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)
"'My spirit, Connal, is on my hills: my corse on the
sands of Erin. Thou shalt never talk with Crugal, nor
find his lone steps in the heath. I am light as the
blast of Cromla. I move like the shadow of mist!
Connal, son of Colgar, I see a cloud of death: it
hovers dark over the plains of Lena. The sons of green
Erin must fall. Remove from the field of ghosts.' Like
the darkened moon, he retired in the midst of the
whistling blast. 'Stay,' said the mighty Connal,
'stay, my dark-red friend. Lay by that beam of heaven,
son of the windy Cromla! What cave is thy lonely
house? What green-headed hill the place of thy repose?
Shall we not hear thee in the storm? in the noise of
the mountain stream? when the feeble sons of the wind
come forth, and, scarcely seen, pass over the
desert.'...
"'Sons of Cona!' Fingal cried aloud, 'stop the hand of
death. Mighty was he that is low; much is he mourned
in Sora! The stranger will come towards his hill, and
wonder why it is so silent. The king is fallen, O
stranger! The joy of his house is ceased. Listen to
the sound of his woods. Perhaps the ghost is murmuring
there! But he is far distant, on Morven, beneath the
sword of foreign foe.'
"Lorma sat in Aldo's hall. She sat at the light of a
flaming oak. The night came down, but he did not
return. The soul of Lorma is sad. 'What detained thee,
hunter of Cona? thou didst promise to return. Has the
deer been distant far? Do the dark winds sigh round
thee on the heath? I am in the land of strangers; who
is my friend but Aldo? Come from the sounding hills, O
my best beloved.'
"Her eyes are turned towards the gate. She listens to
the rustling blast. She thinks it is Aldo's tread. Joy
rises in her face! But storm returns again, like a
thin cloud on the moon.... His thin ghost appeared on a
rock, like a watery beam of feeble light, when the
moon rushes sudden from between two clouds, and the
midnight shower is on the field. She followed the
empty form over the heath. She knew that her hero
fell. I heard her approaching cries on the wind, like
the mournful voice of the breeze, when it sighs on the
grass of the cave!
"She came. She found her hero! Her voice was heard no
more. Silent she rolled her eyes. She was pale, and
wildly sad! Few her days on Cona. She sank into the
tomb. Fingal commanded his bards; they sang over the
death of Lorma. The daughters of Morven mourned her
for one day in the year, when the dark winds of autumn
returned."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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