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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming of Cuculain, by Standish O'Grady
+
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+Title: The Coming of Cuculain
+
+Author: Standish O'Grady
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5092]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 24, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE COMING OF CUCULAIN ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+THE COMING OF CUCULAIN
+
+BY
+
+STANDISH O'GRADY
+
+
+Author of
+
+"THE TRIUMPH AND PASSING OF CUCULAIN"
+
+"IN THE GATES OF THE NORTH"
+
+"THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE"
+
+ETC.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+There are three great cycles of Gaelic literature. The first
+treats of the gods; the second of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster
+and their contemporaries; the third is the so-called Ossianic. Of
+the Ossianic, Finn is the chief character; of the Red Branch
+cycle, Cuculain, the hero of our tale.
+
+Cuculain and his friends are historical characters, seen as it
+were through mists of love and wonder, whom men could not forget,
+but for centuries continued to celebrate in countless songs and
+stories. They were not literary phantoms, but actual existences;
+imaginary and fictitious characters, mere creatures of idle fancy,
+do not live and flourish so in the world's memory. And as to the
+gigantic stature and superhuman prowess and achievements of those
+antique heroes, it must not be forgotten that all art magnifies,
+as if in obedience to some strong law; and so, even in our own
+times, Grattan, where he stands in artistic bronze, is twice as
+great as the real Grattan thundering in the Senate. I will
+therefore ask the reader, remembering the large manner of the
+antique literature from which our tale is drawn, to forget for a
+while that there is such a thing as scientific history, to give
+his imagination a holiday, and follow with kindly interest the
+singular story of the boyhood of Cuculain, "battle-prop of the
+valour and torch of the chivalry of the Ultonians."
+
+I have endeavoured so to tell the story as to give a general idea
+of the cycle, and of primitive heroic Irish life as reflected in
+that literature, laying the cycle, so far as accessible, under
+contribution to furnish forth the tale. Within a short compass I
+would bring before swift modern readers the more striking aspects
+of a literature so vast and archaic as to repel all but students.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+STANDISH O'GRADY
+
+A TRIBUTE BY A. E.
+
+
+In this age we read so much that we lay too great a burden on the
+imagination. It is unable to create images which are the spiritual
+equivalent of the words on the printed page, and reading becomes
+for too many an occupation of the eye rather than of the mind. How
+rarely--out of the multitude of volumes a man reads in his
+lifetime--can he remember where or when he read any particular
+book, or with any vividness recall the mood it evoked in him. When
+I close my eyes, and brood in memory over the books which most
+profoundly affected me, I find none excited my imagination more
+than Standish O'Grady's epical narrative of Cuculain. Whitman said
+of his Leaves of Grass, "Camerado, this is no book: who touches
+this touches a man" and O'Grady might have boasted of his Bardic
+History of Ireland, written with his whole being, that there was
+more than a man in it, there was the soul of a people, its noblest
+and most exalted life symbolised in the story of one heroic
+character.
+
+With reference to Ireland, I was at the time I read like many
+others who were bereaved of the history of their race. I was as a
+man who, through some accident, had lost memory of his past, who
+could recall no more than a few months of new life, and could not
+say to what songs his cradle had been rocked, what mother had
+nursed him, who were the playmates of childhood or by what woods
+and streams he had wandered. When I read O'Grady I was as such a
+man who suddenly feels ancient memories rushing at him, and knows
+he was born in a royal house, that he had mixed with the mighty of
+heaven and earth and had the very noblest for his companions. It
+was the memory of race which rose up within me as I read, and I
+felt exalted as one who learns he is among the children of kings.
+That is what O'Grady did for me and for others who were my
+contemporaries, and I welcome these reprints of his tales in the
+hope that he will go on magically recreating for generations yet
+unborn the ancestral life of their race in Ireland. For many
+centuries the youth of Ireland as it grew up was made aware of the
+life of bygone ages, and there were always some who remade
+themselves in the heroic mould before they passed on. The
+sentiment engendered by the Gaelic literature was an arcane
+presence, though unconscious of itself, in those who for the past
+hundred years had learned another speech. In O'Grady's writings
+the submerged river of national culture rose up again, a shining
+torrent, and I realised as I bathed in that stream, that the
+greatest spiritual evil one nation could inflict on another was to
+cut off from it the story of the national soul. For not all music
+can be played upon any instrument, and human nature for most of us
+is like a harp on which can be rendered the music written for the
+harp but not that written for the violin. The harp strings quiver
+for the harp-player alone, and he who can utter his passion
+through the violin is silent before an unfamiliar instrument. That
+is why the Irish have rarely been deeply stirred by English
+literature though it is one of the great literatures of the world.
+Our history was different and the evolutionary product was a
+peculiarity of character, and the strings of our being vibrate
+most in ecstasy when the music evokes ancestral moods or embodies
+emotions akin to these. I am not going to argue the comparative
+worth of the Gaelic and English tradition. All I can say is that
+the traditions of our own country move us more than the traditions
+of any other. Even if there was not essential greatness in them we
+would love them for the same reasons which bring back so many
+exiles to revisit the haunts of childhood. But there was essential
+greatness in that neglected bardic literature which O'Grady was
+the first to reveal in a noble manner. He had the spirit of an
+ancient epic poet. He is a comrade of Homer, his birth delayed in
+time perhaps that he might renew for a sophisticated people the
+elemental simplicity and hardihood men had when the world was
+young and manhood was prized more than any of its parts, more than
+thought or beauty or feeling. He has created for us or
+rediscovered one figure which looms in the imagination as a high
+comrade of Hector, Achilles, Ulysses, Rama or Yudisthira, as great
+in spirit as any. Who could extol enough his Cuculain, that
+incarnation of Gaelic chivalry, the fire and gentleness, the
+beauty and heroic ardour or the imaginative splendour of the
+episodes in his retelling of the ancient story. There are writers
+who bewitch us by a magical use of words, whose lines glitter like
+jewels, whose effects are gained by an elaborate art and who deal
+with the subtlest emotions. Others again are simple as an Egyptian
+image and yet are more impressive and you remember them less for
+the sentence than for a grandiose effect. They are not so much
+concerned with the art of words as with the creation of great
+images informed with magnificence of spirit. They are not lesser
+artists but greater, for there is a greater art in the
+simplification of form in the statue of Memnon than there is in
+the intricate detail of a bronze by Benvenuto Cellini. Standish
+O'Grady had in his best moments that epic wholeness and
+simplicity, and the figure of Cuculain amid his companions of the
+Red Branch which he discovered and refashioned for us is I think
+the greatest spiritual gift any Irishman for centuries has given
+to Ireland.
+
+I know it will be said that this is a scientific age, the world is
+so full of necessitous life that it is waste of time for young
+Ireland to brood upon tales of legendary heroes, who fought with
+enchanters, who harnessed wild fairy horses to magic chariots and
+who talked with the ancient gods, and that it would be much better
+for youth to be scientific and practical. Do not believe it, dear
+Irish boy, dear Irish girl. I know as well as any the economic
+needs of our people. They must not be overlooked, but keep still
+in your hearts some desires which might enter Paradise. Keep in
+your souls some images of magnificence so that hereafter the halls
+of heaven and the divine folk may not seem altogether alien to the
+spirit. These legends have passed the test of generations for
+century after century, and they were treasured and passed on to
+those who followed, and that was because there was something in
+them akin to the immortal spirit. Humanity cannot carry with it
+through time the memory of all its deeds and imaginations, and it
+burdens itself only in a new era with what was highest among the
+imaginations of the ancestors. What is essentially noble is never
+out of date. The figures carved by Phidias for the Parthenon still
+shine by the side of the greatest modern sculpture. There has been
+no evolution of the human form to a greater beauty than the
+ancient Greeks saw and the forms they carved are not strange to
+us, and if this is true of the outward form it is true of the
+indwelling spirit. What is essentially noble is contemporary with
+all that is splendid to-day, and, until the mass of men are equal
+in spirit, the great figures of the past will affect us less as
+memories than as prophecies of the Golden Age to which youth is
+ever hurrying in its heart.
+
+O'Grady in his stories of the Red Branch rescued from the past
+what was contemporary to the best in us to-day, and he was equal
+in his gifts as a writer to the greatest of his bardic
+predecessors in Ireland. His sentences are charged with a heroic
+energy, and, when he is telling a great tale, their rise and fall
+are like the flashing and falling of the bright sword of some
+great champion in battle, or the onset and withdrawal of Atlantic
+surges. He can at need be beautifully tender and quiet. Who that
+has read his tale of the young Finn and the Seven Ancients will
+forget the weeping of Finn over the kindness of the famine-
+stricken old men, and their wonder at his weeping and the self-
+forgetful pathos of their meditation unconscious that it was their
+own sacrifice called forth the tears of Finn. "Youth," they said,
+"has many sorrows that cold age cannot comprehend."
+
+There are critics repelled by the abounding energy in O'Grady's
+sentences. It is easy to point to faults due to excess and
+abundance, but how rare in literature is that heroic energy and
+power. There is something arcane and elemental in it, a quality
+that the most careful stylist cannot attain, however he uses the
+file, however subtle he is. O'Grady has noticed this power in the
+ancient bards and we find it in his own writing. It ran all
+through the Bardic History, the Critical and Philosophical
+History, and through the political books, "The Tory Democracy" and
+"All Ireland." There is this imaginative energy in the tale of
+Cuculain, in all its episodes, the slaying of the hound, the
+capture of the Laity Macha, the hunting of the enchanted deer, the
+capture of the wild swans, the fight at the ford and the awakening
+of the Red Branch. In the later tale of Red Hugh which he calls
+"The Flight of the Eagle" there is the same quality of power
+joined with a shining simplicity in the narrative which rises into
+a poetic ecstacy in that wonderful chapter where Red Hugh,
+escaping from the Pale, rides through the Mountain Gates of
+Ulster, and sees high above him Slieve Mullion, a mountain of the
+Gods, the birthplace of legend "more mythic than Avernus" and
+O'Grady evokes for us and his hero the legendary past, and the
+great hill seems to be like Mount Sinai, thronged with immortals,
+and it lives and speaks to the fugitive boy, "the last great
+secular champion of the Gael," and inspires him for the fulfilment
+of his destiny. We might say of Red Hugh and indeed of all
+O'Grady's heroes that they are the spiritual progeny of Cuculain.
+From Red Hugh down to the boys who have such enchanting adventures
+in "Lost on Du Corrig" and "The Chain of Gold" they have all a
+natural and hardy purity of mind, a beautiful simplicity of
+character, and one can imagine them all in an hour of need, being
+faithful to any trust like the darling of the Red Branch. These
+shining lads never grew up amid books. They are as much children
+of nature as the Lucy of Wordsworth's poetry. It might be said of
+them as the poet of the Kalevala sang of himself,
+
+   "Winds and waters my instructors."
+
+These were O'Grady's own earliest companions and no man can find
+better comrades than earth, water, air and sun. I imagine
+O'Grady's own youth was not so very different from the youth of
+Red Hugh before his captivity; that he lived on the wild and rocky
+western coast, that he rowed in coracles, explored the caves,
+spoke much with hardy natural people, fishermen and workers on the
+land, primitive folk, simple in speech, but with that fundamental
+depth men have who are much in nature in companionship with the
+elements, the elder brothers of humanity: it must have been out of
+such a boyhood and such intimacies with natural and
+unsophisticated people that there came to him the understanding of
+the heroes of the Red Branch. How pallid, beside the ruddy
+chivalry who pass huge and fleet and bright through O'Grady's
+pages, appear Tennyson's bloodless Knights of the Round Table,
+fabricated in the study to be read in the drawing-room, as anaemic
+as Burne Jones' lifeless men in armour. The heroes of ancient
+Irish legend reincarnated in the mind of a man who could breathe
+into them the fire of life, caught from sun and wind, their
+ancient deities, and send them, forth to the world to do greater
+deeds, to act through many men and speak through many voices. What
+sorcery was in the Irish mind that it has taken so many years to
+win but a little recognition for this splendid spirit; and that
+others who came after him, who diluted the pure fiery wine of
+romance he gave us with literary water, should be as well known or
+more widely read. For my own part I can only point back to him and
+say whatever is Irish in me he kindled to life, and I am humble
+when I read his epic tale, feeling how much greater a thing it is
+for the soul of a writer to have been the habitation of a demigod
+than to have had the subtlest intellections.
+
+We praise the man who rushes into a burning mansion and brings out
+its greatest treasure. So ought we to praise this man who rescued
+from the perishing Gaelic tradition its darling hero and restored
+him to us, and I think now that Cuculain will not perish, and he
+will be invisibly present at many a council of youth, and he will
+be the daring which lifts the will beyond itself and fires it for
+great causes, and he will also be the courtesy which shall
+overcome the enemy that nothing else may overcome.
+
+I am sure that Standish O'Grady would rather I should speak of his
+work and its bearing on the spiritual life of Ireland, than about
+himself, and, because I think so, in this reverie I have followed
+no set plan but have let my thoughts run as they will. But I would
+not have any to think that this man was only a writer, or that he
+could have had the heroes of the past for spiritual companions,
+without himself being inspired to fight dragons and wizardy. I
+have sometimes regretted that contemporary politics drew O'Grady
+away from the work he began so greatly. I have said to myself he
+might have given us an Oscar, a Diarmuid or a Caoilte, an equal
+comrade to Cuculain, but he could not, being lit up by the spirit
+of his hero, be merely the bard and not the fighter, and no man in
+Ireland intervened in the affairs of his country with a superior
+nobility of aim. He was the last champion of the Irish aristocracy
+and still more the voice of conscience for them, and he spoke to
+them of their duty to the nation as one might imagine some
+fearless prophet speaking to a council of degenerate princes. When
+the aristocracy failed Ireland he bade them farewell, and wrote
+the epitaph of their class in words whose scorn we almost forget
+because of their sounding melody and beauty. He turned his mind to
+the problems of democracy and more especially of those workers who
+are trapped in the city, and he pointed out for them the way of
+escape and how they might renew life in the green fields close to
+Earth, their ancient mother and nurse. He used too exalted a
+language for those to whom he spoke to understand, and it might
+seem that all these vehement appeals had failed but that we know
+that what is fine never really fails. When a man is in advance of
+his age, a generation unborn when he speaks, is born in due time
+and finds in him its inspiration. O'Grady may have failed in his
+appeal to the aristocracy of his own time but he may yet create an
+aristocracy of character and intellect in Ireland. The political
+and social writings will remain to uplift and inspire and to
+remind us that the man who wrote the stories of heroes had a
+bravery of his own and a wisdom of his own. I owe so much to
+Standish O'Grady that I would like to leave it on record that it
+was he who made me conscious and proud of my country, and recalled
+my mind, that might have wandered otherwise over too wide and
+vague a field of thought, to think of the earth under my feet and
+the children of our common mother. There hangs in the Municipal
+Gallery of Dublin the portrait of a man with brooding eyes, and
+scrawled on the canvas is the subject of his bitter meditation,
+"The Lost Land." I hope that O'Grady will find before he goes back
+to Tir-na-noge that Ireland has found again through him what
+seemed lost for ever, the law of its own being, and its memories
+which go back to the beginning of the world.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE COMING OF CUCULAIN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE RED BRANCH
+
+
+     "There were giants in the earth in those days, the same
+     were mighty men which were of yore men of renown."
+
+
+The Red Branch feasted one night in their great hall at Emain
+Macha. So vast was the hall that a man, such as men are now,
+standing in the centre and shouting his loudest, would not be
+heard at the circumference, yet the low laughter of the King
+sitting at one end was clearly audible to those who sat around the
+Champion at the other. The sons of Dithorba made it, giants of the
+elder time, labouring there under the brazen shoutings of Macha
+and the roar of her sounding thongs. Its length was a mile and
+nine furlongs and a cubit. With her brooch pin she ploughed its
+outline upon the plain, and its breadth was not much less. Trees
+such as the earth nourished then upheld the massy roof beneath
+which feasted that heroic brood, the great-hearted children of
+Rury, huge offspring of the gods and giants of the dawn of time.
+For mighty exceedingly were these men. At the noise of them
+running to battle all Ireland shook, and the illimitable Lir
+[Footnote: Lir was the sea-god, the Oceanns of the Celt; no doubt
+the same as the British Lear, the wild, white-headed old king, who
+had such singular daughters; two, monsters of cruelty, and one,
+exquisitely sweet, kind, and serene, viz.: Storm, Hurricane, and
+Calm.] trembled in his watery halls; the roar of their brazen
+chariots reverberated from the solid canopy of heaven, and their
+war-steeds drank rivers dry.
+
+A vast murmur rose from the assembly, for like distant thunder or
+the far-off murmuring of agitated waters was the continuous hum of
+their blended conversation and laughter, while, ever and anon,
+cleaving the many-tongued confusion, uprose friendly voices,
+clearer and stronger than battle-trumpets, when one hero
+challenged another to drink, wishing him victory and success, and
+his words rang round the hollow dome. Innumerable candles, tall as
+spears, illuminated the scene. The eyes of the heroes sparkled,
+and their faces, white and ruddy, beamed with festal mirth and
+mutual affection. Their yellow hair shone. Their banqueting
+attire, white and scarlet, glowed against the outer gloom. Their
+round brooches and mantle-pins of gold, or silver, or golden
+bronze, their drinking vessels and instruments of festivity,
+flashed and glittered in the light. They rejoiced in their glory
+and their might, and in the inviolable amity in which they were
+knit together, a host of comrades, a knot of heroic valour and
+affection which no strength or cunning, and no power, seen or
+unseen, could ever relax or untie.
+
+At one extremity of the vast hall, upon a raised seat, sat their
+young king, Concobar Mac Nessa, slender, handsome, and upright. A
+canopy of bronze, round as the bent sling of the Sun-god, the
+long-handed, far-shooting son of Ethlend, [Footnote: This was the
+god Lu Lam-fada, i.e., Lu, the Long-Handed. The rainbow was his
+sling. Remember that the rod sling, familiar enough now to Irish
+boys, was the weapon of the ancient Irish, and not the sling which
+is made of two cords.] encircled his head. At his right hand lay a
+staff of silver. Far away at the other end of the hall, on a
+raised seat, sat the Champion Fergus Mac Roy, like a colossus. The
+stars and clouds of night were round his head and shoulders seen
+through the wide and high entrance of the dun, whose doors no man
+had ever seen closed and barred. Aloft, suspended from the dim
+rafters, hung the naked forms of great men clear against the dark
+dome, having the cords of their slaughter around their necks and
+their white limbs splashed with blood. Kings were they who had
+murmured against the sovereignty of the Red Branch. Through the
+wide doorway out of the night flew a huge bird, black and grey,
+unseen, and soaring upwards sat upon the rafters, its eyes like
+burning fire. It was the Mor-Reega, [Footnote: There were three
+war goddesses:--(1) Badb (pronounced Byve); (2) Macha, already
+referred to; (3) The Mor-Rigu or Mor-Reega, who wag the greatest
+of the three.] or Great Queen, the far-striding terrible daughter
+of Iarnmas (Iron-Death). Her voice was like the shouting of ten
+thousand men. Dear to her were these heroes. More she rejoiced in
+them feasting than in the battle-prowess of the rest.
+
+When supper was ended their bard, in his singing robes and girt
+around the temples with a golden fillet, stood up and sang. He
+sang how once a king of the Ultonians, having plunged into the
+sea-depths, there slew a monster which had wrought much havoc
+amongst fishers and seafaring men. The heroes attended to his
+song, leaning forward with bright eyes. They applauded the song
+and the singer, and praised the valour of the heroic man
+[Footnote: This was Fergus Mac Leda, Fergus, son of Leda, one of
+the more ancient kings of Ulster. His contest with the sea-monster
+is the theme of a heroic tale.] who had done that deed. Then the
+champion struck the table with his clenched hand, and addressed
+the assembly. Wrath and sorrow were in his voice. It resembled the
+brool of lions heard afar by seafaring men upon some savage shore
+on a still night.
+
+"Famous deeds," he said, "are not wrought now amongst the Red
+Branch. I think we are all become women. I grow weary of these
+huntings in the morning and mimic exercises of war, and this
+training of steeds and careering of brazen chariots stained never
+with aught but dust and mire, and these unearned feastings at
+night and vain applause of the brave deeds of our forefathers.
+Come now, let us make an end of this. Let us conquer Banba
+[Footnote: One of Ireland's many names.] wholly in all her green
+borders, and let the realms of Lir, which sustain no foot of man,
+be the limit of our sovereignty. Let us gather the tributes of all
+Ireland, after many battles and much warlike toil. Then more
+sweetly shall we drink while the bards chaunt our own prowess.
