wind. At times she tosses her white arms; for grief is dwelling in her soul.

"Torcul-torno, of aged locks!" she said, "where now are thy steps, by Lulan! Thou hast failed, at thine own dark streams, father of Conban-cârglas! But I behold thee, chief of Lulan, sporting by Loda's hall, when the darkskirted 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 meteors, 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?

4 Torcul-torno, according to tradition, was king of Crathlun, a district in Sweden. The river Lulan ran near the residence of Torcul-torno. There is a river in Sweden still called Lula, which is probably the same with Lulan. MACPHERSON.

Torcul-Torno, chief of Lulan: The Torneo and Lulea in Swedish Lapland; known, as it seems, by these names to the Scottish Highlanders of the third century. See Dissertation on the supposed authenticity of Ossian's Poems.

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 Lulan's foamy stream: he dwelt-but now, in Loda's hall, he shakes the sounding shell. He met Starno of Lochlin in war; long fought the darkeyed kings. My father fell, in his blood, blueshielded Torcul-torno! By a rock, at Lulan's stream, I had pierced the bounding roe. My white hand gathered my hair, from off the rushing winds. I heard a noise. I heard a noise. Mine eyes were up. My soft breast rose on high. My step was forward, 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 Torcultorno! 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."

"Maid of Lulan," said Fingal, "white-handed daughter of grief! a cloud, marked with streaks of fire, is rolled along thy soul.

The

Look not to that dark-robed moon; look not to those meteors 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! maids are not shut in our caves of streams. They 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 5; a stream, with foaming course and dreadful, rolled around them,

5 Three stones, with heads of moss, are there.] From MACPHERSON's Night-piece.

2

Three stones erect their heads of moss.

See Lora, ; Carthon, 3.

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 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

Swaran threw his gleaming spear.] "First Bentley threw a spear with all his force." Battle of Books.

In this episode, the situation of the two northern heroes; the

earth. Then, slowly stalking over the stream,

he whistled as he went.

Nor unseen of his father is Swaran. Starno turns away in wrath. 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 Lochlin, 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 Torcul-torno. She gathered her hair from wind. She wildly raised her song. The song of Lulan

throwing of the spear, which occurs so seldom; Fingal's return with the helmet and shield in his hand; the apostrophe, and even the hiatus at the end (from the first editions), have such a strange resemblance to the episode of Bentley and Wotton in SWIFT's Battle of the Books, as to persuade us that it was consulted for these incidents. Nor was the Battle of Books a bad model for the style of Ossian.

7 Each in his own dark path; like two foam-covered streams, from two rainy cales.] Eneid, xii. 523.

Aut ubi decursu rapido de montibus altis

Dant sonitum spumosi amnes, et in æquora currunt,
Quisque suum populatus iter.

VOL. II.