The Mysteries of All Nations: Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together with Strange Customs, Fables, and TalesGrant, James (Archaeologist)
History
The Mysteries of All Nations: Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together with Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales
Grant, James (Archaeologist)
Occultism; Superstition; Trials (Witchcraft)
"Fingal advanced his steps wide through the bosom of
night, to where the trees of Loda shook amid squally
winds.... I beheld the dark moon descending behind thy
resounding woods. On thy top dwells the misty Loda,
the house of the spirits of men. I saw a deer at
Crona's stream; a mossy bank he seemed through the
gloom, but soon he bounded away. A meteor played round
his branching horns; the awful faces of other times
looked from the clouds of Crona. These are the signs
of Fingal's death. The king of shields is fallen, and
Caracul prevails. 'Rise, Comala, from thy rock;
daughter of Sarno, rise in tears. The youth of thy
love is low; his ghost is on our hills.'...
"Autumn is dark on the mountains; grey mists rest on
the hills. The whirlwind is heard on the heath. Dark
rolls the river through the narrow plain. A tree
stands alone on the hill, and marks the slumbering
Connal. The leaves whirl round with the wind, and
strew the grave of the dead. At times are seen here
the ghosts of the departed, when the musing hunter
alone stalks over the heath....
"The deer of the mountain avoids the place, for he
beholds a dim ghost standing there. The mighty lie, O
Malvina! in the narrow plain of the rock.
"Often did I turn my ship, but the winds of the east
prevailed. Nor Clutha ever since I have seen, nor
Moina of the dark-brown hair. She fell in Balclutha,
for I have seen her ghost. I knew her as she came
through the dusky night, along the murmur of Lora: she
was like the new moon, seen through the gathered mist,
when the sky pours down its flaky snow, and the world
is silent and dark. 'Raise, ye bards,' said the mighty
Fingal, 'the praise of unhappy Moina. Call her ghost,
with your songs, to our hills, that she may rest with
the fair of Morven, the sunbeams of other days, the
delight of heroes of old.'...
"The night passed away in song; morning returned in
joy. The mountains showed their grey heads; the blue
face of ocean smiled. The white wave is seen tumbling
round the distant rock; a mist rose slowly from the
lake. It came in the figure of an aged man along the
silent plain. Its large limbs did not move in steps,
for a ghost supported it in mid air. It came towards
Selma's hall, and dissolved in a shower of blood.
"The king alone beheld the sight; he foresaw the death
of the people....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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