+Once I knew a coward who boasted endlessly about his forefathers,
+and at last my anger rose, and with a flat hand I slew him in the
+middle of his speech, and paid no eric, for he was nothing. We
+have the blood of heroes in our veins, and we sit here nightly
+boasting about them; about Rury, whose name we bear, being all his
+children; and Macha the warrioress, who brought hither bound the
+sons of Dithorba and made them rear this mighty dun; and Combat
+son of Fiontann; and my namesake Fergus,[Footnote: This was the
+king already referred to who slew the sea-monster. The monster had
+left upon him that mark and memorial of the struggle.] whose
+crooked mouth was no dishonour, and the rest of our hero sires;
+and we consume the rents and tributes of Ulster which they by
+their prowess conquered to us, and which flow hither in abundance
+from every corner of the province. Valiant men, too, will one day
+come hither and slay us as I slew that boaster, and here in Emain
+Macha their bards will praise them. Then in the halls of the dead
+shall we say to our sires, 'All that you got for us by your blood
+and your sweat that have we lost, and the glory of the Red Branch
+is at an end.'"
+
+That speech was pleasing to the Red Branch, and they cried out
+that Fergus Mac Roy had spoken well. Then all at once, on a sudden
+impulse, they sang the battle-song of the Ultonians, and shouted
+for the war so that the building quaked and rocked, and in the
+hall of the weapons there was a clangour of falling shields, and
+men died that night for extreme dread, so mightily shouted the
+Ultonians around their king and around Fergus. When the echoes and
+reverberations of that shout ceased to sound in the vaulted roof
+and in the far recesses and galleries, then there arose somewhere
+upon the night a clear chorus of treble voices, singing, too, the
+war-chant of the Ultonians, as when rising out of the clangour of
+brazen instruments of music there shrills forth the clear sound of
+fifes. For the immature scions of the Red Branch, boys and tender
+youths, awakened out of slumber, heard them, and from remote
+dormitories responded to their sires, and they cried aloud
+together and shouted. The trees of Ulster shed their early leaves
+and buds at that shout, and birds fell dead from the branches.
+
+Concobar struck the brazen canopy with his silver rod. The smitten
+brass rang like a bell, and the Ultonians in silence hearkened for
+the words of their clear-voiced king.
+
+"No ruler of men," he said, "however masterful and imperious,
+could withstand this torrent of martial ardour which rolls to-
+night through the souls of the children of Rury, still less I,
+newly come to this high throne, having been but as it were
+yesterday your comrade and equal, till Fergus, to my grief,
+resigned the sovereignty, and caused me, a boy, to be made king of
+Ulla and captain of the Red Branch. But now I say, ere we consider
+what province or territory shall first see the embattled Red
+Branch cross her borders, let us enquire of Cathvah the Ard-Druid,
+whether the omens be propitious, and whether through his art he is
+able to reveal to us some rite to be performed or prohibition to
+be observed."
+
+That proposal was not pleasing to Fergus, but it pleased the Red
+Branch, and they praised the wisdom of their king.
+
+Then Cathvah the Ard-Druid [Footnote: High Druid, or Chief Druid.
+Similarly we have Ard-Ri or High King.] spake.
+
+"It hath been foretold," he said, "long since, that the Ultonians
+shall win glory such as never was and never will be, and that
+their fame shall endure till the world's end. But, first, there
+are prophecies to be accomplished and predictions to be fulfilled.
+For ere these things may be there shall come a child to Emain
+Macha, attended by clear portents from the gods; through him shall
+arise our deathless fame. Also it hath been foretold that there
+shall be great divisions and fratricidal strife amongst the
+children of Rury, a storm of war which shall strip the Red Branch
+nigh bare."
+
+Fergus was wroth at this, and spoke words of scorn concerning the
+diviner, and concerning all omens, prohibitions, and prophecies.
+Concobar, too, and all the Red Branch, rebuked the prophet. Yet he
+stood against them like a rock warred on by winds which stand
+immovable, let them rage as they will, and refused to take back
+his words. Then said Concobar:
+
+"Many are the prophecies which came wandering down upon the mouths
+of men, but they are not all to be trusted alike. Of those which
+have passed thy lips, O Cathvah, we utterly reject the last, and
+think the less of thee for having reported it. But the former
+which concerns the child of promise hath been ever held a sure
+prophecy, and as such passed down through all the diviners from
+the time of Amargin, the son of Milesius, who first prophesied for
+the Gael. And now being arch-king of the Ultonians, I command thee
+to divine for us when the coming of the child shall be."
+
+Then Cathvah, the Ard-Druid, put on his divining apparel and took
+his divining instruments in his hands, and made his symbols of
+power upon the air. And at first he was silent, and, being in a
+trance, stared out before him with wide eyes full of wonder and
+amazement, directing his gaze to the east. In the end he cried out
+with a loud voice, and prophesying, sang this lay:
+
+    "Yea, he is coming. He draweth nigh.
+    Verily It is he whom I behold--
+    The predicted one--the child of many prophecies--
+    Chief flower of the Branch that is over all--
+    The mainstay of Emaiti Macha--the battle-prop of the Ultonians--
+    The torch of the valour and chivalry of the North--
+    The star that is to shine for ever upon the forehead of the Gael.
+    It is he who slumbers upon Slieve Fuad--
+    The child who is like a star--
+    Like a star upon Slieve Fuad.
+    There is a light around him never kindled at the hearth of Lu,
+    The Grey of Macha keeps watch and ward for him,
+        [Footnote: Madia's celebrated grey war-steed. The meaning
+         of the allusion will be understood presently.]
+    And the whole mountain is filled with the Tuatha de Danan."
+       [Footnote: These were the gods of the pagan Irish.
+        Tuatha=nations, De=gods, Danan=of Dana. So it means
+        the god nations sprung from Dana also called Ana. She
+        is referred to in an ancient Irish Dictionary as Mater
+        deorurn Hibernensium.]
+
+Then his vision passed from the Druid, he raised up his long white
+hands and gave thanks to the high gods of Erin that he had lived
+to see this day.
+
+When Cathvah had made an end of speaking there was a great silence
+in the hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BOYS OF THE ULTONIANS
+
+   "And dear the school-boy spot
+   We ne'er forget though there we are forgot."
+
+                  BYRON.
+
+
+   "There were his young barbarians all at play."
+
+                  BYRON.
+
+
+In the morning Fergus Mac Roy said to the young king, "What shall
+we do this day, O Concobar? Shall we lead forth our sweet-voiced
+hounds into the woods and rouse the wild boar from his lair, and
+chase the swift deer, or shall we drive afar in our chariots and
+visit one of our subject kings and take his tribute as
+hospitality, which, according to thee, wise youth, is the best,
+for it is agreeable to ourselves and not displeasing to the man
+that is tributary."
+
+"Nay," said Concobar, "let us wait and watch this day. Hast thou
+forgotten the words of Cathvah?"
+
+"Truly, in a manner I had," said Fergus, "for I never much
+regarded, the race of seers, or deemed the birds more than
+pleasant songsters, and the stars as a fair spectacle, or druidic
+instruments aught but toys."
+
+"Let us play at chess on the lawn of the dun," said the king,
+"while our boys exercise themselves at hurling on the green."
+
+"It is agreeable to me," said Fergus, "though well thou knowest,
+dear foster-son, that I am not thy match at the game."
+
+What the champion said was true, for in royal wisdom the king far
+excelled his foster-father, and that was the reason why Fergus had
+abdicated the supreme captainship of the Red Branch in favour of
+Concobar, for though his heart was great his understanding was not
+fine and acute like the understanding of his foster-son.
+
+The table was set for them upon the lawn before the great painted
+and glowing palace, and three-footed stools were put on either
+side of that table, and bright cloths flung over them. A knight to
+whom that was a duty brought forth and unfolded a chess-board of
+ivory on which silver squares alternated with gold, cunningly
+wrought by some ancient cerd, [Footnote: Craftsman.] a chief jewel
+of the realm; another bore in his hand the man-bag, also a wonder,
+glistening, made of netted wires of findruiney, [Footnote: A
+bright yellow bronze, the secret of making which is now lost. The
+metal may be seen in our museums. In beauty it is superior to
+gold. ] and took therefrom the men and disposed them in their
+respective places on the board, each in the centre of his own
+square. The gold men were on the squares of silver, and the silver
+on the squares of gold. The table was set under the shadowing
+branches of a great tree, for it was early summer and the sun
+shone in his strength. So Concobar and Fergus, lightly laughing,
+affectionate and mirthful, the challenger and the challenged, came
+forth through the wide doorway of the dun. Armed youths went with
+them. The right arm of Fergus was cast lightly over the shoulder
+of Concobar, and his ear was inclined to him as the young king
+talked, for their mutual affection was very great and like that of
+a great boy and a small boy when such, as often happens, become
+attached to one another. So Concobar and Fergus sat down to play,
+though right seldom did the Champion win any game from the King.
+Concobar beckoned to him one of the young knights. It was Conall
+Carna, [Footnote: Conall the Victorious. He came second to
+Cuculain amongst the Red Branch Knights. He is the theme of many
+heroic stories. Once in a duel he broke the right arm of his
+opponent. He bade his seconds tie up his own corresponding arm.]
+son of Amargin, youngest of the knights of Concobar. "Son of
+Amargin," said the king, "do thou watch over the boys this day in
+their pastimes. See that nothing is done unseemly or unjust.
+Observe narrowly the behaviour and disposition of the lads, and
+report all things clearly to me on the morrow."
+
+So saying, he moved one of the pieces on the board, and Conall
+Carna strode away southwards to where the boys were already
+dividing themselves into two parties for a match at hurling.
+
+That son of Amargin was the handsomest youth of all the province.
+White and ruddy was his beardless countenance. Bright as gold
+which boils over the edge of the refiner's crucible was his hair,
+which fell curling upon his broad shoulders and over the
+circumference of his shield, outshining its splendour. By his side
+hung a short sword with a handle of walrus-tooth; in his left hand
+he bore two spears tipped with glittering bronze. Fergus and
+Concobar watched him as he strode over the grass; Concobar noted
+his beauty and grace, but Fergus noted his great strength. Soon
+the boys, being divided into two equal bands, began their pastime
+and contended, eagerly urging the ball to and fro. The noise of
+the stricken ball and the clash of the hurles shod with bronze,
+the cries of the captains, and the shouting of the boys, filled
+all the air.
+
+That good knight stood midway between the goals, eastward from the
+players. Ever and anon with a loud clear voice he reproved the
+youths, and they hearkening took his rebukes in silence and obeyed
+his words. Cathvah came forth that day upon the lawn, and thus
+spoke one of the boys to another in some pause of the game,
+"Yonder, see! the Ard-Druid of the Province. Wherefore comes he
+forth from his druidic chambers to-day at this hour, such not
+being his wont?" And the other answered lightly, laughing, and
+with boyish heedlessness, "I know not wherefore; but well he knows
+himself." And therewith ran to meet the ball which passed that
+way. There was yet a third who watched the boys. He stood afar off
+on the edge of the plain. He had a little shield strapped on his
+back, two javelins in one hand, and a hurle in the other. He was
+very young and fair. He stood looking fixedly at the hurlers, and
+as he looked he wept. It was the child who had been promised to
+the Ultonians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DETHCAEN'S NURSLING
+
+
+     "Very small and beautiful like a star."
+
+                    --HOMER.
+
+
+     "I love all that thou lovest,
+     Spirit of delight;
+     The fresh earth in new leaves drest,
+     And the blessed night;
+     Starry evening and the morn,
+     When the golden mists are born."
+
+                    SHELLEY.
+
+
+Sualtam of Dun Dalgan on the Eastern Sea, took to wife Dectera,
+daughter of Factna the Righteous. She was sister of Concobar Mac
+Nessa. Sualtam was the King of Cooalney [Footnote: Now the barony
+of Cooley, a mountainous promontory which the County of Louth
+projects into the Irish Sea.] a land of woods and mountains, an
+unproductive headland reaching out into the Ictian Sea.
+
+Dectera bare a son to Sualtam, and they called him Setanta, That
+was his first name. His nurse was Dethcaen, the druidess, daughter
+of Cathvah the druid, the mighty wizard and prophet of the Crave
+Rue. His breast-plate [Footnote: A poetic spell or incantation. So
+even the Christian hymn of St. Patrick was called the lorica or
+breastplate of Patrick.] of power, woven of druidic verse, was
+upon Ulla [Footnote: Ulla is the Gaelic root of Ulster.] in his
+time, upon all the children of Rury in their going out and their
+coming in, in war and in peace. Dethcaen [Footnote: Dethcaen is
+compounded of two words which mean respectively, colour, and
+slender.] sang her own songs of protection for the child. His
+mother gave the child suck, but the rosy-cheeked, beautiful,
+sweetly-speaking daughter of Cathvah nursed him. On her breast and
+knee she bare him with great love. Light of foot and slender was
+Dethcaen; through the wide dun of Sualtam she went with her
+nursling, singing songs. She it was that discovered his first ges,
+[Footnote: Ges was the Irish equivalent of the tabu.] namely, that
+no one should awake him while he slept. He had others, sacred
+prohibitions which it was unlawful to transgress, but this was
+discovered by Dethcaen. She discovered it while he was yet a babe.
+With her own hands Dethcaen washed his garments and bathed his
+tiny limbs; lightly and cheerfully she sprang from her couch at
+night when she heard his voice, and raised him from the cradle and
+wrapped him tenderly, and put him into the hands of his mother.
+She watched him when he slumbered; there was great stillness in
+the palace of Sualtam when the child slept. She repeated for him
+many tales and taught him nothing base. When he was three years
+old, men came with hounds to hunt the stream which ran past Dun
+Dalgan. [Footnote: Now Dundalk, capital of the County of Louth.]
+Early in the morning Setanta heard the baying of the hounds and
+the shouting of the men. They were hunting a great water-dog which
+had his abode in this stream. Setanta leaped from his couch and
+ran to the river. Well he knew that stream and all its pools and
+shallows; he knew where the water-dog had his den. Thither by
+circuit he ran and stood before the month of the same, having a
+stone in either hand. The hunted water-dog drew nigh. Maddened
+with fear and rage he gnashed his teeth and growled, and then
+charged at the child. There, O Setanta, with the stroke of one
+stone thou didst slay the water-dog! The dog was carried in
+procession with songs to the dun of Sualtam, who that night gave a
+great feast and called many to rejoice with him, because his only
+son had done bravely. A prophet who was there said, "Thou shalt do
+many feats in thy time, O Setanta, and the last will resemble the
+first."
+
+Setanta played along the sand and by the frothing waves of the
+sea-shore under the dun. He had a ball and an ashen hurle shod
+with bronze; joyfully he used to drive his ball along the hard
+sand, shouting among his small playmates. The captain of the guard
+gave him a sheaf of toy javelins and taught him how to cast, and
+made for him a sword of lath and a painted shield. They made for
+him a high chair. In the great hall of the dun, when supper was
+served, he used to sit beside the champion of that small realm, at
+the south end of the table over against the king. Ever as evening
+drew on and the candles were lit, and the instruments of festivity
+and the armour and trophies on the walls and pillars shone in the
+cheerful light, and the people of Sualtam sat down rejoicing,
+there too duly appeared Setanta over against his father by the
+side of the champion, very fair and pure, yellow-haired, in his
+scarlet bratta fastened with a little brooch of silver, serene and
+grave beyond his years, shining there like a very bright star on
+the edge of a thunder-cloud, so that men often smiled to see them
+together.
+
+While Sualtam and his people feasted, the harper harped and
+trained singers sang. Every day the floor was strewn with fresh
+rushes or dried moss or leaves. Every night at a certain hour the
+bed-makers went round spreading couches for the people of Sualtam.
+Sometimes the king slept with his people in the great hall. Then
+one warrior sat awake through the night at his pillow having his
+sword drawn, and another warrior sat at his feet having his sword
+drawn. The fire-place was in the midst of the hall. In winter a
+slave appointed for that purpose from time to time during the
+night laid on fresh logs. Rude plenty never failed in the dun of
+Sualtam. In such wise were royal households ordered in the age of
+the heroes. For the palace, it was of timber staunched with clay
+and was roofed with rushes. Without it was white with lime,
+conspicuous afar to mariners sailing in the Muirnict. [Footnote:
+The Irish Sea or St. George's Channel. Muirnict means the Ictian
+Sea.] There was a rampart round the dun and a moat spanned by a
+drawbridge. Before it there was a spacious lawn. Down that lawn
+there ever ran a stream of sparkling water. Setanta sailed his
+boats in the stream and taught it here to be silent, and there to
+hum in rapids, or to apparel itself in silver and sing liquid
+notes, or to blow its little trumpet from small cataracts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SETANTA RUNS AWAY
+
+
+     "For a boy's way is the wind's way."
+
+                      --LONGFELLOW
+
+
+And now the daily life of that remote dun no longer pleased the
+boy, for the war-spirit within drave him on. Moreover he longed
+for comrades and playfellows, for his fearful mother permitted him
+no longer to associate with children of that rude realm whose
+conversation and behaviour she misliked for her child. She loved
+him greatly and perceived not how he changed, or how the new years
+in their coming and their going both gave and took away
+continually.
+
+In summer the boy sat often with the chief bard under the thatched
+eaves of the dun, while the crying swallows above came and went,
+asking many questions concerning his forefathers back the
+ascending line up to Rury, and again downwards through the
+ramifications of that mighty stem, and concerning famous marches
+and forays, and battles and single combats, and who was worthy and
+lived and died well, and who not. More than all else he delighted
+to hear about Fergus Mac Roy, who seemed to him the greatest and
+best of all the Red Branch. In winter, cradled in strong arms, he
+listened to the reminiscences and conversation of the men of war
+as they sat and talked round the blazing logs in the hall, while
+the light flickered upon warlike faces, and those who drew drink
+went round bearing mead and ale.
+
+Upon his seventh birthday early in the morning he ran to his
+mother and cried, "Mother, send me now to Emain Macha, to my
+uncle."
+
+Dectera grew pale when she heard that word and her knees smote
+together with loving fear. For answer she withdrew him from the
+society of the men and kept him by herself in the women's quarter,
+which was called grianan. The grianan was in the north end of the
+palace behind the king's throne. In the hall men could see above
+them the rafters which upheld the roof and the joining of the
+great central pillar with the same. From the upper storey of the
+grianan a door opened upon the great hall directly above the
+throne of the king, and before that door was a railed gallery.
+
+Thence it was the custom of Dectera to supervise in the morning
+the labours of the household thralls and at night to rebuke
+unseemly revelry, and at the fit hour to command silence and
+sleep. Thence too in the evening, ere he went to his small couch,
+Setanta would cry out "good-night" and "good slumber" to his
+friends in the hall, who laughed much amongst themselves for the
+secret of his immurement was not hid. Moreover, Dectera gave
+straight commandment to her women, at peril of her displeasure and
+of sore bodily chastisement, that they should not speak to him any
+word concerning Emain Macha. The boy as yet knew not where lay the
+wondrous city, whether in heaven or on earth or beyond the sea. To
+him it was still as it were a fairy city or in the land of dreams.
+
+One day he saw afar upon the plain long lines of lowing kine and
+of laden garrans wending north-westward. He questioned his mother
+concerning that sight. She answered, "It is the high King's
+tribute out of Murthemney." [Footnote: A territory conterminous
+with the modern County of Louth.]
+
+"Mother," he said, "how runs the road hence to the great city?"
+
+"That thou shalt not know," said his mother, looking narrowly on
+the boy.
+
+But still the strong spirit from within, irresistible, urged on
+the lad. One day while his mother conversed with him,
+inadvertently she uttered certain words, and he knew that the road
+to Emain Macha went past the mountain of Slieve Fuad. [Footnote:
+Now the Fews mountain lying on the direct way between Dundalk and
+Armagh.] That night he dreamed of Emain Macha, and he rose up
+early in the morning and clambered on to the roof of the palace
+through a window and gazed long upon the mountain. The next night
+too he dreamed of Emain Macha, and heard voices which were
+unintelligible, and again the third night he heard the voices and
+one voice said, "This our labour is vain, let him alone. He is
+some changeling and not of the blood of Rury. He will be a
+grazier, I think, and buy cattle and sell them for a profit." And
+the other said, "Nay, let us not leave him yet. Remember how
+valiantly he faced the fierce water-dog and slew him at one cast."
+When he climbed to the roof, as his manner was, to gaze at the
+mountain, he thought that Slieve Fuad nodded to him and beckoned.
+He broke fast with his mother and the women that day and ate and
+drank silently with bright eyes, and when that meal was ended he
+donned his best attire and took his toy weapons and a new ball and
+his ashen hurle shod with red bronze.
+
+"Wherefore this holiday attire?" said his mother.
+
+"Because I shall see great people ere I put it off," he answered.
+
+She kissed him and he went forth as at other times to play upon
+the lawn by himself. The king sat upon a stone seat hard by the
+door of the grianan. Under the eaves he sat sunning himself and
+gazing upon the sea. The boy kneeled and kissed his hand. His
+father stroked his head and said, "Win victory and blessings, dear
+Setanta." He looked at the lad as if he would speak further, but
+restrained himself and leaned back again in his seat.
+
+Dectera sat in the window of the upper chamber amongst her women.
+They sat around her sewing and embroidering. She herself was
+embroidering a new mantle for the boy against his next birthday,
+though that indeed was far away, but ever while her hands wrought
+her eyes were on the lawn.
+
+"Mother," cried Setanta," watch this stroke."
