Contributions to Border Minstrelsy. GLENFINLAS; OR, LORD RONALD'S CORONACH." (This ballad first appeared in Lewis's Tales of Wonder.) THE simple tradition, upon which the following stanzas are founded, runs thus: While two Highland hunters were passing the night in a solitary bothy (a hut built for the purpose of hunting), and making merry over their venison and whisky, one of them expressed a wish, that they had pretty lasses to complete their party. The words were scarcely uttered, when two beautiful young women, habited in green, entered the hut, dancing and singing. One of the hunters was seduced, by the syren who attached herself particularly to him, to leave the hut; the other remained, and, suspicious of the fair seducers, continued to play upon a trump, or Jew's-harp, some strain, consecrated to the Virgin Mary. Day at length came, and the temptress vanished. Searching in the forest, he found the bones of his unfortunate friend, who had been torn to pieces and devoured by the fiend, into whose toils he had fallen. The place was from thence called, The Glen of the Green Women. Glenfinlas is a tract of forest-ground, lying in the Highlands of Perthshire, not far from Callender, in Menteith. It was formerly a royal forest, and now belongs to the Earl of Moray. This country, as well as the adjacent district of Balquidder, was, in times of yore, chiefly inhabited by the Macgregors. To the west of the Forest of Glenfinlas lies Loch Katrine, and its romantic avenue, called the Trosachs. Benledi, Benmore, and Benvoirlich, are mountains in the same district, and at no great distance from Glenfinlas. The river Teith passes Callender and the Castle of Doune, and joins the Forth near Stirling. The Pass of Lenny is immediately above Callender, and is the principal access to the Highlands from that town. Glenartney is a forest, near Benvoirlich. The whole forms a sublime tract of Alpine scenery. a Coronach is the lamentation for a deceased warrior, sung by the aged of the clan. "For them the viewless forms of air obey, Their bidding heed, and at their beck repair; "O HONE a rie'! O hone a rie' !"b The pride of Albin's line is o'er, O, sprung from great Macgillianore, How, on the Teith's resounding shore, How blazed Lord Ronald's Beltaned tree, From distant isles a Chieftain came, And many a lay of potent tone, Was never meant for mortal ear. For there, 'tis said, in mystic mood, High converse with the dead they hold, bO hone a rie' signifies-" Alas for the prince, or chief." The term Sassenach, or Saxon, is applied by the Highlanders to their Low-country neighbours. d The fires lighted by the Highlanders, on the first of May, in compliance with a custom derived from the Pagan times, are termed The Beltane-tree. It is a festival celebrated with various superstitious rites, both in the north of Scotland and in Wales. e Án allusion to the second-sight. And oft espy the fated shroud, To rouse the red deer from their den, To watch their safety, deck their board; In grey Glenfinlas' deepest nook Fast by Moneira's sullen brook, Which murmurs through that lonely wood. Soft fell the night, the sky was calm, When three successive days had flown; And summer mist in dewy balm Steeped heathy bank, and mossy stone. The moon, half hid in silvery flakes, Now in their hut, in social guise, The daughters of the proud Glengyle. And dropped the tear, and heaved the sigh; But vain the lover's wily art, Beneath a sister's watchful eye. "But thou mayst teach that guardian fair, While far with Mary I am flown, Of other hearts to cease her care, And find it hard to guard her own. "Touch but thy harp, thou soon shalt see Hang on thy notes, 'twixt tear and smile. All underneath the green-wood bough, Stern huntsman of the rigid brow ?"— "E'en then, when o'er the heath of woe, "The bark thou sawst, yon summer morn, "Thy Fergus too-thy sister's son, Thou sawst, with pride, the gallant's power, "I heard the groans, I marked the tears, He poured his clan's resistless roar. f St. Oran was a friend and follower of St. Columba, and was buried in Icolmkill. His pretensions to be a saint were rather dubious. Ac. cording to the legend, he consented to be buried alive, in order to propitiate certain demons of the soil, who obstructed the attempts of Columba to build a chapel. Columba caused the body of his friend to be dug up, after three days had elapsed; when Oran, to the horro and scandal of the assistants, declared, that there was neither a God, a judgment, nor a future state! He had no time to make further discoveries, for Columba caused the earth once more to be shovelled over him with the utmost despatch. The chapel, however, and the cemetery, was called Reilig Ouran; and, in memory of his rigid celibacy, no female was permitted to pay her devotions, or be buried, in that place. This is the rule alluded to in the poem. The full Highland dress, made of the checkered stuff so termed. "And thou, who bidd'st me think of bliss, The corpse-lights dance-they're gone, and now... Say, should we scorn joy's transient beams, "Or false, or sooth, thy words of woe, He fed the watch-fire's quivering gleams. And sudden cease their moaning howl; All dropping wet her robes of green. She wrung the moisture from her hair. With maiden blush she softly said, "O gentle huntsman, hast thou seen, |