of spirit which belongs to a hero. He takes no advantage of a foe disarmed.

Conban-carglas, from seeing the helmet of Swaran bloody in the hands of Fingal, conjectured that that hero was killed. A part of the original is lost. It appears, however, from the sequel of the poem, that the daughter of Torcul-torno did not long survive her surprise, occasioned by the supposed death of her lover. The description of the airy hall of Loda (which is supposed to be the same R

VOL. I.

She shrunk, darkened, from Fingal. "Art thou "fallen by thy hundred streams, O love of the "mournful maid!"

U-thorno, that risest in waters! on whose side are the meteors of night! I behold the dark moon descending behind thy resounding woods. On thy top dwells the misty Loda: the house of the spirits of men! In the end of his cloudy hall bends forward Cruth-loda of swords. His form is dimly seen amid his wavy mist. His right-hand is on his shield. In his left is the half-viewless shell. The roof of his dreadful hall is marked with nightly fires!

The race of Cruth-loda advance, a ridge of formless shades. He reaches the sounding shell to those who shone in war. But, between him and the feeble, his shield rises a darkened orb. He is a setting meteor to the weak in arms. Bright as a rainbow on streams came Lulan's white-bosomed maid.

with that of Odin, the deity of Scandinavia) is more picturesque and descriptive than any in the Edda, or other works of the northern Sealders.