+
+He flung his ball into the air and as it fell met it with his
+hurle, leaning back and putting his whole force into the blow, and
+struck it into the clouds. It was long before the ball fell. It
+fell at his feet.
+
+"Mother," he cried again, "watch this stroke."
+
+He went to the east mearing of the spacious lawn and struck the
+ball to the west. It traversed the great lawn ere it touched the
+earth and bounded shining above the trees. Truly it was a
+marvellous stroke for one so young. As he went for his ball the
+boy stood still before the window. "Give me thy blessing, dear
+mother," he said.
+
+"Win victory and blessing for ever, O Setanta," she answered.
+"Truly thou art an expert hurler."
+
+"These feats," he replied, "are nothing to what I shall yet do in
+needlework, O mother, when I am of age to be trusted with my first
+needle, and knighted by thy hands, and enrolled amongst the
+valiant company of thy sewing-women."
+
+"What meaneth the boy?" said his mother, for she perceived that he
+spoke awry.
+
+"That his childhood is over, O Dectera," answered one of her
+women, "and that thou art living in the past and in dreams. For
+who can hold back Time in his career?"
+
+The queen's heart leaped when she heard that word, and the blood
+forsook her face. She bent down her head over her work and her
+tears fell. After a space she looked out again upon the lawn to
+see if the boy had returned, but he had not.
+
+She bade her women go and fetch him, and afterwards the whole
+household. They called aloud, "Setanta, Setanta," but there was no
+answer, only silence and the watching and mocking trees and a
+sound like low laughter in the leaves; for Setanta was far away.
+
+The boy came out of that forest on the west side. Soon he struck
+the great road which from Ath-a-clia [Footnote: Ath-a-cliah, i.e.,
+the Ford of the Hurdles. It was the Irish name for Dublin.] ran
+through Murthemney to Emain Macha, and saw before him the purple
+mountain of Slieve Fuad. In his left hand was his sheaf of toy
+javelins; in his right the hurle; his little shield was strapped
+upon his back. The boy went swiftly, for there was power upon him
+that day, and with his ashen hurle shod with red bronze ever urged
+his ball forward. So he went driving, his ball before him. At
+other times he would cast a javelin far out westward and pursue
+its flight. Ever as he went there ever flew beside him a grey-
+necked crow. "It is a good omen," said the boy, for he knew that
+the bird was sacred to the Mor-Reega.
+
+He was amazed at his own speed and the elasticity of his limbs.
+Once when he rose after having gathered his thrown javelin, a man
+stood beside him who had the port and countenance of some ancient
+hero, and whose attire was strange. He was taller and nobler than
+any living man. He bore a rod-sling in his right hand, and in his
+left, in a leash of bronze, he led a hound. The hound was like
+white fire. Setanta could hardly look in that man's face, but he
+did. The man smiled and said--
+
+"Whither away, my son?"
+
+"To Emain Macha, to my uncle Concobar," said the boy.
+
+"Dost thou know me, Setanta?" said the man.
+
+"I think thou art Lu Lam-fada Mac Ethlend," [Footnote: Lu the
+Long-Handed son of Ethlenn. This mysterious being, being one of
+the deities of the pagan Irish, seems to have been the Sun-god.]
+answered Setanta.
+
+"I am thy friend," said the man, "fear nothing, for I shall be
+with thee always."
+
+Then the man and the hound disappeared as if they had been
+resolved into the rays of the sun; Setanta saw nothing, only the
+grey-necked crow starting for flight. Then a second man in a wide
+blue mantle specked with white like flying foam came against him
+and flung his mantle over Setanta. There was a sound in his ears
+like the roaring of the sea. [Footnote: This man was Mananan son
+of Lir. He was the Sea-god.] Chariots and horses came from the
+east after that. Setanta recognised those who urged on the steeds,
+they were his own people. "Surely," he said, "I shall be taken
+now." The men drave past him. "If I mistake not," he said, "the
+man who flung his mantle over me was Mananan the son of Lir."
+
+Divers persons, noble and ignoble, passed him on the way, some
+riding in chariots, some going on foot. They went as though they
+saw him not.
+
+In the evening he came to Slieve Fuad. He gathered a bed of dried
+moss and heaped moss upon his shield for a pillow. He wrapped
+himself in his mantle, and lay down to sleep, and felt neither
+cold nor hunger. While he slept a great steed, a stallion, grey to
+whiteness, came close to him, and walked all round him, and smelt
+him, and stayed by him till the morning.
+
+Setanta was awaked by the loud singing of the birds. Light of
+heart the boy started from his mossy couch and wondered at that
+tuneful chorus. The dawning day trembled through the trees still
+half-bare, for it was the month of May.
+
+"Horses have been here in the night," said the boy, "one horse.
+What mighty hoof marks!" He wondered the more seeing how the marks
+encircled him. "I too will one day have a chariot and horses, and
+a deft charioteer." He stood musing, "Is it the grey of Macha?
+[Footnote: The goddess Macha, already referred to, had a horse
+which was called the Grey of Macha--Liath-Macha. He was said to be
+still alive dwelling invisibly in Erin.] They say that he haunts
+this mountain." He hastened to the brook, and finding a deep pool,
+bathed in the clear pure water and dried himself in his woollen
+bratta [Footnote: The Gaelic word for mantle.] of divers colours.
+Very happy and joyous was Setanta that day. And he spread out the
+bratta to dry, and put on his shirt of fine linen and his woollen
+tunic that reached to the knees in many plaits. Shoes he had none;
+bare and naked were his swift feet.
+
+"This is the mountain of Fuad the son of Brogan," [Footnote: An
+ancient Milesian hero. Brogan was uncle of Milesius.] said he. "I
+would I knew where lies his cairn in this great forest that I
+might pay my stone-tribute to the hero." Soon he found it and laid
+his stone upon the heap. He climbed to the hill's brow and looked
+westward and saw far away the white shining duns of the marvellous
+city from which, even now, the morning smoke went up into the
+windless air. He trembled, and rejoiced, and wept. He stood a long
+time there gazing at Emain Macha. Descending, he struck again the
+great road, but he went slowly; he cast not his javelins and drave
+not his ball. Again, from a rising ground he saw Emain Macha, this
+time near at hand. He remained there a long time filled with awe
+and fear. He covered his head with his mantle and wept aloud, and
+said he would return to Dun Dalgan, that he dared not set unworthy
+feet in that holy place.
+
+Then he heard the cheerful voices of the boys as they brake from
+the royal palace and ran down the wide smooth lawn to the hurling-
+ground. His heart yearned for their companionship, yet he feared
+greatly, and his mind misgave him as to the manner in which they
+would receive him. He longed to go to them and say, "I am little
+Setanta, and my uncle is the king, and I would be your friend and
+playfellow." Hope and love and fear confused his mind. Yet it came
+to him that he was urged forwards, by whom he knew not.
+Reluctantly, with many pausings, he drew nigh to the players and
+stood solitary on the edge of the lawn southwards, for the company
+that held that barrier were the weaker. He hoped that some one
+would call to him and welcome him, but none called or welcomed.
+Silently the child wept, and the front of his mantle was steeped
+in his tears. Some looked at him, but with looks of cold surprise,
+as though they said, "Who is this stranger boy and what doth he
+here? Would that he took himself away out of this and went
+elsewhere." The boy thought that he would be welcomed and made
+much of because he was a king's son and nephew of the high King of
+Ulla, and on account of his skill in hurling, and because he
+himself longed so exceedingly for companions and comrades, and
+because there were within him such fountains of affection and
+loving kindness. And many a time happy visions had passed before
+his eyes awake or asleep of the meeting between himself and his
+future comrades, but the event itself when it happened was by no
+means what he had anticipated. For no one kissed him and bade him
+welcome or took him by the right hand and led him in, and no one
+seemed glad of his coming and he was here of no account at all.
+Bitter truly was thy weeping, dear Setanta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE NEW BOY
+
+
+"I to surrender, to fling away this! So owned by God and Man! so
+witnessed to! I had rather be rolled into my grave and buried with
+infamy."--Battle-chaunt of a hero of the Saxons.
+
+Once, struck sideways out of the press, the ball bounded into a
+clear space not far from Setanta. "Thou of the Javelins," cried
+the captain of the distressed party, "the ball is with thee." He
+roared mightily at Setanta. On a sudden Setanta, filled with all
+the glow and ardour of the mimic battle, cast his javelins to the
+ground, slipped the strap of his shield over his head, flung the
+shield beside his javelins on the grass and pursued the bounding
+ball. He out-ran the rest and took possession of the ball. Now to
+the right he urged it, now to the left. He played it deftly before
+every opponent who sought to check his career, and swiftly and
+cunningly carried it past each of these, and finally with a clear
+loud stroke sent it straight as a sling-bolt through the middle of
+the north goal. The boys of his adopted party shouted, and they
+praised his playing and that final victorious stroke. Setanta went
+back after that and stood by himself near the south goal. His face
+was flushed and his eyes sparkled, and he himself trembled with
+joy, yet was he not in the least exhausted or out of breath.
+
+The captain of the northern company came down with his boys and
+all the boys who were chief in authority, and they surrounded
+Setanta and said, "Thou art here a stranger and on sufferance. We
+know thee not, but thou art a good hurler and not otherwise, as we
+think, unmeet to bear us company. Receive now our protection, and
+we will divide the sides again with a new division and continue
+the game, for thou art very swift and truly expert in the use of
+thy hurle."
+
+The boys regulated all things according to the laws and customs of
+their elders. And everywhere it was the custom that the weak
+should accept the protection of the strong and submit themselves
+to their command. So slaves received masters, so runaways and
+fugitives got to themselves lords, and sheltered themselves under
+their protection and paid dues. Setanta's brow fell, and he
+answered, "Put not upon me, I pray you, these hard terms. I would
+be your friend and comrade, I cannot be your subject being what I
+am."
+
+And they said, "Who art thou?"
+
+And he answered, "I am the son of Dectera of Dun Dalgan, and
+nephew of the king."
+
+Then the boy who was captain of the whole school, and the biggest
+and strongest, stood over him, and said--
+
+"Thou, the king's nephew! the son of Sualtam and Dectera of Dun
+Dalgan! and comest hither without chariots and horsemen and a
+prince's retinue and guard. Nay, thou art a churl and a liar to
+boot, and hie thee hence now with wings at thy heels or verily
+with sore blows I shall beat thee off the lawn."
+
+Thereat the blood forsook thy face, O Setanta, O peerless one, and
+thou stoodest like a still figure carved out of white marble, with
+the pallor of death in thy immortal face. But that other,
+indignant to see him stand as one both deaf and dumb, and
+mistaking his pallor for fear, raised his hurle and struck with
+all his might at the boy. Setanta sprang back avoiding the blow,
+and ere the other could recover himself, struck him back-handed
+over the right ear, whose knees were suddenly relaxed and the
+useless weapon shaken from his hands. Then some stood aside, but
+the rest ran upon Setanta to beat him off the lawn and struck at
+him all together, as well as they could, for their numbers impeded
+them, and fiercely the stranger defended himself, and many a
+shrewd stroke he delivered upon his enemies, for the slumbering
+war-spirit now, for the first time, had awaked in his gentle
+heart. Many times he was overborne and flung to the ground, but
+again he arose overthrowing others, never quitting hold of his
+hurle, and, whenever he got a free space, grasping that weapon
+like a war-mace in both hands, he struck down his foes. The skirts
+of his mantle were torn, only a rag remained round his shoulders,
+fastened by the brooch; he was covered with blood, his own and his
+enemies', and his eyes were like burning fire. Then Conall Carna
+being enraged ran towards the boys, meaning to rebuke their
+cowardice and with his strong hands hurl them asunder and save the
+stranger boy. There was not a knight in all Ireland those days who
+loved battle-fairness better than Conall Carna. Truly he was the
+pure-burning torch of the chivalry of the Ultonians in his time.
+But as he ran one withheld him and a voice crying "Forbear" rang
+in his ears. Yet he saw no man. He stood still, being astonished,
+and became aware that this tumult was divinely guided, for as in a
+trance he saw and heard marvellous things. For the war-steeds of
+the Ultonians neighed loudly in their stables, and from the Tec
+Brac, the Speckled House of the Red Branch, rose a clangour of
+brass, the roar of the shield called Ocean, and the booming of the
+Gate-of-Battle, and the singing of swords long silent, and the
+brazen thunder of the revolution of wheels; and he saw strange
+forms and faces in the air, and the steady sun dancing in the
+heavens, and a man standing beside the stranger whose face was
+like the sun. The son of Amargin saw and heard all, for he was a
+seer and a prophet no less than a warrior. But meantime his
+battle-fury descended upon Setanta, his countenance was distraught
+and his strength was multiplied tenfold, and the steam of his war-
+madness rose above him. He staggered to no blow, but every boy
+whom he struck fell, and he charged this way and that, and
+wherever he went they opened before him. Then seeing how they
+closed in behind him and on each side, he beat his way back to the
+grassy rampart in which was the goal, and, facing his enemies,
+bade them come against him again in their troops, many against
+one. "You have offered me your protection," he said, "and I would
+not endure it, but now I swear to you by all my gods that you and
+I do not part this day till you have accepted my protection, or
+till I lie without life on this lawn a trophy of your prowess and
+a monument of the chivalry and hospitality of the Red Branch."
+Then a boy stood out from the rest. He was freckled, and with red
+hair, and his voice was loud and fierce.
+
+"Thou shalt have a comrade in thy battle henceforward," he said,
+"O brave stranger. On the banks of the Nemnich, [Footnote: Now the
+Nanny-Water, a beautiful stream running from Tara to the sea.]
+where it springs beneath my father's dun on the Hill of Gabra,
+nigh Tara, I met a prophetess; Acaill is her name, the wisest of
+all women; and I asked her who would be my life-friend. And she
+answered, 'I see him standing against a green wall at Emain Macha,
+at bay, with the blood and soil of battle upon him, and alone he
+gives challenge to a multitude. He is thy life-friend, O Laeg,'
+she said, 'and no man ever had a friend like him or will till the
+end of time.'"
+
+So saying he ran to Setanta, and kneeling down he took him by his
+right hand, and said, "I am thy man from this day forward." And
+after that he arose and kissed him, and standing by his side
+cried, "O Cumascra Mend Macha, O stammering son of Concobar, if
+ever I was a shield to thee against thy mockers, come hither; and
+thou too come O Art Storm-Ear, and thou Art of the Shadow, and
+thou O Fionn of the Songs, and you O Ide and Sheeling, who were
+nursed at the same breast and knee with myself." So he summoned to
+him his friends, and they came to him, and there came to him,
+uninvited, the three sons of Fergus and others whose hearts were
+stirred with shame or ruth. Yet, indeed, they were few compared
+with the multitude of his enemies. Then for the first time the
+boy's soul was confused, and he cried aloud, and bowed his head
+between his hands, and the hot tears gushed forth like rain from
+his eyes, mingled with blood. Soon, hearing the loud mockery and
+derisive laughter of his enemies, he hardened his heart and went
+out against them with these his friends, and drove them over the
+whole course of the playing-ground, and, hard by the north goal,
+he brake the battle upon them and they fled. Of the fugitives some
+ran round the King and the Champion where they sat, but Setanta
+running straight sprang lightly over the chess table. Then
+Concobar, reaching forth his left hand, caught him by the wrist
+and brought him to a stand, panting and with dilated eyes.
+
+"Why art thou so enraged?" said the King, "and why dost thou so
+maltreat my boys?"
+
+It was a long time before the boy answered, so furiously burned
+the battle-fire within him, so that the King repeated his question
+more than once. At last he made answer--
+
+"Because they have not treated me with the respect due a
+stranger."
+
+"Who art thou thyself?" said the King.
+
+"I am Setanta, son of Sualtam and of Dectera thy own sister, and
+it is not before my uncle's palace that I should be dishonoured."
+
+Concobar smiled, for he was well pleased with the appearance and
+behaviour of the boy, but Fergus caught him up in his great arms
+and kissed him, and he said--
+
+"Dost thou know me, O Setanta?"
+
+"I think thou art Fergus Mac Roy," he answered.
+
+"Wilt thou have me for thy tutor?" said Fergus.
+
+"Right gladly," answered Setanta. "For in that hope too I left Dun
+Dalgan, coming hither secretly without the knowledge of my
+parents."
+
+This was the first martial exploit of Setanta, who is also called
+Cuculain, and the reward of this his first battle was that the
+boys at his uncle's school elected him to be for their captain,
+and one and all they put themselves under his protection. And a
+gentle captain made he when the war-spirit went out of him, and a
+good play-fellow and comrade was Setanta amongst his new friends.
+
+That night Setanta and Laeg slept in the same bed of healing after
+the physicians had dressed their wounds; and they related many
+things to each other, and oft times they kissed one another with
+great affection, till sweet sleep made heavy their eyelids.
+
+So, impelled by the unseen, Setanta came to Emain Macha without
+the knowledge of his parents, but in fulfilment of the law, for at
+a certain age all the boys of the Ultonians should come thither to
+associate there with their equals and superiors, and be instructed
+by appointed tutors in the heroic arts of war and the beautiful
+arts of peace. Concobar Mac Nessa was not only King of Ulster and
+captain of the Red Branch, but was also the head and chief of a
+great school. In this school the boys did not injure their
+eyesight and impair their health by poring over books; nor were
+compelled to learn what they could not understand; nor were
+instructed by persons whom they did not wish to resemble. They
+were taught to hurl spears at a mark; to train war-horses and
+guide war-chariots; to lay on with the sword and defend themselves
+with sword and shield; to cast the hand-stone of the warrior--a
+great art in those days; to run, to leap, and to swim; to rear
+tents of turf and branches swiftly, and to roof them with sedge
+and rushes; to speak appropriately with equals and superiors and
+inferiors, and to exhibit the beautiful practices of hospitality
+according to the rank of guests, whether kings, captains,
+warriors, bards or professional men, or unknown wayfarers; and to
+play at chess and draughts, which were the chief social pastimes
+of the age; and to drink and be merry in hall, but always without
+intoxication; and to respect their plighted word and be ever loyal
+to their captains; to reverence women, remembering always those
+who bore them and suckled when they were themselves helpless and
+of no account; to be kind to the feeble and unwarlike; and, in
+short, all that it became brave men to feel and to think and to do
+in war and in peace. Also there were those who taught them the
+history of their ancestors, the great names of the Clanna Rury,
+and to distinguish between those who had done well and those who
+had not done so well, and the few who had done ill. And these
+their several instructors appointed by Concobar Mac Nessa and the
+council of his wise men were famous captains of the Ultonians, and
+approved bards and historians. And over all the high king of
+Ulster, Concobar Mac Nessa, was chief and president, not in name
+only but in fact, being well aware of all the instructors and all
+the instructed, and who was doing well and exhibiting heroic
+traits, and who was doing ill, tending downwards to the vast and
+slavish multitude whose office was to labour and to serve and in
+no respect to bear rule, which is for ever the office of the
+multitude in whose souls no god has kindled the divine fire by
+which the lamp of the sun, and the candles of the stars, and the
+glory and prosperity of nations are sustained and fed. Such, and
+so supervised, was the Royal School of Emain Macha in the days
+when Concobar Mac Nessa was King, and when Fergus Mac Roy
+Champion, and when the son of Sualtam, not yet known by his
+rightful name, was a pupil of the same and under tutors and
+governors like the rest, though his fond mother would have evaded
+the law, for she loved him dearly, and feared for him the rude
+companionship and the stern discipline, the early rising and the
+strong labours of the great school.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SMITH'S SUPPER PARTY
+
+
+  "Bearing on shoulders immense
+    Atlantean the weight,
+   Well nigh not to be borne,
+    Of the too vast orb of her fate."
+
+               MATTHEW ARNOLD.
+
+
+One day, in the forenoon, a man came to Emain Macha. He was grim
+and swarthy, with great hands and arms. He made no reverence to
+Concobar or to any of the Ultonians, but standing stark before
+them, spake thus, not fluently:--"My master, Culain, high smith of
+all Ulster, bids thee to supper this night, O Concobar; and he
+wills thee to know that because he has not wide territories, and
+flocks, and herds, and tribute-paying peoples, only the implements
+of his industry, his anvils and hammers and tongs, and the slender
+profits of his labour, he feareth to feast all the Red Branch, who
+are by report mighty to eat and to drink; he would not for all
+Ireland bring famine upon his own industrious youths, his
+journeymen and his apprentices. Come therefore with a choice
+selection of thy knights, choosing those who are not great eaters,
+and drinkers, and you shall all have a fair welcome, a goodly
+supper, and a proportionate quantity of drink." That speech was a
+cause of great mirth to the Ultonians; nevertheless they
+restrained their laughter, so that the grim ambassador, who seemed
+withal to be a very angry man, saw nothing but grave countenances.
+Concobar answered him courteously, saying that he accepted the
+invitation, and that he would be mindful of the smith's wishes.
+When the man departed the Red Branch gave a loose rein to their
+mirth, each man charging the other with being in especial the
+person whose presence would be a cause of sorrow to the smith.
