72 ODE on the POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS of 



Nor e'er of me one haplefs thought renew, 



While I lie welt'ring on the ozier'd fhore, 

 JDrown'd by the KAELPIE'S * wrath, nor e'er fliall aid thee more! 



IX. 



UNBOUNDED is thy range ; with varied ftile 



Thy mufe may, like thofe feath'ry tribes which fpring 

 From their rude rocks, extend her fldrting wing 



Round the moid marge of each cold Hebrid ifle, 

 To that hoar pile which ftill its ruin mows "f ^ 



In whofe fmall vaults a pigmy-folk is found, 

 Whofe bones the delver with his fpade upthrows, 



And culls them, wond 1 ring, from the hallow' d ground! 

 Or thither where beneath the fliow'ry weft 



The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid $ : 

 Once foes, perhaps, together now they reft. 



No flaves revere them, and no wars invade : 

 Yet frequent now, at midnight's folemn hour, 



The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold, 

 And forth the monarch's ftalk with fov'reign pow'r 



In pageant robes, and wreath'd with flieeny gold, 

 And on their twilight tombs aerial council hold. 



BUT 



* A name given in Scotland to a fuppofed fpirit of the waters. 



f ON the largsft of the Flannan {/lands (ifles of the Hebrides) are the ruins of a chapel 

 dedicated to St FLANNAN. This is reckoned by the inhabitants of the Weftern Ifles a 

 place of uncommon fandtity. One of the Flannan iflands is termed the IJle of Pigmies ; 

 and MARTIN fays, there have been many fmall bones dug up here, reftmbling in mniia- 

 ture thofe of the human body. 



t THE ifland of lona or Icolrnkill. See MARTIN'S Defcription of the Weftern Iflands of 

 Scotland. That author informs us, that forty-eight kings of Scotland, four kings of Ire- 

 land, and five of Norway, were interred in the Church of St OURAN in that ifland. There 

 were two churches and two monasteries founded there by St COLUMBUS about^. D. 565. 

 BED. Hifl. Eccl. I. 5. COLLINS has taken all his information refpefting the Weftern 

 Ifles from MARTIN j from whom he may likewife have derived his knowledge of the po- 

 pular fuperftitions of .the Highlanders, with which this ode mows fo perfeft an ac- 

 quaintance. 



