[ 5S ] 



the honeft Scelacha, a chief of the Fians ; Flllan, and bearded 

 Cairioll ; Dumarivan, whofe fword was not gentle ; and 

 Ogar<=, leading on his band, advanced againft the Firbolgs. 

 Tofcar fought, Daol fought, face to face, in the prefence of 

 the armies : The conteft of thefe two valiant chiefs was as the 

 waves that are poured out by the wind upon a rocky fhore^ 

 It was the conflid of two lions ''. Tofcar did not draw his 

 dagger to wound ; and though the fkill of the combatants was 

 great, the warm blood gufhed from their wounds in rapid ftreams, 

 Tofcar remembered his dagger, a weapon prized by the valiant 

 hero ; he plunged it nine times in the fide of Daol. For a little 

 time Daol continued the fight. This conteft ftunned the armies, 

 like the found of a fledge upon the anvil ; but OfTian gained 

 every moment fome advantage in the fevere conflid. Ofllan 

 cleft fifty fliields upon the mountain ; and Cormac, fon of Art, 

 broke fifty blue fwords upon the hill. I cut off the head of 

 Cormac there upon the mountain, before the fall of night. I 

 then returned to the prince " of Ireland, the hero's head in my 

 hand by the hair. 



<^ Mr. M'Pherfon infifts, as before, without any authority from the original (fee 

 the edition of Perth) that Ogar was from the hills of Ardvai. 



^ This does not very well accord with the criticifms of Dr. Blair : «' Every 

 « country," fays he, " has a fcenery peculiar to itfelf, and the images of a good 

 " poet will exhibit it. The introduction oi foreign images betrays a poet copying, 

 " not from nature, but from other writers. Hence fo many lions, tigers, eagles 

 « and ferpents which we meet with in the fimiles of modern poets. Oflian is 

 " very correft in this particular. His imagery is ivithotit exception copied from that 

 «' face of nature which he faw before his eyes." On this occafion we muft obferve, 

 that Dr. Blair's criticifms are fitted to Mr. Mc. Pherfon's OlTianj not to the origi- 

 nals, with which he had no acquaintance. 



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