+
+Culain was a mighty craftsman in those days. It was he who used to
+make weapons, armour, and chariots for the Ultonians, and there
+was never in Ireland a better smith than he. In his huge and smoky
+dun the ringing of hammers and the husky roar of the bellows
+seldom ceased; even at night the red glare of his furnaces painted
+far and wide the barren moor where he dwelt. Herdsmen and
+shepherds who, in quest of estrays, found themselves unawares in
+this neighbourhood, fled away praying to their gods, and, as they
+ran, murmured incantations.
+
+In the afternoon Concobar, having made as good a selection as he
+could of his chief men, set forth to go. As they passed through
+the lawn he saw Setanta playing with his comrades. He stopped for
+a while to look, and then called the lad, who came at once and
+stood erect and silent before the King. He was now full ten years
+of age, straight and well-made and with sinews as hard as tempered
+steel. When he saw the company looking at him, he blushed, and his
+blushing became him well.
+
+"Culain the smith," said Concobar, "hath invited us to a feast. If
+it is pleasing to thee, come too."
+
+"It is pleasing indeed," replied the boy, for he ardently desired
+to see the famous artificer, his people, his furnaces, and his
+engines. "But let me first, I pray thee, see this our game brought
+to an end, for the boys await my return. After that I will follow
+quickly, nor can I lose my way upon the moor, for the road hence
+to the smith's dun is well trodden and scored with wheels, and the
+sky too at night is red above the city."
+
+Concobar gave him permission, and Setanta hastened back to his
+playmates, who hailed him gladly in his returning, for they feared
+that the King might have taken him away from them.
+
+The King and his great men went away eastward after that and they
+conversed eagerly by the way, talking sometimes of a certain
+recent great rebellion of the non-Irian kings of Ulla, [Footnote:
+The Ultonians were descended from Ir, son of Milesius.] and of
+each other's prowess and the prowess of the insurgents, and
+sometimes of the smith and his strange and unusual invitation.
+
+"Say no word and do no thing," said Concobar, "at which even a
+very angry and suspicious man might take offence, for as to our
+host and his artificers, their ways are not like ours, or their
+thoughts like our thoughts, and they are a great and formidable
+people."
+
+The Red Branch did not relish that speech, for they thought that
+under the measureless canopy of the sky there were no people great
+or formidable but themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SETANTA AND THE SMITH'S DOG
+
+
+                  "How he fell
+ From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
+ Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn
+ To noon, from noon to dewy eve,
+ A Summer's day, he fell; and with the setting sun
+ Dropped from the zenith like a falling star,
+ On Lemnos."
+
+                  MILTON.
+
+
+When Culain saw far away the tall figures of the Ultonians against
+the sunset, and the flashing of their weapons and armour, he cried
+out with a loud voice to his people to stop working and slack the
+furnaces and make themselves ready to receive the Red Branch; and
+he bade the household thralls prepare the supper, roast, boiled
+and stewed, which he had previously ordered. Then he himself and
+his journeymen and apprentices stripped themselves, and in huge
+keeves of water filled by their slaves they washed from them the
+smoke and sweat of their labour and put on clean clothes. The
+mirrors at which they dressed themselves were the darkened waters
+of their enormous tubs.
+
+Culain sent a party of his men and those who were the best dressed
+and the most comely and who were the boldest and most eloquent in
+the presence of strangers, to meet the high King of the Ultonians
+on the moor, but he himself stood huge in the great doorway just
+beyond the threshold and in front of the bridge over which the Red
+Branch party was to pass. He had on him over his clothes a clean
+leathern apron which was not singed or scored. It was fastened at
+his shoulders and half covered his enormous hairy chest, was girt
+again at his waist and descended below his knees. He stood with
+one knee crooked, leaning upon a long ash-handled sledge with a
+head of glittering bronze. There he gave a friendly and grave
+welcome to the King and to all the knights one by one. It was dusk
+when Concobar entered the dun.
+
+"Are all thy people arrived?" said the smith.
+
+"They are," said Concobar.
+
+Culain bade his people raise the drawbridge which spanned the deep
+black moat surrounding the city, and after that, with his own
+hands he unchained his one dog. The dog was of great size and
+fierceness. It was supposed that there was no man in Ireland whom
+he could not drag down. He had no other good quality than that he
+was faithful to his master and guarded his property vigilantly at
+night. He was quick of sight and hearing and only slept in the
+daytime. Being let loose he sprang over the moat and three times
+careered round the city, baying fearfully. Then he stood stiffly
+on the edge of the moat to watch and listen, and growled at
+intervals when he heard some noise far away. It was then precisely
+that Setanta set forth from Emain Macha. Earth quaked to the
+growling of that ill beast.
+
+In the meantime the smith went into the dun, and when he had
+commanded his people to light the candles throughout the chamber,
+he slammed to the vast folding doors with his right hand and his
+left, and drew forth the massy bar from its place and shot it into
+the opposing cavity. There was not a knight amongst the Red Branch
+who could shut one of those doors, using both hands and his whole
+strength. Of the younger knights, some started to their feet and
+laid their hands on their sword hilts when they heard the bolt
+shot.
+
+The smith sat down on his high seat over against Concobar, with
+his dusky sons and kinsmen around him, and truly they contrasted
+strangely with the bravery and beauty of the Ultonians. He called
+for ale, and holding in his hands a huge four-cornered mether of
+the same, rimmed with silver and furnished with a double silver
+hand-grip, he pledged the King and bade him and his a kindly
+welcome. He swore, too, that no generation of the children of
+Rury, and he had wrought for many, had done more credit to his
+workmanship than themselves, nor had he ever made the appliances
+of war for any of the Gael with equal pleasure. Concobar, on the
+other hand, responded discreetly, and praised the smith-work of
+Culain, praising chiefly the shield called Ocean [Footnote:
+Concobar's shield. When Concobar was in danger the shield roared.
+The sea, too, roared responsive.], which was one of the wonders of
+the north-west of Europe. The smith and all his people were well
+pleased at that speech, and Culain bade his thralls serve supper,
+which proved to be a very noble repast. There was enough and to
+spare for all the Ultonians. When supper was ended, the heroes and
+the artificers pledged each other many times and drank also to the
+memory of famous men of yore and their fathers who begat them, as
+was right and customary; and they became very friendly and merry
+without intoxication, for intoxication was not known in the age of
+the heroes.
+
+Then said Concobar: "We have this night toasted many heroes who
+are gone, and, as it is not right that we should praise ourselves,
+I propose that we drink now to the heroes that are coming, both
+those unborn, and those who, still being boys, are under tutors
+and instructors; and for this toast I name the name of my nephew
+Setanta, son of Sualtam, who, if any, will one day, O Culain, if I
+mistake not, illustrate in an unexampled manner thy skill as an
+artificer of weapons and armour."
+
+"Is he then a boy of that promise, O Concobar?" said the smith,
+"for if he is I am truly rejoiced to hear it."
+
+"He is all that I say," answered the King somewhat hotly, "and of
+a beauty corresponding. And of that thou shalt be the judge to-
+night, for he is coming, and indeed I am momentarily expecting to
+hear the loud clamour of his brazen hurle upon the doors of the
+dun, after his having leapt at one bound both thy moat and thy
+rampart."
+
+The smith started from his high seat uttering a great oath, such
+as men used then, and sternly chid Concobar because he had said
+that all his people had arrived. "If the boy comes now," he said,
+"ere I can chain the dog, verily he will be torn into small
+pieces."
+
+Just then they heard the baying of the dog sounding terribly in
+the hollow night, and every face was blanched throughout the vast
+chamber. Then without was heard a noise of trampling feet and
+short furious yells and sibilant gaspings, as of one who exerts
+all his strength, after which a dull sound at which the earth
+seemed to shake, mingled with a noise of breaking bones, and after
+that silence. Ere the people in the dun could do more than look at
+each other speechless, they heard a clear but not clamorous
+knocking at the doors of the dun. Some of the smith's young men
+back-shot the bolt and opened the doors, and the boy Setanta
+stepped in out of the night. He was very pale. His scarlet mantle
+was in rags and trailing, and his linen tunic beneath and his
+white knees red with blood, which ran down his legs and over his
+bare feet. He made a reverence, as he had been taught, to the man
+of the house and to his people, and went backwards to the upper
+end of the chamber. The Ultonians ran to meet him, but Fergus Mac
+Roy was the first, and he took Setanta upon his mighty shoulder
+and bore him along and set him down at the table between himself
+and the King.
+
+"Did the dog come against thee?" said Culain.
+
+"Truly he came against me," answered the boy.
+
+"And art thou hurt?" cried the smith.
+
+"No, indeed," answered Setanta, "but I think he is."
+
+At that moment a party of the smith's people entered the dun
+bearing between them the carcass of the dog from whose mouth and
+white crooked fangs the blood was gushing in red torrents; and
+they showed Culain how the skull of the dog and his ribs had been
+broken in pieces by some mighty blow, and his backbone also in
+divers places. Also they said: "One of the great brazen pillars
+which stand at the bridge head is bent awry, and the clean bronze
+denied with blood, and it was at the foot of that pillar we found
+the dog." So saying, they laid the body upon the heather in front
+of Culain's high seat, that it might be full in his eye, and when
+they did so and again sat down, there was a great silence in the
+chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SETANTA, THE PEACE-MAKER
+
+
+   "The swine-herd
+      [Footnote: One of the minor gods. He resembles Mars
+      Sylvanus of the Romans to whom swine were sacrificed.]
+     of Bove Derg, son of the Dagda,
+    The feasts to which he came used to end in blood."
+
+              GAELIC BARD.
+
+
+Culain sat silent for a long time looking out before him with eyes
+like iron, and when at last he spoke his voice was charged with
+wrath and sorrow.
+
+"O Concobar," he said, "and you, the rest, nobles of the children
+of Rury. You are my guests to-night, wherefore it is not lawful
+that I should take vengeance upon you for the killing of my brave
+and faithful hound, who was a better keeper of my treasures than a
+company of hired warriors. Truly he cost me nothing but his daily
+allowance of meat, and there was not his equal as a watcher and
+warder in the world. An eric, therefore, I must have. Consult now
+together concerning its amount and let the eric be great and
+conspicuous, for, by Orchil [Footnote: The queen of the infernal
+regions.] and all the gods who rule beneath the earth, a small
+eric I will not accept."
+
+Concobar answered straight, "Thou shalt not get from me or from
+the Ultonians any eric, small or great. My nephew slew the beast
+in fair fight, defending his life against an aggressor. But I will
+say something else, proud smith, and little it recks me whether it
+is pleasing to thee or not. Had thy wolf slain my nephew not one
+of you would have left this dun alive, and of your famous city of
+artificers I would have made a smoking heap."
+
+The Ultonians fiercely applauded that speech, declaring that the
+smiths should get no eric, great or small, for the death of their
+monster. The smiths thereupon armed themselves with their hammers,
+and tongs, and fire-poles, and great bars of unwrought brass, and
+Culain himself seized an anvil withal to lay waste the ranks of
+the Red Branch. The Ultonians on their side ran to the walls and
+plucked down their spears from the pegs, and they raised their
+shields and balanced their long spears, and swords flashed and
+screeched as they rushed to light out of the scabbards, and the
+vast chamber glittered with shaking bronze and shone with the
+eyeballs of angry men, and rang with shouts of defiance and quick
+fierce words of command. For the Red Branch embattled themselves
+on one side of the chamber and the smiths upon the other, burning
+with unquenchable wrath, earth-born. The vast and high dome re-
+echoing rang with the clear terrible cries of the Ultonians and
+the roar of the children of the gloomy Orchil, and, far away, the
+magic shield moaned at Emain Macha, and the waves of the ocean
+sent forth a cry, for the peril of death and of shortness of life
+were around Concobar in that hour. And, though the doors of thick
+oak, brass-bound, were shut and barred, there came a man into the
+assembly, and he was not seen. He was red all over, both flesh and
+raiment, as if he had been plunged in a bath of blood. His
+countenance was distraught and his eyes like those of an insane
+man, and sparks new from them like sparks from a smith's stithy
+when he mightily hammers iron plucked white from the furnace.
+Smoke and fire came from his mouth. He held in his hand a long
+boar-yard. The likeness of a boar bounded after him. He traversed
+the vast chamber with the velocity of lightning, and with his
+boar-yard beat such as were not already drunk with wrath and
+battle-fury, and shot insane fire into their souls. [Footnote:
+This was the demon referred to in the lines at the head of the
+chapter.]
+
+Then indeed it wanted little, not the space of time during which a
+man might count ten, for the beginning of a murder grim and great
+as any renowned in the world's chronicles, and it is the opinion
+of the learned that, in spite of all their valour and beautiful
+weapons, the artificers would then and there have made a bloody
+end of the Red Branch had the battle gone forward. But at this
+moment, ere the first missile was hurled on either side, the boy
+Setanta sprang into the midst, into the middle space which
+separated the enraged men, and cried aloud, with a clear high
+voice that rang distinct above the tumult--
+
+"O Culain, forbear to hurl, and restrain thy people, and you the
+Ultonians, my kinsmen, delay to shoot. To thee, O chief smith, and
+thy great-hearted artificers I will myself pay no unworthy eric
+for the death of thy brave and faithful hound. For verily I will
+myself take thy dog's place, and nightly guard thy property,
+sleepless as he was, and I will continue to do so till a hound as
+trusty and valiant as the hound whom I slew is procured for thee
+to take his place, and to relieve me of that duty. Truly I slew
+not thy hound in any wantonness of superior strength, but only in
+the defence of my own life, which is not mine but my King's. Three
+times he leaped upon me with white fangs bared and eyes red with
+murder, and three times I cast him off, but when the fourth time
+he rushed upon me like a storm, and when with great difficulty I
+had balked him on that occasion also, then I took him by the
+throat and by his legs and flung him against one of the brazen
+pillars withal to make him stupid. And truly it was not my
+intention to kill him and I am sorry that he is dead, seeing that
+he was so faithful and so brave, and so dear to thee whom I have
+always honoured, even when I was a child at Dun Dalgan, and whom,
+with thy marvel-working craftsman, I have for a long time eagerly
+desired to see. And I thought that our meeting, whensoever it
+might be, would be other than this and more friendly."
+
+As he went on speaking the fierce brows of the smith relaxed, and
+first he regarded the lad with pity, being so young and fair, and
+then with admiration for his bravery. Also he thought of his own
+boyish days, and as he did so a torrent of kindly affection and
+love poured from his breast towards the boy, yea, though he saw
+him standing before him with the blood of his faithful hound
+gilding his linen lena and his white limbs. Yet, indeed, it was
+not the hound's blood which was on the boy, but his own, so
+cruelly had the beast torn him with his long and strong and sharp
+claws.
+
+"That proposal is pleasing to me," he said, "and I will accept the
+eric, which is distinguished and conspicuous and worthy of my
+greatness and of my name and reputation amongst the Gael. Why
+should a man be angry for ever when he who did the wrong offers
+due reparation?" Therewith over his left shoulder he flung the
+mighty anvil into the dark end of the vast chamber among the
+furnaces, at the sound of whose falling the solid earth shook. On
+the other hand Concobar rejoiced at this happy termination of the
+quarrel, for well he knew the might of those huge children of the
+gloomy Orchil. He perceived, too, that he could with safety
+entrust the keeping of the lad to those people, for he saw the
+smith's countenance when it changed, and he knew that among those
+artificers there was no guile.
+
+"It is pleasing to me, too," he said, "and I will be myself the
+lad's security for the performance of his promise."
+
+"Nay, I want no security," answered the smith. "The word of a
+scion of the Red Branch is security enough for me."
+
+Thereafter all laid aside their weapons and their wrath. The
+smiths with a mighty clattering cast their tools into the dark end
+of the chamber, and the Ultonians hanged theirs upon the walls,
+and the feasting and pledging and making of friendly speeches were
+resumed. There was no more any anger anywhere, but a more
+unobstructed flow of mutual good-will and regard, for the
+Ultonians felt no more a secret inclination to laugh at the dusky
+artificers, and the smiths no longer regarded with disdain the
+beauty, bravery, and splendour of the Ultonians.
+
+In the meantime Setanta had returned to his place between the King
+and Fergus Mac Roy. There a faintness came upon him, and a great
+horror overshadowed him owing to his battle with the dog, for
+indeed it was no common dog, and when he would have fallen, owing
+to the faintness, they pushed him behind them so that he lay at
+full length upon the couch unseen by the smiths. Concobar nodded
+to his chief Leech, and he came to him with his instruments and
+salves and washes. There unobserved he washed the cruel gashes cut
+by the hound's claws, and applied salves and stitched the skin
+over the wounds, and, as he did so, in a low voice he murmured
+healing songs of power.
+
+"Where is the boy?" said Culain.
+
+"He is reposing a little," said Concobar, "after his battle and
+his conflict."
+
+After a space they gave Setanta a draught of mighty ale, and his
+heart revived in him and the colour returned to his cheeks wherein
+before was the pallor of death, and he sat up again in his place,
+slender and fair, between Concobar and Fergus Mac Roy. The smiths
+cried out a friendly welcome to him as he sat up, for they held
+him now to be their foster-son, and Culain himself stood up in his
+place holding in both hands a great mether [Footnote: A four-
+cornered quadrangular cup.] of ale, and he drank to all unborn and
+immature heroes, naming the name of Setanta, son of Sualtam, now
+his dear foster-son, and magnified his courage, so that the boy
+blushed vehemently and his eyelids trembled and drooped; and all
+the artificers stood up too and drank to their foster-son, wishing
+him victory and success, and they drained their goblets and dashed
+them, mouth downwards, upon the brazen tables, so that the clang
+reverberated over Ulla. Setanta thereupon stood up while the
+smiths roared a welcome to their foster-son, and he said that it
+was not he who had gained the victory, for that someone invisible
+had assisted him and had charged him with a strength not his own.
+Then he faltered in his speech and said again that he would be a
+faithful hound in the service of the artificers, and sat down. The
+smiths at that time would not have yielded him for all the hounds
+in the world.
+
+After that their harpers harped for them and their story tellers
+related true stories, provoking laughter and weeping. There was no
+story told that was not true in the age of the heroes. Then the
+smiths sang one of their songs of labour, though it needed the
+accompaniment of ringing mettle, a song wild and strange, and the
+Ultonians clear and high sang all together with open mouths a song
+of battle and triumph and of the marching home to Emain Macha with
+victory; and so they spent the night, till Concobar said--
+
+"O Culain, feasting and singing are good, but slumber is good
+also. Dismiss us now to our rest and our slumber, for we, the Red
+Branch, must rise betimes in the morning, having our own proper
+work to perform day by day in Emain Macha, as you yours in your
+industrious city."
+
+With difficulty were the smiths persuaded to yield to that
+request, for right seldom was there a feast in Dun Culain, and the
+unusual pleasure and joyful sense of comradeship and social
+exaltation were very pleasing to their hearts.
+
+The Ultonians slept that night in the smiths' hall upon
+resplendent couches which had been prepared for them, and early in
+the morning, having taken a friendly leave of the artificers, they
+departed, leaving the lad behind them asleep. Setanta remained
+with the smiths a long time after that, and Culain and his people
+loved him greatly and taught him many things. It was owing to this
+adventure and what came of it that Setanta got his second name,
+viz., the Hound of Culain or Cu-Culain. Under that name he wrought
+all his marvellous deeds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CHAMPION AND THE KING
+
+
+     "Sing, O Muse, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son
+     of Peleus, which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans."
+
+                           --Homer.
+
+
+Concobar Mac Nessa sat one day in his high chair, judging the
+Ultonians. His great Council sat before him. In the Champion's
+throne sat Fergus Mac Roy. Before the high King his suitors gave
+testimony and his brehons pleaded, and Concobar in each case
+pronounced judgment, clearly and intelligently, briefly and
+concisely, with learning and with equity.
+
+"Right glad am I, O Concobar," said Fergus, "that thou art in the
+King's throne, and I where I sit. Verily, had I remained in that
+chair of honour and distress, long since would these historians
+and poets and subtle-minded lawyers have talked and rhymed me into
+madness, or into my grave."
+
+Concobar made answer--"Dear foster-father, the high gods in their
+wisdom have fashioned us each man to illustrate some virtue. To
+thee they have given strength, courage, and magnanimity above all
+others; and to me, in small measure, the vision of justice, and
+the perception of her beautiful laws. A man can only excel in what
+he loves, and verily I love well the known laws of the Ultonians."
+
+A great man just then entered the hall. His mantle was black. In
+the breast of it, instead of a brooch, he wore an iron pin. He
+came swiftly and without making the customary reverences. His face
+was pale, and his garments torn, his dark-grey tunic stained with
+blood. He stood in the midst and cried--
+
+"O high King of the Ultonians, and you the wise men and sages of
+the children of Rury, to all of you there is now need of some
+prudent resolution. A great deed has been done in Ulla."
+
+"What is that?" said the King.
+
+"The abduction of the Beautiful Woman by Naysi, son of Usna.
+Verily, she is taken away and may not be recovered, for the Clan
+Usna came last night with a great company to the dun and they
+stormed it in their might and their valour, and their irresistible
+fury, and they have taken away Deirdre in their swift chariots,
+and have gone eastwards to the Muirnicht with intent to cross the
+sea northwards, and abide henceforth with their prize in the land
+of the Picts and of the Albanah, beyond the stormy currents of the
+Moyle."
+
+Fergus Mac Roy, when he heard that word, sat up with eyes bright-
+blazing in his head. Dearer to him than all the rest were those
+sons of Usna, namely--Naysi, Anli, and Ardane, and dearest of the
+three was Naysi, who excelled all the youth of his time in beauty,
+valour, and accomplishments.
+
+"Bind that man!" cried Concobar. His voice rang terribly through
+the vast chamber. Truly it sheared through men's souls like a
+dividing sword.
+
+His guards took the man and bound him. "Lead him away now," said
+Concobar," and stone him with stones even to the parting of body
+with soul."
+
+The man was one of Deirdre's guard.
+
+A great silence fell upon the assembly after that and no man
+spoke, only they looked at the King and then again at the
+Champion, and, as it were, questioned one another silently with
+their eyes. It was the silence behind which run the Fomorh,
+brazen-throated and clad with storm. Well knew those wise men that
+what they long apprehended had come now to pass, namely, the
+fierce and truceless antagonism of the King and of the ex-King.
+Well they knew that Concobar would not forgive the Clan Usna, and
+that Fergus Mac Roy would not permit them to be punished.
+Therefore, great and mighty as were the men, yet on this occasion
+they might be likened only to cattle who stand aside astonished
+when two fierce bulls, rending the earth as they come, advance
+against each other for the mastery of the herd. In the high King's
+face the angry blood showed as two crimson spots one on either
+cheek, and his eyes, harder than steel, sparkled under brows more
+rigid than brass. On the other hand, the face of the Champion
+darkened as the sea darkens when a black squall descends suddenly
+upon its sunny and glittering tides, wrinkling and convulsing all
+the face of the deep. His listlessness and amiability alike went
+out of him, and he sat huge and erect in his throne. His mighty
+chest expanded and stood out like a shield, and the muscles of his
+neck, stronger than a bull's, became clear and distinct, and his
+gathering ire and stern resolution rushed stormfully through his
+nostrils. The King first spoke.
+
+"To the man who has broken our law and abducted the child of ill
+omen, I decree death by the sword and burial with the three throws
+of dishonour, and if taken alive, then death by burning with the
+same, and if he escapes out of Erin, then sentence of perpetual
+banishment and expatriation."
+
+"He shall not be slain, and he shall not be burned, and he shall
+not be exiled. I say it, even I, Fergus, son of the Red Rossa,
+Champion of the North. Let the man who will gainsay me show
+himself now in Emain Macha. Let him bring round the buckle of his
+belt."
+
+His eyes, as he spoke, were like flames of fire under a forehead
+dark crimson, and with his clenched fist he struck the brazen
+table before his throne, so that the clang and roar of the
+quivering bronze sounded through all the borders of Ulla.
+
+"I will gainsay thee, O Fergus," cried the King, "I am the
+guardian and the executor of the laws of the Ultonians, and those
+laws shall prevail over thee and over all men."
+
+"All laws in restraint of true love and affection are unjust,"
+said Fergus, "and the law by which Deirdre was consigned to
+virginity was the unrighteous enactment of cold-hearted and
+unrighteous men."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+DEIRDRE
+
+
+     "Beautiful the beginning of love,
+      A man and a woman and the birds of Angus above them."
+
+                    GAELIC BARD.
+
+
+The birth of the child Deirdre, daughter of the chief poet of
+Ulla, was attended with a great portent, for the child shrieked
+from the mother's womb. Cathvah and the Druids were consulted
+concerning that omen. They addressed themselves to their art of
+divination, and having consulted their oracles and gods and
+familiar spirits, they gave a clear counsel to the Ultonians.
+
+"This child," they said, "will become a woman, in beauty
+surpassing all the women who have ever been born or will be born.
+Her union with a man will be a cause of great sorrow to the
+Ultonians. Let her, therefore, be exposed after birth; or, if you
+would not slay the Arch-Poet's only child, let her be sternly
+immured; let her be reared to womanhood in utter and complete and
+inviolable solitude, and live and die in her virginity."
+
+The Ultonians determined that the child should live and be
+immured. These things took place in the reign of Factna the
+Righteous, father of Concobar. When the child was born she was
+called Deirdre. The Ultonians appointed for her a nurse and
+tutoress named Levarcam. They built for her and for the nurse a
+strong dun in a remote forest and set a ward there, and they made
+a solemn law enjoining perpetual virginity on the child of ill
+omen, and the Druids shed a zone of terror round the dun.
+
+Concobar Mac Nessa in the wide circuit of his thoughts consulted
+always for the inviolability of that law, and the stern
+maintenance of the watching and warding.
+
+Unseen and unobserved, forgotten by all save the wise elders of
+the Ultonians and by Concobar their King, whose thoughts ranged on
+all sides devising good for the Red Branch, the child Deirdre grew
+to be a maiden. Though her beauty was extraordinary, yet her mind
+was as beautiful as her form, so that the Lady Levarcam loved her
+exceedingly.
+
+One day when the first flush of early womanhood came upon the
+maiden, she said to her tutoress as they sat together and
+conversed--
+
+"Are all men like those our guards who defend us against savage
+beasts and the merciless Fomorians, dear Levarcam?"
+
+"Those our guards are true and brave men," said Levarcam.
+
+"Surely they are," said the girl, "and we lack no courtesy and due
+attention at their hands, but dear foster-mother, my question is
+not answered. Maybe it is not to be answered and that I am curious
+overmuch. Are all men grim, grave, and austere, wearing rugged
+countenances scored with ancient wounds, and bearing each man upon
+his shoulders the weight of some fearful responsibility? Are all
+men like that, dear Levarcam?"
+
+"Nay, indeed," said the other, "there arc youths too, gracious,
+and gay, and beautiful, as well as grave men such as these."
+
+They sat together in their sunny grianan, [Footnote: A derivative
+from Grian, the sun. The grianan was an upper chamber, more
+elegantly furnished than the hall, usually with large windows and
+therefore well lit and reserved for the use of women.]
+embroidering while they conversed. It was early morning and the
+air was full of the noises and odours of sweet spring-time.
+
+"I know that now," said the maiden, "which I only guessed before,
+for waking or sleeping I have dreamed of a youth who was as unlike
+these men as the rose-tree with its roses is unlike the rugged
+oak-tree or the wrinkled pine that has wrestled with a thousand
+storms. I would wish to have him for a playfellow and pleasant
+acquaintance. Of maidens, too, such as myself I have dreamed, yet
+they do not appear to me to be so alluring or so amiable as that
+youth."
+
+"Describe him more particularly," said Levarcam. "Tell me his
+tokens one by one that I may know."
+
+"He is tall and strong but very graceful in all his motions; and
+of speech and behaviour both gay and gracious. He is white and
+ruddy, whiter than snow and ruddier than the rose or the fox-
+glove, where the heroic blood burns bright in his comely cheeks.
+His eyes are blue-black under fine and even brows and his hair is
+a wonder, so dense is it, so lustrous and so curling, blacker than
+the crow's wing, more shining than the bright armour of the
+chaffer. His body is broad above and narrow below, strong to
+withstand and agile to pursue. His limbs long and beautifully
+proportioned; his hands and feet likewise, and his step elastic
+Smiles seldom leave his eyes and lips, and his mouth is a fountain
+of sweet speech. O that I were acquainted with him and he with me?
+I think we should be happy in each other's company. I think I
+could love him as well as I do thee, dear foster-mother."
+
+As she spoke, Deirdre blushed, and first she stooped down over her
+work and then put before her face and eyes her two beautiful
+hands, rose-white, with long delicate nails pink-flushed and
+transparent; and tears, clearer than dewdrops, gushed between her
+ringers and fell in bright showers upon the embroidery. Then she
+arose and flung her soft white arms around Levarcam and wept on
+her bosom.
+
+"There is one youth only amongst the Red Branch," said Levarcam,
+"who answers to that description, namely Naysi, the son of Usna,
+who is the battle-prop of the Ultonians and the clear-shining
+torch of their valour, and what god or druid or power hath set
+that vision before thy mind, I cannot tell."
+
+"Would that I could see him with eyes and have speech with him,"
+answered the girl. "If but once he smiled upon me and I heard the
+sweet words flow from his mouth which is beyond price, then gladly
+would I die!"
+
+"Thou shall both see him and have speech with him, O best,
+sweetest, dearest, and loveliest of all maidens. Truly I will
+bring him to thee and thee to him, for there is with me power
+beyond the wont of women."
+
+Now Levarcam was a mighty Druidess amongst the Ultonians. So the
+lady in whom they trusted forgot the ancient prophecies and the
+stern commands of the Red Branch and of their King, owing to the
+great love which she bore to the maiden and the great compassion
+which grew upon her day by day, as she observed the life of the
+solitary girl and thought of the cruel law to which all her youth
+and beauty and wealth of sweet love beyond all the jewels of the
+world were thus barbarously sacrificed by the Ultonians in
+obedience to soothsayers and Druids.
+
+Naysi, son of Usna, once in a hunting became separated from his
+companions. He wandered far in that forest, seeking some one who
+should direct him upon his way. Oftentimes he raised his voice,
+but there was no answer. Such were his beauty, his grace, and his
+stature, that he seemed more like a god than a man, and such
+another as Angus Ogue, son of Dagda, [Footnote: Angus Ogue was the
+god of youth and beauty, son of the Dagda who seems to have been
+the genius of earth and its fertility or perhaps the Zeus of our
+Gaelic mythology.] whose fairy palace is on the margin of the
+Boyne. His head and his feet were bare. His short hunting-cloak
+was dark-red with flowery devices along the edge. On his breast he
+wore a brooch of gold bronze; carbuncles and precious stones were
+set in the bronze, and it was carved all over with many spiral
+devices. His shirt below the mantle was coloured like the tassels
+of the willow trees. His hair was fastened behind with a clasp and
+an apple of red gold, and that apple lay below the blades of his
+ample shoulders. In one hand he bore a broken leash of red bronze,
+and in the other two hunting spears with blades of flashing
+findruiney and the hafts were long, slender, and shining. By his
+thigh hung a short sword in a sheath of red yew and beside it the
+polished and nigh transparent horn of the Urus, suspended in a
+baldrick of knitted thread of bronze. The grass stood erect from
+the pressure of his light feet. His manly face had not yet known
+the razor; only the first soft down of budding manhood was seen
+there. His countenance was pure and joyous with bright beaming
+eyes, and his complexion red and white and of a brilliancy beyond
+words. In his heart was no guile, only indomitable valour and
+truth and loyalty and sweet affection. He had never known woman
+save in the way of courtesy. The very trees and rocks and stones
+seemed to watch him as he passed.
+
+Then suddenly and unawares an ice-cold air struck chill into his
+inmost being, the bright earth was obscured and the sun grew dark
+in the heavens and menacing voices were heard and horrid forms of
+evil, monstrous, not to be described, came against him, and they
+bade him return as he had come or they would tear him limb from
+limb in that forest. Yet the son of Usna was by no means dismayed,
+only he flushed with wrath and scorn and he drew his sword and
+went on against the phantoms. In truth Naysi was at that moment
+passing through the zone of terror which the Ultonian Druids had
+shed around the dun where Deirdre was immured. The phantoms gave
+way before him and Naysi passed beyond the zone. "Surely," he
+said, "there is some chief jewel of the jewels of the world
+preserved in this place."
+
+He came to an opening in the forest. Beyond it there was a great
+space which was cleared and girt all round by trees. There was a
+dun in its midst. Scarlet and white were the walls of that dun.
+There was a watch-tower on one side of the dun and a man there
+sitting in the watchman's seat; a grianan on the other with
+windows of glass. The roof of the dun was covered all over with
+feathers of birds of various hues, and shone with a hundred
+colours. The doorway was the narrowest which Naysi had ever seen.
+The door pillars were of red yew curiously carved, having feet of
+bronze and capitals of carved silver, and the lintel above was a
+straight bar of pure silver. A knotted band or thickening ran
+round the walls of the dun like a variegated zone, for the colours
+of it were many and each different from the colours on the walls.
+In the world there was no such prison as there was no such captive
+as that prison held. Armed men of huge stature and terrible aspect
+went round the dun. Their habiliments were black, their weapons
+without ornament, the pins of their mantles were of iron. With
+each company went a slinger having his sling bent, an iron bolt in
+the sling, and his thumb in the string-loop, men who never missed
+their mark and never struck aught, whether man or beast, that they
+did not slay. Great hounds such as were not known amongst the
+Ultonians went with those men. They were grey above and tawny
+beneath, as large as wild oxen after the growth of one year. They
+were quick of sight and scent, fiercer than dragons and swifter
+than eagles; they were not quick of sight and scent to-day. The
+Lady Levarcam had great power. In and around that dun were three
+hundred men of war, foreigners, picked men of the great fighting
+tribes of Banba. Such was the decree of the Ultonians and their
+wise King, so greatly did they fear concerning those prophecies
+and omens and concerning the child who in Emain Macha shrieked out
+of her mother's womb. Naysi regarded the dun with wonder and
+amazement, and with amazement the astonishing rigour of the watch
+and ward which were kept there, and the more he looked the more he
+wondered. It seemed to the hunter that he had chanced upon one of
+the abodes of the enchanted races of Erin, namely the Tuatha De
+Dana or the Fomorians, whom the sons of Milesius by their might
+had driven into the mountains and unfrequented places and who, now
+immortal and invisible, and possessing great druidic power, were
+worshipped as gods by the Gael. He knew he was in great peril, but
+his stout heart did not fail; he was resolved to see this
+adventure to an end.
+
+As he was about to step out into the open two women came from the
+door of the grianan. One of them was old; she leaned upon her
+companion and in her right hand held a long white wand squared
+save in the middle where it was rounded for the hand grip, very
+long, unornamented, and unshod at either extremity. Naysi paid
+slight attention to her, though, as she was the first to come
+forth, he observed these things. The other was young, tall,
+slender, and lissom, her raiment costly and splendid like a high
+queen's on some solemn day, and like a queen's her behaviour and
+her pacing over the flowery lawn. Never had that hunter seen such
+a form, so proudly modest and virginal, such sweetness, grace, and
+majesty of bearing. Presently, having passed a company of the
+guards, she flung back the white, half-transparent veil that
+concealed her face. Then the sudden radiance was like the coming
+unlocked for out of a white cloud of that very bright star which
+shines on the edge of night and morning. All things were
+transfigured in her light. Before her the grass grew greener and
+more glittering and rare flowers started in her way. A silver
+basket of most delicate craftsmanship, the work of some cunning
+cerd, was on her right arm. It shone clear and sparkling against
+her mantle which was exceedingly lustrous, many times folded,
+darkly crimson, and of substance unknown. She towered above her
+aged companion, straight as a pillar of red yew in a king's house.
+So, unwitting, jocund, and innocent, fresh and pure as the
+morning, she paced over the green lawn, going in the direction of
+that youth, even Naysi, son of Usna the Ultonian. Naysi's loudly
+beating heart fell silent when he saw how she came straight
+towards him; he retreated into the forest, so amazing and so
+confounding was the radiance of that beauty. A company of those
+grim warders, silent and watchful, followed close upon the women.
+As they went they slipped the muzzles from the mouths of their
+dogs and lead them forward leashed. The countenances of the men
+shewed displeasure. From the tower the watchman cried aloud words
+in an unknown tongue, hoarse, barbaric accents charged with energy
+and strong meaning. His voice rang terribly in the hollows of the
+forest. There was a counter challenge in the forest repeated many
+times, the voices of men mingled with the baying of hounds. There
+was a ring of sentinels and dogs far out in the forest. The son of
+Usna had gone through the ring. For twice seven years and one that
+astonishing watch and ward had been maintained day and night
+without relaxation or abatement. When they came to the edge of the
+forest Levarcam addressed the commander of that company. She said,
+"The Lady Deirdre would be alone with me in the forest for a
+little space to gather flowers and listen to the music of the
+birds and the stream, relieved, if but for one moment, of this
+watching and warding."
+
+The man answered not a word. He was of the Gamanrdians, dwellers
+by the Sue, which feeds the great Western River; [Footnote: The
+Shannon.] his people were of the Clan Dega in the south, and of
+the children of Orc [Footnote: In scriptural language "of the seed
+of the giants," huge, simple-hearted and simple-minded men, who
+could obey orders and ask no questions.] from the Isles of Ore in
+the frozen seas. [Footnote: The Orkney Islands.] The blood of the
+Fomoroh was in those men. The women went on, and that grim company
+followed, keeping close behind. When they gained the first cover
+of the trees Levarcam turned round and stretched over them her
+wand. They stood motionless, both men and dogs. Then the women
+went forward, and alone.
+
+"Fill thy basket now with forest flowers, O sweetest, and dearest,
+and fairest of all foster-children, and listen to the songs of the
+birds and the music of the rill. Cull thy flowers, darling girl,
+and cull the flower of thy youth, the flower that grows but once
+for all like thee, the flower whose glory puts high heaven to
+shame, and whose odour makes mad the most wise."
+
+"Where shall I gather that flower, O gentlest and most amiable of
+foster-mothers? Is it in the glade or the thicket, or on the
+margent of the rill?
+
+"It is not to be found by seeking, O fairest of all maidens.
+Gather it when thou meetest with it in the way. Wear it in thy
+heart, be the end what it may. Verily thou wilt not mistake any
+other flower for that flower."
+
+"I know not thy meaning, O wise and many-counselled woman, but
+there is fear upon me, and trembling, and my knees quake at thy
+strange words. Now, if the whole world were swallowed up I should
+not be surprised. Surely the end of the world is very nigh."
+
+"It is the end of the world and the beginning of the world; and
+the end of life and the beginning of life; and death and life in
+one, and death and life will soon be the same to thee, O Deirdre!"
+
+"There is amazement upon me, and terror, O my foster-mother, on
+account of thy words, and on account of the gathering of this
+flower. Let us return to the dun. Terrible to me are the hollow-
+sounding ways of the unknown forest."
+
+"Fear not the unknown forest, O Deirdre. Leave the known and the
+familiar now that thy time has come. Go on. Accomplish thy
+destiny. It is vain to strive against fate and the pre-ordained
+designs of the high gods of Erin. Truly I have failed in my trust.
+I see great wrath in Emain Macha. I see the Red Branch tossed in
+storms, and a mighty riving and rending and scattering abroad, and
+dismal conflagrations, and the blood of heroes falling like rain,
+and I hear the croaking of Byves. [Footnote: Badb, pronounced
+Byve, was primarily the scald-crow or carrion-crow, secondarily a
+Battle-Fury.] Truly I have proved a brittle prop to the Ultonians,
+but some power beyond my own drives me on."
+
+"What wild words are these, O wisest of women, and what this
+rending and scattering abroad, and showers of blood and croaking
+of Byves because I cull a flower in the forest?"
+
+"Nay, it is nothing. Have peace and joy while thou canst, sweet
+Deirdre. Thus I lay my wand upon thy bosom and enjoin peace!"
+
+"Thou art weary, dear foster-mother. Rest thee here now a little
+space, while I go and gather forest flowers. They are sweeter than
+those that grow in my garden. O, right glad am I to be alone in
+the forest, relieved from the observation of those grim-visaged
+sentinels, to stray solitary in the dim mysterious forest, and to
+think my own thoughts there, and dream my dreams, and recall that
+vision which I have seen. O Naysi, son of Usna, sweeter than harps
+is the mere sound of thy name, O Ultonian!"
+
+Deirdre after that went forward alone into the forest.
+
+Naysi, when he had started back into the forest stood still for a
+long time in his retreat. It was the hollow of a tall rock beside
+a falling stream of water, all flowing snow or transparent
+crystal. Holly trees and quicken trees grew from its crest, and
+long twines of ivy fell down before like green torrents. Behind
+them he concealed himself, when he heard the cries and the
+challengings and the baying of the hounds. Then he saw the maiden
+come along the forest glade by the margent of the stream, her
+basket filled and over-flowing with flowers. The sentient stream
+sang loud and gay to greet her approaching, with fluent liquid
+fingers striking more joyously the chords of his stony lyre. Light
+beyond the sun was shed through the glen before her. Birds, the
+brightest of plumage and sweetest of note of all the birds of
+Banba, [Footnote: One of Ireland's ancient names.] filled the air
+with their songs, flying behind her and before her, and on her
+right hand and on her left. Through his lattice of trailing ivy
+the son of Usna saw her. Her countenance was purer and clearer
+than morning-dew upon the rose or the lily, and the rose and lily,
+nay, the whiteness of the snow of one night and the redness of the
+reddest rose, were there. Her eyes were blue-black under eyebrows
+black and fine, but her clustering hair was bright gold, more
+shining than the gold which boils over the edge of the refiner's
+crucible. Her forehead was free from all harshness, broad and
+intelligent, her beautiful smiling lips of the colour of the
+berries of the mountain ash, her teeth a shower of lustrous
+pearls. Her face and form, her limbs, hands and feet, were such
+that no defect, blemish or disproportion could be observed, though
+one might watch and observe long, seeking to discover them. In
+that daughter of the High Poet and Historian of the Hound-race of
+the North, [Footnote: The hound was the type of valour. Though
+Cuculain was pre-eminently the Hound, the Gaelic equivalents of
+this word will be discovered in most of the famous names of the
+cycle.] child of valour and true wisdom, the body did not
+predominate over the spirit, or the spirit over the body, for as
+her form was of matchless, incomparable, and inexpressible beauty,
+so her mind was not a whit less well proportioned and refined.
+Jocund and happy, breathing innocence and love, she came up the
+dell. The birds of Angus [Footnote: Angus Ogue's kisses became
+invisible birds whose singing inspired love.] unseen flew above
+her and shed upon her unearthly graces and charms from the waving
+of their immortal wings. A silver brooch lay on her breast, the
+pin of fine bronze ran straight from one shoulder to the other. On
+her head was a lustrous tyre or leafy diadem shading her
+countenance, gold above and silver below. Her short kirtle was
+white below the rose-red mantle, and fringed with gold thread
+above her perfect and lightly stepping feet. Shoes she wore
+shining with brightest wire of findruiney. As she came up the
+dell, rejoicing in her freedom and the sweetness of that sylvan
+place and the solitude, she contemplated the bright stream, and
+sang clear and sweet an unpremeditated song.
+
+Naysi stepped forth from his place, putting aside the ivy with his
+hands, and came down the dell to meet her in her coming. She did
+not scream or tremble or show any signs of confusion, though she
+had never before seen any of the youths of the Gael. She only
+stood still and straight, and with wide eyes of wonder watched him
+as he drew nigh, for she thought at first that it was the genius
+of that glen and torrent taking form in reply to her druidic lay.
+Then when she recognised the comrade and playfellow of her vision,
+she smiled a friendly and affectionate greeting. On the other
+hand, Naysi came trembling and blushing. He bowed himself to the
+earth before her, and kissed the grass before her feet.
+
+They remained together a long time in the glen and told each other
+all they knew and thought and felt, save one feeling untellable,
+happy beyond all power of language to express. When Deirdre rose
+to go, Naysi asked for some token and symbol of remembrance.
+
+As they went she gathered a rose and gave it to Naysi.
+
+"There is a great meaning in this token amongst the youths and
+maidens of the Gael," said he.
+
+"I know that," answered Deirdre. Deirdre returned to Levarcam.
+
+"Thou hast gathered the flower," said Levarcam.
+
+"I have," she replied, "and death and life are one to me now, dear
+foster-mother."
+
+Naysi went away through the forest and there is nothing related
+concerning him till he reached Dun Usna. It was night when he
+entered the hall. His brothers were sitting at the central fire.
+Anli was scouring a shield; Ardane was singing the while he
+polished a spear and held it out against the light to see its
+straightness and its lustre. They were in no way alarmed about
+their brother.
+
+"I have seen Deirdre, the daughter of Felim," he said.
+
+"Then thou art lost!" they answered; the weapons fell from their
+hands upon the floor.
+
+"I am," he replied.
+
+"What is thy purpose?" they said.
+
+"To storm the guarded dun, even if I go against it alone, To bear
+away Deirdre and pass into the land of the Albanagh." [Footnote:
+The Albanagh were the people who inhabited the north and west of
+Scotland, in fact the Highlanders. In ancient times they and the
+Irish were regarded as one people.]
+
+"Thou shalt not go alone," they said. "We have shared in thy glory
+and thy power, we will share all things with thee."
+
+They put their right hand into his on that promise. One hundred
+and fifty nobles of the nobles of that territory did the same, for
+with Naysi as their captain they did not fear to go upon any
+enterprise. They knew that expatriation awaited them, but they had
+rather be with Naysi and his brothers in a strange land than to
+live without them in Ireland. So the Clan Usna with their mighty
+men stormed the dun and bore off Deirdre and went away eastward to
+the Muirnicht. And they crossed the Moyle [Footnote: The sea
+between Ireland and Scotland. "Silent, O Moyle. be the roar of thy
+waters,"] in ships into the country of the Albanagh, and settled
+on the delightful shores of Loch Etive and made swordland of the
+surrounding territory. Great, famous, and long remembered were the
+deeds of the children of Usna in that land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THERE WAS WAR IN ULSTER
+
+
+ "Each spake words of high disdain
+  And insult to his heart's best brother,
+  They parted ne'er to meet again."
+
+          --COLERIDGE
+
+
+It was on account of this that there arose at first that
+dissidence and divergence of opinion in the great Council at Emain
+Macha between Concobar Mac Nessa and Fergus Mac Roy, Concobar
+standing for the law which he had been sworn to safeguard and to
+execute, and Fergus casting over the lovers the shield of his name
+and fame, his authority and his strength, and the singular
+affection with which he was regarded by all the Ultonians.
+
+After Fergus had made that speech in disparagement and contempt of
+the solemn enactment and decree in accordance with which Deirdre
+had been immured, Concobar did not immediately answer, for he knew
+that he was heated both on account of the abduction and on account
+of the words of Fergus. Then he said--
+
+"The valour of the Red Branch, whereby we flourish so
+conspicuously herein the North, doth not spring out of itself, and
+doth not come by discipline, teaching, and example. It has its
+root in a virtue of which the bards indeed, for bardic reasons,
+make little mention though it hold a firm place in the laws of the
+Ultonians both ancient and recent. This, our valour, and the
+famous kindred virtues through which we are strong and
+irresistible, so that the world has today nothing anywhere of
+equal glory and power, spring from the chastity of our women,
+which is conspicuous and clear-shining, and in the modesty and
+shamefastness of our young heroes, and the extreme rarity of
+lawless relations between men and women in Ulla, the servile
+tribes excepted, of whom no man maketh any account. Against such
+lawlessness our wise ancestors have decreed terrible punishments.
+According to the laws of the Ultonians, those who offend in this
+respect are burned alive in the place of the burnings, and over
+their ashes are thrown the three throws of dishonour. And well I
+know that these laws ofttimes to the unthinking and to those who
+judge by their affections merely, seem harsh and unnatural. Yea
+truly, were I not high King, I could weep, seeing gentle youths
+and maidens, and men and women, whom the singing of Angus Ogue's
+birds have made mad, led away by my orders to be devoured by
+flame. But so it is best, for without chastity valour faileth in a
+nation, and lawlessness in this respect begetteth sure and rapid
+decay, and I give not this forth as an opinion but as a thing that
+I know, seeing it as clearly with my mind, O Fergus, as I see with
+my eyes thy countenance and form and the foldings of thy fuan
+[Footnote: Mantle.] and the shape and ornamentation of the wheel-
+brooch upon thy breast. Without chastity there is no enduring
+valour in a nation. And thou, too, O Fergus, sitting there in the
+champion's throne, hast more than once or twice heard me pronounce
+the dread sentence without word of protest or dissent. But now,
+because it toucheth thee thyself, strongly and fiercely thy voice
+of protest is lifted up, and unless I and this Council can over-
+persuade thee, this thy rebellious purpose will be thy own undoing
+or that of the Red Branch. Are the sons of Usna dear only to thee?
+I say they are dearer to me, but the Red Branch is still dearer,
+and it is the destruction of the Red Branch which unwittingly thou
+wouldst Compass. Nor was that law concerning the inviolable
+virginity of the child of Felim foolish or unwise, for it was made
+solemnly by the Ultonians in obedience to the united voice of the
+Druids of Ulla, men who see deeply into the hidden causes of
+things and the obscure relations of events, of which we men of war
+have no perception."
+
+So spoke Concobar, not threateningly like a sovereign king, but
+pleadingly. On the other hand Fergus Mac Roy, rearing his huge
+form, stood upon his feet, and said--
+
+"To answer fine reasonings I have no skill, but I swear by the sun
+and the wind and the earth and by my own right hand, which is a
+stronger oath than any, that I will bring back the sons of Usna
+into Ireland, and that they shall live and flourish in their place
+and sit honourably in this great hall of the Clanna Rury, whether
+it be pleasing to thee or displeasing. For I take the Clan Usna
+under my protection from this day forth, and well I know that
+there is not in Erin or in Alba a man born of a woman, no nor the
+Tuatha De Danan themselves, who will break through that
+protection!"
+
+"I will break through it," said the King.
+
+After that Fergus departed from Emain Macha and went away with his
+people into the east to his own country. There he debated and
+considered for a long time, but at last, so great was his
+affection for the Clan Usna, that he went over the Moyle in ships
+to the country of the Albanagh and brought home the sons of Usna,
+and they were slain by Concobar Mac Nessa, according as he had
+promised by the word of his mouth. Then Fergus rebelled against
+Concobar, drawing after him two-thirds of the Red Branch, and
+amongst them Duvac Dael Ulla and Cormac Conlingas, Concobar's own
+son, and many other great men, but the chiefest and best and most
+renowned of the Ultonians adhered to the King. The whole province
+was shaken with war and there was great shedding of blood, but in
+the end Concobar prevailed and drove out Fergus Mac Roy. After
+that expulsion Fergus and three thousand of the Red Branch fled
+across the Shannon and came to Rath Cruhane, and entered into
+military service with Meave who was the queen of all the country
+west of the Shannon.
+
+There is nothing told about Cuculain in connection with this war.
+It is hard to imagine him taking any side in such a war. But, in
+fact, he was still a schoolboy under tutors and governors and
+could not lawfully appear in arms, seeing that he was not yet
+knighted. He was either with the smiths or, having procured a
+worthy hound to take his place, he had gone back to the royal
+school at Emain Macha. But the time when Cuculain should be
+knighted, that is to say, invested with arms, and solemnly
+received into the Red Branch as man to the high King of all Ulla,
+now drew on, and such a knighting as that, and under such signs,
+omens, and portents, has never been recorded anywhere in the
+history of the nations.
+
+In the meantime, Fergus and his exiles served Queen Meave and were
+subduing all the rest of Ireland under her authority, so that
+Meave, Queen of Connaught, became very great and proud, and in the
+end meditated the overthrow of Ulster and the conquest of the Red
+Branch. Queen Meave and Fergus leading the joined host of the four
+remaining provinces, Meath, Connaught, Munster, and Leinster,
+certain of success owing to a strange lethargy which then fell on
+the Ultonians, did invade Ulster. But as they drew nigh to the
+mearings they found the in-gate of the province barred by one man.
+It is needless to mention that man's name. It was Dethcaen's
+nursling, the ex-pupil of Fergus Mac Roy, the little boy Setanta
+grown into a terrible and irresistible hero. It was by his defence
+of Ulster on that occasion against Fergus and Meave and the four
+provinces, that Cuculain acquired his deathless glory and became
+the chief hero of the north-west of the world. So these chapters
+which relate to the abduction of Deirdre and the rebellion and
+expulsion of Fergus, are a vital portion of the whole story of
+Cuculain. We must now return to the hero's schoolboy days which,
+however, are drawing to a memorable conclusion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE SACRED CHARIOT
+
+
+     "He dwelt a while among the neat-herds
+     Of King Admetus, veiling his godhood."
+
+                 Greek Mythology.
+
+
+     "At Tailteen I raced my steeds against a woman,
+     Though great with child she came first to the goal,
+     Alas, I knew not the auburn-haired Macha,
+     Thence came affliction upon the Ultonians."
+
+                 CONCOBAR MAC NESSA.
+
+
+Concobar Mac Nessa on a solemn day called Cuculain forth from the
+ranks of the boys where they stood in the rear of the assembly and
+said--
+
+"O Setanta, there is a duty which falls to me by virtue of my
+kingly office, and therein I need an assistant. For it is my
+province to keep bright and in good running order the chariot of
+Macha wherein she used to go forth to war from Emain, and to clean
+out the corn-troughs of her two steeds and put there fresh barley
+perpetually, and fresh hay in their mangers. Illan the Fair
+[Footnote: He was one of the sons of Fergus Mac Roy slain in the
+great civil war.] was my last helper in this office, till the
+recent great rebellion. That ministry is thine now, if it is
+pleasing to thee to accept it."
+
+The boy said that it was pleasing, and the King gave him the key
+of the chamber in which were the vessels and implements used in
+discharging that sacred function.
+
+Afterwards, on the same day, the King said to him, "Wash thyself
+now in pure water and put on new clean raiment and come again to
+me."
+
+The boy washed himself and put on new clean raiment. The King
+himself did the same.
+
+Concobar said: "Go now to the chamber of which I have given thee
+the key and fill with oil the silver oil-can and take a towel of
+the towels of fawn-skin which are there and return." He did so;
+and Concobar and his nephew, armed youths following, went to the
+house of the chariot.
+
+Ere Concobar turned the wards of the lock he heard voices within
+in the chariot-house. There, one said to another, "This is he. Our
+long watch and ward are near the end." And the other said, "It is
+well. Too long have we been here waiting."
+
+"Hast thou heard anything, my nephew?" said Concobar.
+
+"I have heard nothing," said the lad.
+
+Concobar opened the great folding-doors. There was a sound there
+like glad voices mingled with a roar of revolving wheels, and then
+silence. Setanta drew back in dismay, and even Concobar stood
+still. "I have not observed such portents before in the chariot-
+house," he said. The King and his nephew entered the hollow
+chamber. The chariot was motionless but very bright. One would
+have said that the bronze burned. It was of great size and beauty.
+By its side were two horse-stalls with racks and mangers, the bars
+of the rack were of gold bronze which was called findruiney, and
+the mangers of yellow brass. The floor was paved with cut marble,
+the walls lined with smooth boards of ash. There were no windows,
+but there were nine lamps in the room. "It will be thy duty to
+feed those lamps," said Concobar.
+
+Concobar took the fawn-skin towel from the boy and polished the
+chariot, and the wheels, tyres, and boxes, and the wheel-spokes.
+He oiled the wheels too, and mightily lifting the great chariot
+seized the spokes with his right hand and made the wheels spin.
+
+"Go now to the chamber of which I have given thee the keys," he
+said, "and bring the buckets, and clear out the mangers to the
+last grain, and empty the stale barley into the place of the
+burning, and afterwards take fresh barley from the bin which is in
+the chamber and fill the mangers. Empty the racks also and bring
+fresh hay. Thou wilt find it stored there too; clean straw also
+and litter the horse-stalls."
+
+The boy did that. In the meantime Concobar polished the pole, and
+the yoke, and the chains. From the wall he took the head-gear of
+the horses and the long shining reins of interwoven brass and did
+the same very carefully till there was not a speck of rust or
+discolouration to be seen.
+
+"Where are the horses, my Uncle Concobar?" said the boy.
+
+"That I cannot rightly tell," said Concobar, "but verily they are
+somewhere."
+
+"What are those horses?" said the boy. "How are they called? What
+their attributes, and why do I fill their racks and mangers?"
+
+"They are the Liath Macha and Black Shanglan," said Concobar.
+"They have not been seen in Erin for three hundred years, not
+since Macha dwelt visibly in Emain as the bride of Kimbaoth, son
+of Fiontann. In this chariot she went forth to war, charioteering
+her warlike groom. But they are to come again for the promised one
+and bear him to battle and to conflict in this chariot, and the
+time is not known but the King of Emain is under gesa [Footnote:
+Terrible druidic obligations.] to keep the chariot bright and the
+racks and mangers furnished with fresh hay, and barley two years
+old. He is to wait, and watch, and stand prepared under gesa most
+terrible."
+
+"Maybe Kimbaoth will return to us again," said the boy.
+
+"Nay, it hath not been so prophesied," answered the King. "He was
+great, and stern, and formidable. But our promised one is gentle
+exceedingly. He will not know his own greatness, and his nearest
+comrades will not know it, and there will be more of love in his
+heart than war." So saying Concobar looked steadfastly upon the
+boy.
+
+"Conall Carnach is as famous for love as for war," said Setanta.
+"He is peerless in beauty, and his strength and courage are equal
+to his comeliness, and his chivalry and battle-splendour to his
+strength."
+
+"Nay, lad, it is not Conall Carnach, though the women of Ulla
+sicken and droop for the love of him. Verily, it is not Conall
+Carnach."
+
+Setanta examined curiously the great war-car.
+
+"Was Kimbaoth assisting his wife," he asked, "when she took
+captive the sons of Dithorba?"
+
+"Nay," said the King, "she went forth alone and crossed the
+Shannon with one step into the land of the Fir-bolgs, and there,
+one by one, she bound those builder-giants the sons of Dithorba,
+and bore them hither in her might, and truly those five brethren
+were no small load for the back of one woman."
+
+"Has anyone seen her in our time?" asked the lad.
+
+"I have," said Concobar. "I saw her at the great fair of Tailteen.
+There she pronounced a curse upon me and upon the Red Branch.
+[Footnote: At Tailteen a man boasted that his wife could outrun
+Concobar's victorious chariot-steeds. Concobar compelled the woman
+to run against his horses. She won the race, but died at the goal
+leaving her curse upon the Red Branch.] The curse hath not yet
+fallen, but it will fall in my time, and the promised one will
+come in my time and he will redeem us from its power. Great
+tribulation will be his. Question me no more, dear Setanta, I have
+said more than enough."
+
+They went forth from the sacred chamber and Concobar locked the
+doors.
+
+As they crossed the vacant space going to the palace, Concobar
+said--
+
+"Why art thou sad, dear Setanta?"
+
+"I am not sad," answered the boy.
+
+"Truly there is no sadness in thy face, or thy lips, in thy voice
+or thy behaviour, but it is deep down in thine eyes," said the
+King. "I see it there always."
+
+Setanta laughed lightly. "I know it not," he said.
+
+Concobar went his way after that, musing, and Setanta, having
+replaced the sacred vessels in their chamber and having locked the
+door, strode away into the boys' hall. There was a great fire in
+the midst, and the boys sat round it, for it was cold. Cuculain
+broke their circle, pushing the boys asunder, and sat down. They
+tried to drag him away, but he laughed and kept his place like a
+rock. Then they called him "a Fomorian, and no man," and perforce
+made their circle wider.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE WEIRD HORSES
+
+
+   "On the brink of the night and the morning
+    My coursers are wont to respire,
+    But the earth has just whispered a warning,
+    That their flight must be swifter than fire,
+    They shall breathe the hot air of desire."
+
+                    SHELLEY.
+
+
+One night when the stars shone brightly, Setanta, as he passed by
+Cathvah's astrological tower, heard him declare to his students
+that whoever should be knighted by Concobar on a certain day would
+be famous to the world's end. He was in his coming out of the
+forest then with a bundle of young ash trees under his arm. He
+thought to put them to season and therewith make slings, for truly
+he surpassed all others in the use of the sling. Setanta went his
+way after that and came into the speckled house. It was the
+armoury of the Red Branch and shone with all manner of war-
+furniture. A fire burned here always, absorbing the damp of the
+air lest the metal should take rust. Setanta flung his trees into
+the rafters over the fire very deftly, so that they caught and
+remained there. He said they would season best in that place.
+
+As he turned to go a man stood before him in the vast and hollow
+chamber.
+
+"I know thee," said the boy. "What wouldst thou now?"
+
+"Thou shalt go forth to-night," said the man, [Footnote: This man
+was Lu the Long-Handed, the same who met him when he was leaving
+home.] "and take captive the Liath Macha and Black Shanghlan.
+Power will be given to thee. Go out boldly."
+
+"I am not wont to go out fearfully," answered the lad. "Great
+labours are thrust upon me."
+
+He went into the supper hall as at other times and took his
+customary place there, and ate and drank.
+
+"Thy eyes are very bright," said Laeg.
+
+"They will be brighter ere the day," he replied.
+
+"That is an expert juggler," said Laeg. "How he tosseth the bright
+balls!"
+
+"Can he toss the stars so?" said Setanta.
+
+"Thou art strange and wild to-night," said Laeg.
+
+"I will be stranger and wilder ere the morrow," cried Setanta.
+
+He stood up to go. Laeg caught him by the skirt of his mantle. The
+piece came away in his hand.
+
+"Whither art thou going, Setanta?" cried the King from the other
+end of the vast hall.
+
+"To seek my horses," cried the lad. His voice rang round the
+hollow dome and down the resounding galleries and long corridors,
+so that men started in their seats and looked towards him.
+
+"They are stabled since the setting of the sun," said the chief
+groom.
+
+"Thou liest," answered the boy. "They are in the hills and valleys
+of Erin." His eyes burned like fire and his stature was exalted
+before their eyes.
+
+"Great deeds will be done in Erin this night," said Concobar.
+
+He went forth into the night. There was great power upon him. He
+crossed the Plain of the Hurlings and the Plain of the Assemblies
+and the open country and the great waste moor, going on to Dun-
+Culain. Culain's new hound cowered low when he saw him. The boy
+sprang over moat and rampart at one bound and burst open the doors
+of the smith's house, breaking the bar. The noise of the riven
+beam was like the brattling of thunder.
+
+"That is an unusual way to enter a man's house," said Culain. He
+and his people were at supper.
+
+"It is," said Setanta. "Things more unusual will happen this
+night. Give me bridles that will hold the strongest horses."
+Culain gave him two bridles.
+
+"Will they hold the strongest horses?" said the boy.
+
+"Anything less than the Liath Macha they will hold," said the
+smith.
+
+The boy snapped the bridles and flung them aside. "I want bridles
+that will hold the Liath Macha and Black Shanglan," said he.
+
+"Fire all the furnaces," cried Culain. "Handle your tools; show
+your might. Work now, men, for your lives. Verily, if he get not
+the bridles, soon your dead will be more numerous than your
+living."
+
+Culain and his people made the bridles. He gave them to Cuculain.
+The smiths stood around in pallid groups. Cuculain took the
+bridles and went forth. He went south-westwards to Slieve Fuad,
+and came to the Grey Lake. The moon shone and the lake glowed like
+silver. There was a great horse feeding by the lake. He raised his
+head and neighed when he heard footsteps on the hill. He came on
+against Cuculain and Cuculain went on against him. The boy had one
+bridle knotted round his waist and the other in his teeth. He
+leaped upon the steed and caught him by the forelock and his
+mouth. The horse reared mightily, but Setanta held him and dragged
+his head down to the ground. The grey steed grew greater and more
+terrible. So did Cuculain.
+
+"Thou hast met thy master, O Liath Macha, this night," he cried.
+"Surely I will not lose thee. Ascend into the heavens, or,
+breaking the earth's roof, descend to Orchil, [Footnote: A great
+sorceress who ruled the world under the earth.] yet even so thou
+wilt not shake me away."
+
+Ireland quaked from the centre to the sea. They reeled together,
+steed and hero, through the plains of Murthemney. "Make the
+circuit of Ireland Liath Macha and I shall be on the neck of
+thee," cried Cuculain. The horse went in reeling circles round
+Ireland. Cuculain mightily thust the bit into his mouth and made
+fast the headstall. The Liath Macha went a second time round
+Ireland. The sea retreated from the shore and stood in heaps.
+Cuculain sprang upon his back. A third time the horse went round
+Ireland, bounding from peak to peak. They seemed a resplendent
+Fomorian phantom against the stars. The horse came to a stand. "I
+think thou art tamed, O Liath Macha," said Cuculain. "Go on now to
+the Dark Valley." They came to the Dark Valley. There was night
+there always. Shapes of Death and Horror, Fomorian apparitions,
+guarded the entrance. They came against Cuculain, and he went
+against them. A voice from within cried, "Forbear, this is the
+promised one. Your watching and warding are at end." He rode into
+the Dark Valley. There was a roaring of unseen rivers in the
+darkness, of black cataracts rushing down the steep sides of the
+Valley. The Liath Macha neighed loudly. The neigh reverberated
+through the long Valley. A horse neighed joyfully in response.
+There was a noise of iron doors rushing open somewhere, and a
+four-footed thunderous trampling on the hollow-sounding earth. A
+steed came to the Liath Macha. Cuculain felt for his head in the
+dark, and bitted and bridled him ere he was aware. The horse
+reared and struggled. The Liath Macha dragged him down the Valley.
+"Struggle not, Black Shanglan," said Cuculain, "I have tamed thy
+better." The horse ceased to struggle. Down and out of the Dark
+Valley rodest thou, O peerless one, with thy horses. The Liath
+Macha was grey to whiteness, the other horse was black and
+glistening like the bright mail of the chaffer. He rode thence to
+Emain Macha with the two horses like a lord of Day and Night, and
+of Life and Death. Truly the might and power of the Long-Handed
+and Far-Shooting one was upon him that night. He came to Emain
+Macha. The doors of Macha's stable flew open before him. He rode
+the horses into the stable. Macha's war-car brayed forth a brazen
+roar of welcome, the Tuatha De Danan shouted, and the car itself
+glowed and sparkled. The horses went to their ancient stalls, the
+Liath Macha to that which was nearer to the door. Cuculain took
+off their bridles and hanged them on the wall. He went forth into
+the night. The horses were already eating their barley, but they
+looked after him as he went. The doors shut to with a brazen
+clash. Cuculain stood alone in the great court under the stars. A
+druidic storm was abroad and howled in the forests. He thought all
+that had taken place a wild dream. He went to his dormitory and to
+his couch. Laeg was asleep with the starlight shining on his white
+forehead; his red hair was shed over the pillow. Cuculain kissed
+him, and sitting on the bed's edge wept. Laeg awoke.
+
+"Thou wert not well at supper," said Laeg, "and now thou hast been
+wandering in the damp of the night, and thou with a fever upon
+thee, for I hear thy teeth clattering. I sought to hinder thee,
+and thou wouldst not be persuaded. Verily, if thou wilt not again
+obey me, being thy senior, thou shalt have sore bones at my hands.
+Undress thyself now and come to bed without delay."
+
+Cuculain did so.
+
+"Thou art as cold as ice," said Laeg.
+
+"Nay, I am hotter than fire," said Cuculain.
+
+"Thou art ice, I say," said Laeg, "and thy teeth are clattering
+like hailstones on a brazen shield. Ay, and thine eyes shine
+terribly."
+
+Laeg started from the couch. He struck flintsparks upon a rag
+steeped in nitre, and waved it to a flame, and kindled a lanthorn.
+He flung his own mantle upon the bed and went forth in his shirt.
+The storm raged terribly; the stars were dancing in high heaven.
+He came to the house of the Chief Leech and beat at the door. The
+Leech was not in bed. All the wise men of Emain Macha were awake
+that night, listening to the portents.
+
+"Setanta, son of Sualtam, is sick," said Laeg.
+
+"What are his symptoms?" said the Leech.
+
+"He is colder than ice, his eyes shine terribly, and his teeth
+clatter, but he says that he is hotter than fire."
+
+The Leech went to Cuculain. "This is not a work for me," he said,
+"but for a seer. Bring hither Cathvah and his Druids." Cathvah and
+and his seers came. They made their symbols of power over the
+youth and chanted their incantations and Druid songs. After that
+Cuculain slept. He slept for three days and three nights. There
+was a great stillness while the boy slept, for it was not lawful
+at any time for anyone to awake Cuculain when he slumbered.
+
+On the third morning Cuculain awoke. The bright morning sunshine
+was all around, and the birds sang in Emain Macha. He called for
+Laeg with a loud voice and bade him order a division of the boys
+to get ready their horses and chariots for charioteering exercise
+and fighting out of their cars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE KNIGHTING OF CUCULAIN
+
+
+     "Then felt I like a watcher of the skies
+     When a new planet swims into his ken."
+
+                        KEATS.
+
+
+The prophecies concerning the coming of some extraordinary warrior
+amongst the Red Branch had been many and ancient, and by certain
+signs Concobar believed that his time was now near. Often he
+contemplated his nephew, observed his beauty, his strength, and
+his unusual proficiency in all martial exercises, and mused deeply
+considering the omens. But when he saw him slinging and
+charioteering amongst the rest, shooting spears and casting
+battle-stones at a mark before the palace upon the lawn, and saw
+him eating and drinking before him nightly in the hall like
+another, and heard his clear voice and laughter amongst the boys,
+his schoolfellows and comrades, then the thought or the faint
+surmise or wish that his nephew might be that promised one passed
+out of his mind, for the prophesyings and the rumours had been
+very great, and men looked for one who should resemble Lu the
+Long-Handed, son of Ethlend, [Footnote: This great deity resembled
+the Greek Phoebus Apollo. He led the rebellion of the gods against
+the Fomorian giants who had previously reduced them to a condition
+of intolerable slavery. Some say that he was Cuculain's true
+father. His favourite weapon was the sling, likened here to the
+rainbow. It was not a thong or cord sling, but a pliant rod such
+as boys in Ireland still make. The milky way was his chain.] whose
+sling was like the cloud bow, who thundered and lightened against
+the giants of the Fomoroh, who was all power and all skill, whose
+chain wherewith he used to confine Tuatha De Danan and Milesians,
+spanned the midnight sky. The rumours and prophecies were indeed
+exceeding great and Cuculain, though he far surpassed the rest,
+was but a boy like others. He stood at the head of Concobar's
+horses when the King ascended his chariot. His shoulder was warm
+and firm to the touch when the King lightly laid his hand upon
+him.
+
+One night there were terrible portents. All Ireland quaked; there
+was a druidic storm under bright stars; the buildings rocked; a
+brazen clangour sounded from the Tec Brac; there were mighty
+tramplings and cries and a four-footed thunder of giant hoofs, and
+they went round Ireland three times, only the third time swifter
+and like a hurricane of sound. Cuculain was abroad that night.
+There was deep sleep upon the people of Emain, only the chiefs
+were awake and aware. Cuculain was sick after that. The Druids
+stood around his bed.
+
+"The world labours with the new birth," said Concobar. "Maybe my
+nephew is the forerunner, the herald and announcer of the coming
+god!"
+
+One evening, after supper, when the lad came to bid his uncle
+good-night as his custom was, he said, "If it be pleasing to thee,
+my Uncle Concobar, I would be knighted on the morrow, for I am now
+of due age, and owing to the instructions of my tutor, Fergus Mac
+Roy, and thyself, and my other teachers and instructors, I am
+thought to be sufficiently versed in martial exercises, and able
+to play a man's part amongst the Red Branch."
+
+He was now a man's full height, but his face was a boy's face, and
+his strength and agility amazed all who observed him in his
+exercises.
+
+"Has thou heard what Cathvah has predicted concerning the youth
+who is knighted on that day?" said the King.
+
+"Yes," answered the lad.
+
+"That he will be famous and short-lived and unhappy?"
+
+"Truly," he replied.
+
+"And doth thy purpose still hold?"
+
+"Yes," he answered, "but whether it be mine I cannot tell."
+
+Concobar, though unwilling, yielded to that request.
+
+Loegairey, the Victorious, son of Conud, son of Iliach, the second
+best knight of the Red Branch and the most devoted to poetry of
+them all came that night into the hall while the rest slumbered.
+The candles were flickering in their sockets. Darkness invested
+the rest of the vast hollow-sounding chamber, but there was light
+around the throne and couch of the King, owing to the splendour of
+the pillars and of the canopy shining with bronze, white and red,
+and silver and gold, and glittering with carbuncles and diamonds,
+and owing to the light which always surrounded the King and
+encircled his regal head like a luminous cloud, seen by many. He
+was looking straight out before him with bright eyes, considering
+and consulting for the Red Branch while they slept. Two great men
+having their swords drawn in their hands, stood behind him, on the
+right and on the left, like statues, motionless and silent.
+
+Loegairey drew nigh to the King. Distraction and amazement were in
+his face. His dense and lustrous hair was dishevelled and in
+agitation round his neck and huge shoulders. He held in his hand
+two long spears with rings of walrus tooth where the timber met
+the shank of the flashing blades; they trembled in his hand. His
+lips were dry, his voice very low.
+
+"There are horses in the stable of Macha," he said.
+
+"I know it," answered the King.
+
+Concobar called for water, and when he had washed his hands and
+his face, he took from its place the chess-board of the realm,
+arranged the men, and observed their movements and combinations.
+He closed the board and put the men in their net of bronze wire,
+and restored all to their place.
+
+"Great things will happen on the morrow, O grandson of Iliach," he
+said. "Take candles and go before me to the boys' dormitory."
+
+They went to the boys' dormitory and to the couch of Cuculain.
+Cuculain and Laeg were asleep together there. Their faces towards
+each other and their hair mingled together. Cuculain's face was
+very tranquil, and his breathing inaudible, like an infant's.
+
+"O sweet and serene face," murmured the King, "I see great clouds
+of sorrow coming upon you."
+
+They returned to the hall.
+
+"Go now to thy rest and thy slumber, O Loegairey," said the King.
+"When the curse of Macha descends upon us I know one who will
+withstand it."
+
+"Surely it is not that stripling?" said Loegairey. But the King
+made no answer.
+
+On the morrow there was a great hosting of the Red Branch on the
+plain of the Assemblies. It was May-Day morning and the sun shone
+brightly, but at first through radiant showers. The trees were
+putting forth young buds; the wet grass sparkled. All the martial
+pomp and glory of the Ultonians were exhibited that day. Their
+chariots and war-horses ringed the plain. All the horses' heads
+were turned towards the centre where were Concobar Mac Nessa and
+the chiefs of the Red Branch. The plain flashed with gold, bronze,
+and steel, and glowed with the bright mantles of the innumerable
+heroes, crimson and scarlet, blue, green, or purple. The huge
+brooches on their breasts of gold and silver or gold-like bronze,
+were like resplendent wheels. Their long hair, yellow for the most
+part, was bound with ornaments of gold. Great, truly, were those
+men, their like has not come since upon the earth. They were the
+heroes and demigods of the heroic age of Erin, champions who
+feared nought beneath the sun, mightiest among the mighty, huge,
+proud, and unconquerable, and loyal and affectionate beyond all
+others; all of the blood of Ir, [Footnote: On account of their
+descent from Ir, son of Milesius, the Red Branch were also called
+the Irians.] son of Milesius, the Clanna Rury of great renown,
+rejoicing in their valour, their splendour, their fame and their
+peerless king. Concobar had no crown. A plain circle of beaten
+gold girt his broad temples. In the naked glory of his regal
+manhood he stood there before them all, but even so a stranger
+would have swiftly discovered the captain of the Red Branch, such
+was his stature, his bearing, such his slowly-turning, steady-
+gazing eyes and the majesty of his bearded countenance. His
+countenance was long, broad above and narrow below, his nose
+eminent, his beard bipartite, curling and auburn in hue, his form
+without any blemish or imperfection.
+
+Cuculain came forth from the palace. He wore that day a short
+mantle of pale-red silk bordered with white thread and fastened on
+the breast with a small brooch like a wheel of silver. The hues
+upon that silk were never the same. His tunic of fine linen was
+girt at the waist with a leathern zone, stained to the resemblance
+of the wild-briar rose. It descended to but did not pass his
+beautiful knees, falling into many plaits. The tunic was cut low
+at the neck, exposing his throat and the knot in the throat and
+the cup-shaped indentation above the breast. On his feet were
+comely shoes sparkling with bronze plates. They took the colour of
+everything which they approached. His hair fell in many curls over
+the pale-red mantle, without adornment or confinement. It was the
+colour of the flower which is named after the dearest Disciple,
+but which was called sovarchey by the Gael. A tinge of red ran
+through the gold. As to his eyes, no two men or women could agree
+concerning their colour, for some said they were blue, and some
+grey, and others hazel; and there were those who said that they
+were blacker than the blackest night that was ever known. Yet
+again, there were those who said that they were of all colours
+named and nameless. They were soft and liquid splendours,
+unfathomable lakes of light above his full and ruddy cheeks, and
+beneath his curved and most tranquil brows. In form he was
+symmetrical, straight and pliant as a young fir tree when the
+sweet spring sap fills its veins. So he came to that assembly, in
+the glory of youth, beauty, strength, valour, and beautiful shame-
+fastness, yet proud in his humility and glittering like the
+morning star. Choice youths, his comrades, attended him. The kings
+held their breaths when he drew nigh, moving white knee after
+white knee over the green and sparkling grass. When the other
+rites had been performed and the due sacrifices and libations
+made, and after Cuculain had put his right hand into the right
+hand of the King and become his man, Concobar gave him a shield,
+two spears and a sword, weapons of great price and of thrice
+proved excellence--a strong man's equipment. Cuculain struck the
+spears together at right angles and broke them. He clashed the
+sword flat-wise on the shield. The sword leaped into small pieces
+and the shield was bent inwards and torn.
+
+"These are not good weapons, my King," said the boy. Then the King
+gave him others, larger and stronger and worthy of his best
+champions. These, too, the boy broke into pieces in like manner.
+
+"Son of Nessa, these are still worse," he said, "nor is it well
+done, O Captain of the Red Branch, to make me a laughing-stock in
+the presence of this great hosting of the Ultonians."
+
+Concobar Mac Nessa exulted exceedingly when he beheld the amazing
+strength and the waywardness of the boy, and beneath delicate
+brows his eyes glittered like glittering swords as he glanced
+proudly round on the crowd of martial men that surrounded him.
+Amongst them all he seemed himself a bright torch of valour and
+war, more pure and clear than polished steel. He then beckoned to
+one of his knights, who hastened away and returned bringing
+Concobar's own shield and spears and sword out of the Tec Brac,
+where they were kept, an equipment in reserve. And Cuculain shook
+them and bent them and clashed them together, but they held firm.
+
+"These are good arms, O son of Nessa," said Cuculain.
+
+"Choose now thy charioteer," said the King, "for I will give thee
+also war-horses and a chariot."
+
+He caused to pass before Cuculain all the boys who in many and
+severe tests had proved their proficiency in charioteering, in the
+management and tending of steeds, in the care of weapons and
+steed-harness, and all that related to charioteering science.
+Amongst them was Laeg, with a pale face and dejected, his eyes red
+and his cheeks stained from much weeping. Cuculain laughed when he
+saw him, and called him forth from the rest, naming him by his
+name with a loud, clear voice, heard to the utmost limit of the
+great host.
+
+"There was fear upon thee," said Cuculain.
+
+"There is fear upon thyself," answered Laeg. "It was in thy mind
+that I would refuse."
+
+"Nay, there is no such fear upon me," said Cuculain.
+
+"Then there is fear upon me," said Laeg. "A charioteer needs a
+champion who is stout and a valiant and faithful. Yea, truly there
+is fear upon me," answered Laeg.
+
+"Verily, dear comrade and bed-fellow," answered Cuculain, "it is
+through me that thou shalt get thy death-wound, and I say not this
+as a vaunt, but as a prophecy."
+
+And that prophecy was fulfilled, for the spear that slew Laeg went
+through his master.
+
+After that Laeg stood by Cuculain's side and held his peace, but
+his face shone with excess of joy and pride. He wore a light
+graceful frock of deerskin, joined in the front with a twine of
+bronze wire, and a short, dark-red cape, secured by a pin of gold
+with a ring to it. A band of gold thread confined his auburn hair,
+rising into a peak behind his head. In his hands he held a goad of
+polished red-yew, furnished with a crooked hand-grip of gold, and
+pointed with shining bronze, and where the bronze met the timber
+there was a circlet of diamond of the diamonds of Banba. He had
+also a short-handled scourge with a haft of walrus tooth, and the
+rope, cord, and lash of that scourge were made of delicate and
+delicately-twisted thread of copper. This equipment was the
+equipment of a proved charioteer; the apprentices wore only grey
+capes with white fringes, fastened by loops of red cord.
+
+Laeg was one of three brothers, all famous charioteers. Id and
+Sheeling were the others. They were all three sons of the King of
+Gabra, whose bright dun arose upon a green and sloping hill over
+against Tara towards the rising of the sun. Thence sprang the
+beautiful stream of the Nemnich, rich in lilies and reeds and
+bulrushes, which to-day men call the Nanny Water. Laeg was grey-
+eyed and freckled.
+
+Then there were led forward by two strong knights a pair of great
+and spirited horses and a splendid war-car. The King said, "They
+are thine, dear nephew. Well I know that neither thou, nor Laeg,
+will be a dishonour to this war equipage."
+
+Cuculain sprang into the car, and standing with legs apart, he
+stamped from side to side and shook the car mightily, till the
+axle brake, and the car itself was broken in pieces.
+
+"It is not a good chariot," said the lad.
+
+Another was led forward, and he broke it in like manner.
+
+"Give me a sound chariot, High Lord of the Clanna Rury, or give me
+none," he said. "No prudent warrior would fight from such brittle
+foothold."
+
+He brake in succession nine war chariots, the greatest and
+strongest in Emain. When he broke the ninth the horses of Macha
+neighed from their stable. Great fear fell upon the host when they
+heard that unusual noise and the reverberation of it in the woods
+and hills.
+
+"Let those horses be harnessed to the Chariot of Macha," cried
+Concobar, "and let Laeg, son of the King of Gabra, drive them
+hither, for those are the horses and that the chariot which shall
+be given this day to Cuculain."
+
+Then, son of Sualtam, how in thy guileless breast thy heart
+leaped, when thou heardest the thundering of the great war-car and
+the wild neighing of the immortal steeds, as they broke from the
+dark stable into the clear-shining light of day, and heard behind
+them the ancient roaring of the brazen wheels as in the days when
+they bore forth Macha and her martial groom against the giants of
+old, and mightily established in Eiriu the Red Branch of the
+Ultonians! Soon they rushed to view from the rear of Emain,
+speeding forth impetuously out of the hollow-sounding ways of the
+city and the echoing palaces into the open, and behind them in the
+great car green and gold, above the many-twinkling wheels, the
+charioteer, with floating mantle, girt round the temples with the
+gold fillet of his office, leaning backwards and sideways as he
+laboured to restrain their fury unrestrainable; a grey long-maned
+steed, whale-bellied, broad-chested, with mane like flying foam,
+under one silver yoke, and a black lustrous, tufty-maned steed
+under the other, such steeds as in power, size, and beauty the
+earth never produced before and never will produce again.
+
+Like a hawk swooping along the face of a cliff when the wind is
+high, or like the rush of March wind over the smooth plain, or
+like the fleetness of the stag roused from his lair by the hounds
+and covering his first field, was the rush of those steeds when
+they had broken through the restraint of the charioteer, as though
+they galloped over fiery flags, so that the earth shook and
+trembled with the velocity of their motion, and all the time the
+great car brayed and shrieked as the wheels of solid and
+glittering bronze went round, and strange cries and exclamations
+were heard, for they were demons that had their abode in that car.
+
+The charioteer restrained the steeds before the assembly, but nay-
+the-less a deep purr, like the purr of a tiger, proceeded from the
+axle. Then the whole assembly lifted up their voices and shouted
+for Cuculain, and he himself, Cuculain, the son of Sualtam, sprang
+into his chariot, all armed, with a cry as of a warrior springing
+into his chariot in the battle, and he stood erect and brandished
+his spears, and the war sprites of the Gael shouted along with
+him, for the Bocanahs and Bananahs and the Geniti Glindi, the wild
+people of the glens, and the demons of the air, roared around him,
+when first the great warrior of the Gael, his battle-arms in his
+hands, stood equipped for war in his chariot before all the
+warriors of his tribe, the kings of the Clanna Rury and the people
+of Emain Macha. Then, too, there sounded from the Tec Brac the
+boom of shields, and the clashing of swords and the cries and
+shouting of the Tuatha De Danan, who dwelt there perpetually; and
+Lu the Long-Handed, the slayer of Balor, the destroyer of the
+Fomoroh, the immortal, the invisible, the maker and decorator of
+the Firmament, whose hound was the sun and whose son the viewless
+wind, thundered from heaven and bent his sling five-hued against
+the clouds; and the son of the illimitable Lir [Footnote: Mananan
+mac Lir, the sea-god.] in his mantle blue and green, foam-fringed
+passed through the assembly with a roar of far-off innumerable
+waters, and the Mor Reega stood in the midst with a foot on either
+side of the plain, and shouted with the shout of a host, so that
+the Ultonians fell down like reaped grass with their faces to the
+earth, on account of the presence of the Mor Reega, and on account
+of the omens and great signs.
+
+Cuculain bade Laeg let the steeds go. They went like a storm and
+three times encircled Emain Macha. It was the custom of the
+Ultonians to march thrice round Emain ere they went forth to war.
+
+Then said Cuculain--"Whither leads the great road yonder?"
+
+"To Ath-na-Forairey and the borders of the Crave Rue."
+
+"And wherefore is it called the Ford of the Watchings?" said
+Cuculain.
+
+"Because," answered Laeg, "there is always one of the King's
+knights there, keeping watch and ward over the gate of the
+province."
+
+"Guide thither the horses," said Cuculain, "for I will not lay
+aside my arms till I have first reddened them in the blood of the
+enemies of my nation. Who is it that is over the ward there this
+day?"
+
+"It is Conall Carnach," said Laeg.
+
+As they drew nigh to the ford, the watchman from his high watch-
+tower on the west side of the dun sent forth a loud and clear
+voice--
+
+"There is a chariot coming to us from Emain Macha," he said. "The
+chariot is of great size; I have not seen its like in all Eiriu.
+In front of it are two horses, one black and one white. Great is
+their trampling and their glory and the shaking of their heads and
+necks. I liken their progress to the fall of water from a high
+cliff or the sweeping of dust and beech-tree leaves over a plain,
+when the March wind blows hard, or to the rapidity of thunder
+rattling over the firmament. A man would say that there were eight
+legs under each horse, so rapid and indistinguishable is the
+motion of their limbs and hoofs. Identify those horses, O Conall,
+and that chariot, for to me they are unknown."
+
+"And to me likewise," said Conall. "Who are in the chariot?
+Moderate, O man, the extravagance of thy language, for thou art
+not a prophet but a watchman."
+
+"There are two beardless youths in the chariot," answered the
+watchman, "but I am unable to identify them on account of the dust
+and the rapid motion and the steam of the horses. I think the
+charioteer is Laeg, the son of the King of Gabra, for I know his
+manner of driving. The boy who sits in front of him and below him
+on the champion's seat I do not know, but he shines like a star in
+the cloud of dust and steam." Then a young man who stood near to
+Conall Carna, wearing a short, red cloak with a blue hood to it,
+and a tassel at the point of the hood, said to Conall--
+
+"If it be my brother that charioteers sure am I that it is
+Cuculain who is in the fighter's seat, for many a time have I
+heard Laeg utter foul scorn of the Red Branch, none excepted, when
+compared with Sualtam's son. For no other than him would he deign
+to charioteer. Truly though he is my own brother there is not such
+a boaster in the North."
+
+Then the watchman cried out again--
+
+"Yea, the charioteer is the son of the King of Gabra, and it is
+Cuculain, the son of Sualtam, who sits in the fighter's seat. He
+has Concobar's own shield on his breast, and his two spears in his
+hand. Over Bray Ros, over Brainia, they are coming along the
+highway, by the foot of the Town of the Tree; it is gifted with
+victories."
+
+"Have done, O talkative man," cried Conall, "whose words are like
+the words of a seer, or the full-voiced intonement of a chief
+bard."
+
+When the chariot came to the ford, Conall was amazed at the horses
+and the chariot, but he dissembled his amazement before his
+people, and when he saw Cuculain armed, he laughed and said,--
+
+"Hath the boy indeed taken arms?"
+
+And Cuculain said, "It is as thou seest, O son of Amargin; and
+moreover, I have sworn not to let them back into the Chamber-of-
+Many-Colours [Footnote: Tec Brac or Speckled House, the armoury of
+the Ultonians.] until I shall have first reddened them in the
+blood of the enemies of Ulla."
+
+Then Conall ceased laughing and said, "Not so, Setanta, for verily
+thou shalt not be permitted;" and the great Champion sprang
+forward to lay his fearless, never-foiled, and all conquering
+hands on the bridles of the horses, but at a nod from Cuculain,
+Laeg let the steeds go, and Conall sprang aside out of the way, so
+terrible was the appearance of the horses as they reared against
+him. "Harness my horses and yoke my chariot," cried Conall, "for
+if this mad boy goes into the enemies' country and meets with harm
+there, verily I shall never be forgiven by the Ultonians."
+
+His horses were harnessed and his chariot yoked,--illustrious too
+were those horses, named and famed in many songs--and Conall and
+Ide in their chariot dashed through the ford enveloped with
+rainbow-painted clouds of foam and spray, and like hawks on the
+wing they skimmed the plain, pursuing the boys. Laeg heard the
+roar and trampling, and looking back over his shoulder, said,--
+
+"They are after us, dear master, namely the great son of Amargin
+and my haughty brother Ide, who hath ever borne himself to me as
+though I were a wayward child. They would spoil upon us this our
+brave foray. But they will overtake the wind sooner than they will
+overtake the Liath Macha and Black Shanglan, whose going truly is
+like the going of eagles. O storm-footed steeds, great is my love
+for you, and inexpressible my pride in your might and your beauty,
+your speed and your terror, and sweet docility and affection."
+
+"Nevertheless, O Laeg," said Cuculain, "slacken now their going,
+for that Champion will be an impediment to us in our challengings
+and our fightings; for when we stop for that purpose he will
+overtake us, and, be our feats what they may, his and not ours
+will be the glory. Slacken the going of the horses, for we must
+rid ourselves of the annoyance and the pursuit of these gadflies."
+
+Laeg slackened the pace, and as they went Cuculain leaped lightly
+from his seat and as lightly bounded back again, holding a great
+pebble in his hand, such as a man using all his strength could
+with difficulty raise from the ground, and sat still, rejoicing in
+his purpose, and grasping the pebble with his five fingers.
+
+Conall and Ide came up to them after that, and Conall, as the
+senior and the best man amongst the Ultonians, clamorously called
+to them to turn back straightway, or he would hough their horses,
+or draw the linch-pins of their wheels, or in some other manner
+bring their foray to naught. Cuculain thereupon stood upright in
+the car, and so standing, with feet apart to steady him in his
+throwing and in his aim, dashed the stone upon the yoke of
+Conall's chariot between the heads of the horses and broke the
+yoke, so that the pole fell to the ground and the chariot tilted
+forward violently. Then the charioteer fell amongst the horses,
+and Conall Carna, the beauty of the Ultonians the battle-winning
+and ever-victorious son of Amargin, was shot out in front upon the
+road, and fell there upon his left shoulder, and his beautiful
+raiment was defiled with dust; and when he arose his left hand
+hung by his side, for the shoulder-bone was driven from the
+socket, owing to the violence of the fall.
+
+"I swear by all my gods," he cried, "that if a step would save thy
+head from the hands of the men of Meath, I would not take it."
+
+Cuculain laughed and replied, "Good, O Conall, and who asked thee
+to take it, or craved of thee any succour or countenance? Was it a
+straight shot? Are there the materials of a fighter in me at all,
+dost thou think? Thou art in my debt now too, O Conall. I have
+saved thee a broken vow, for it is one of the oaths of our Order
+not to enter hostile territory with brittle chariot-gear!"
+
+Then the boys laughed at him again, and Laeg let go the steeds,
+and very soon they were out of sight. Conall returned slowly with
+his broken chariot to Ath-na-Forairey and sent for Fingin of
+Slieve Fuad, who was the most cunning physician and most expert of
+bone-setters amongst the Ultonians. Conall's messengers
+experienced no difficulty in finding the house of the leech, which
+was very recognisable on account of its shape and appearance, and
+because it had wide open doors, four in number, affording a
+liberal ingress and free thoroughfare to all the winds. Also a
+stream of pure water ran through the house, derived from a well of
+healing properties, which sprang from the side of the uninhabited
+hill. Such were the signs that showed the house of a leech.
+
+When they drew nigh they heard the voice of one man talking and of
+another who laughed. It happened that that day there had been
+borne thither a champion, in whose body there was not one small
+bone unbroken or uninjured. The man's bruises and fractures had
+been dressed and set by Fingin and his intelligent and deft-handed
+apprentices, and he lay now in his bed of healing listening
+joyfully to the conversation of the leech, who was beyond all
+others eloquent and of most agreeable discourse.
+
+When Conall's messengers related the reason of their coming,
+Fingin cried to his young men, "Harness me my horses and yoke my
+chariot. There are few," he said, "in Erin for whom I would leave
+my own house, but that youth is one of them. His father Amargin
+was well known to me. He was a warrior grim and dour exceedingly,
+and he ever said concerning the boy, 'This hound's whelp that I
+have gotten is too fine and sleek to hold bloody gaps or hunt down
+a noble prey. He will be a women's playmate and not a peer amongst
+Heroes.' And that fear was ever upon him till the day when Conall
+came red out of the Valley of the Thrush, and his track thence to
+Rath-Amargin was one straight path of blood, and he with his
+shield-arm hacked to the bone, his sword-arm swollen and bursting,
+and the flame of his valour burning bright in his splendid eyes.
+Then, for the first time, the old man smiled upon him, and he
+said, 'That arm, my son, has done a man's work to-day.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ACROSS THE MEARINGS AND AWAY
+
+
+   "Say, rushed the bold eagle exultingly forth.
+   From his home, in the dark rolling clouds of the North?"
+
+                  CAMPBELL.
+
+
+As for the boys, they proceeded joyfully after that pleasant
+skirmish and friendly encounter, both on account of the
+discomfiture of him who was reckoned the prime champion of the
+Ultonians, and because they were at large in Erin, with no one to
+direct them, or to whom they should render an account; and their
+happiness, too, was increased by the mettle, power and gallant
+action of the steeds, and by the clanking of the harness and the
+brazen chains, and the ringing of the weapons of war, and the roar
+of the revolving wheels, and owing to the velocity of their motion
+and the rushing of the wind upon their temples and through their
+hair.
+
+Then Cuculain stood up in the chariot, and surveyed the land on
+all sides, and said--
+
+"What is that great, firm-based, indestructible mountain upon our
+left hand, one of a noble range which, rising from the green
+plain, runs eastward. The last peak there is the mountain of which
+I speak, whose foot is in the Ictian sea and whose head neighbours
+the firmament."
+
+And Laeg said, "Men call it Slieve Modurn, after a giant of the
+elder time, when men were mightier and greater than they are now.
+He was of the children of Brogan, uncle of Milesius, and his
+brothers were Fuad and Eadar and Breagh, and all these being very
+great men are commemorated in the names of noble mountains and
+sea-dividing promontories."
+
+"Guide thither the horses," said Cuculain. "It is right that those
+who take the road against an enemy should first spy out the land,
+choosing judiciously their point of onset, and Slieve Modurn
+yonder commands a most brave prospect."
+
+Laeg did so. There, in a green valley, they unharnessed the horses
+and tethered them to graze, and they themselves climbed the
+mountain and stood upon the top in the most clear air. Thence Laeg
+showed him the green plain of Meath extending far and wide, and
+the great streams of Meath where they ran, the Boyne and the
+Blackwater, the Liffey and the Royal Rye, and his own stream the
+Nanny Water, clear and sparkling, which was very dear to Laeg,
+because he had snared fish there and erected dams, and had done
+divers boyish feats upon its shores.
+
+Cuculain said, "I see a beautiful green hill, shaped like an
+inverted ewer, on the south shore of the Boyne. There is a noble
+palace there. I see the flashing of its lime-white sides, and the
+colours of the variegated roof and around it are other beautiful
+houses. How is that city named O Laeg, and who dwells there?"
+
+"That is the hill of Temair," answered Laeg, "Tara's high citadel.
+Well may that city be beautiful, for the seat of Erin's high
+sovereignty is there. The man who holds it is Arch-king of all
+Erin."
+
+"Westward by south," said Cuculain, "I see another city widely
+built, and unenclosed by ramparts and defensive works, and hard by
+there is a most smooth plain. At one end of the plain I see a
+glittering, and also at the other,"
+
+And Laeg said, "That is the hill of Talteen, so named because the
+mother of far-shooting Lu, the Deliverer, is worshipped there, and
+every year, when the leaves change their colour, games and
+contests of skill are celebrated there in her honour. So it was
+enjoined on the men of Erin by her famous son. Chariot races are
+run there on that smooth plain. The glittering points on either
+side of it are the racing pillars of burnished brass, the
+starting-post, and that which the charioteers graze with the
+glowing axle. Many a noble chariot has been broken, and many a
+gallant youth slain at the further of those twain. It was there
+that Concobar raced his steeds against the woman with child,
+concerning which things there are rumours and prophesyings."
+
+So Cuculain questioned Laeg concerning the cities of Meath, and
+concerning the noble raths and duns where the kings and lords and
+chief men of Meath dwelt prosperously, rejoicing in their great
+wealth. Cuculain said, "None of these kings and lords and chief
+men whom thou hast enumerated have at any time injured my nation,
+and there is not one upon whom I might rightly take vengeance. But
+I see one other splendid dun, and of this thou hast said no word,
+though thrice I have questioned thee concerning it."
+
+Laeg grew pale at these words, and he said,
+
+"What dun is that, my master?"
+
+Cuculain said, "O fox that thou art, right well thou knowest. It
+is not a little or mean one, but great, proud, and conspicuous,
+and vauntingly it rears its head like a man who has never known
+defeat, but on the contrary has caused many widows to lament. Its
+white sides flashed against the dark waters of the Boyne, and its
+bright roofs glitter above the green woods. There is a stream that
+runs into the Boyne beside it, and there are bulwarks around it,
+and great strong barriers."
+
+Laeg answered, "That is the dun of the sons of Nectan."
+
+"Let us now leave Slieve Modurn," said Cuculain, "and guide
+thither my horses, for I shall lay waste that dun, and burn it
+with fire, after having slain the men who dwell there."
+
+Then Laeg clasped his comrade's knees, and said, "Take the road,
+dear master, against the royalest dun in all Meath, but pass by
+that dun. The men are not alive to-day who at any time approached
+it with warlike intent. Those who dwell there are sorcerers and
+enchanters, lords of all the arts of poison and of war."
+
+Cuculain answered, "I swear by my gods that Dun-Mic-Nectan is the
+only dun in all Meath which shall hear my warlike challenge this
+day. Descend the hill now, for verily thither shalt thou fare, and
+that whether thou art willing or unwilling."
+
+Now, for the first time, his valour and his destructive wrath were
+kindled in the soul of Dethcaen's nursling. Laeg saw the tokens of
+it, and feared and obeyed. Unwillingly he came down the slopes of
+Slieve Modurn, and unwillingly harnessed the horses and yoked the
+chariot, and yoked the horses. Southwards, then, they fared
+swiftly through the night, and the intervening nations heard them
+as they went. When they arrived at the dun of the sons of Nectan
+it was twilight and the dawning of the day. Before the dun there
+was a green and spacious lawn in full view of the palace, and on
+the lawn a pillar and on the pillar a huge disc of shining bronze.
+Cuculain descended and examined the disc, and there was inscribed
+on it in ogham a curse upon the man who should enter that lawn and
+depart again without battle and single combat with the men of the
+dun. Cuculain took the disc from its place and cast it from him
+southwards. The brazen disc skimmed low across the plain and then
+soared on high until it showed to those who looked a full, bright
+face, like the moon's, after which, pausing one moment, it fell
+sheer down and sank into the dark waters of the Boyne, without a
+sound, or at all disturbing the tranquil surface of the great
+stream, and was no more seen.
+
+"That bright lure," said Cuculain, "shall no more be a cause of
+death to brave men. This lawn, O Laeg, is surely the richest of
+all the lawns in the world. Close-enwoven and thick is the mantle
+of short green grass which it wears, decked all over with red-
+petalled daisies and bright flowers more numerous than the stars
+on a frosty night."
+
+"That is not surprising," said Laeg, "for the lawn is enriched and
+made fat by the blood that has been shed abundantly now for a long
+time, the blood of heroes and valiant men--slain here by the
+people of the dun. Very rich too, are the men, both on account of
+their strippings of the slain, and on account of the druidic well
+of magic which is within the dun. For the people come from far and
+near to pay their vows at that well, and they give costly presents
+to those sorcerers who are priests and custodians of the same."
+
+"Noble, indeed, is the dun," said Cuculain. "But it is yet early,
+for the sun is not yet risen from his red-flaming eastern couch,
+and the people of the dun, too, are in their heavy slumber. I
+would repose now for a while and rest myself before the battles
+and hard combats which await me this day. Wherefore, good Laeg,
+let down the sides and seats of the chariot, that I may repose
+myself for a little and take a short sleep."
+
+For just then precisely an unwonted drowsiness and desire for
+slumber possessed Cuculain.
+
+"Witless and devoid of sense art thou," answered Laeg, "for who
+but an idiot would think of sweet sleep and agreeable repose in a
+hostile territory, much more in full view of those who look out
+from a foeman's dun, and that dun, Dun-Mic-Nectan?"
+
+"Do as I bid thee," said Cuculain. "For one day, if for no other,
+thou shalt obey my commands."
+
+Laeg unyoked the chariot and turned the great steeds forth to
+graze on the druidic lawn, which was never done before at any
+time. He let down the chariot and arranged it as a couch, and his
+young master laid himself therein, composing his limbs and
+pillowing tranquilly his head, and he closed his immortal eyes.
+Very soon sweet slumber possessed him. Laeg meanwhile kept watch
+and ward, and his great heart in his breast continually trembled
+like the leaf of the poplar tree, or like a rush in a flooded
+stream. The awakening birds unconscious sang in the trees, the dew
+glittered on the grass; hard by the royal Boyne rolled silently.
+The son of Sualtam slumbered without sound or motion, and the
+charioteer stood beside him upright, like a pillar, his grey
+bright eyes fixed upon the house of the sorcerers, the merciless,
+bloody, and ever-victorious sons of Nectan, the son of Labrad.
+
+Of the people of the dun, Foil, son of Nectan, was the first to
+awake. It was his custom to wander forth by himself early in the
+morning, devising snares and stratagems by which he might take and
+destroy men at his leisure. He was more cruel than anything. By
+him the great door of the dun, bound and rivetted with brass, was
+flung open. With one hand he backshot the bar, which rushed into
+its chamber with a roar and crash as of a great house when it
+falls, and with the other he drew back the door. It grated on its
+brazen hinges, and on the iron threshold, with a noise like
+thunder. Then Foil stood black and huge in the wide doorway of the
+dun, and he looked at Laeg and Laeg looked at him. The man was
+ugly and fierce of aspect. His hair was thick and black; he was
+bull-necked and large-eared. His mantle was black, bordered with
+dark red; his tunic, a dirty yellow, was splashed with recent
+blood. There were great shoes on his feet soled with wood and
+iron. In his hand he bore a staff of quick-beam, as it were a
+full-grown tree without its branches. He being thus, strode
+forward in an ungainly manner to Laeg, and with a surly voice bade
+him drive the horses off the lawn.
+
+"Drive them off thyself," said Laeg.
+
+He sought to do that, but owing to the behaviour of the steeds, he
+desisted right soon, and turned again to Laeg.
+
+"Who is the sleeping youth?" said he, "and wherefore hath he come
+hither in an evil hour?"
+
+"He is a certain mild and gentle youth of the Ultonians," replied
+Laeg, "who yester morning prosperously assumed his arms of
+chivalry for the first time, and hath come hither to prove his
+valour upon the sons of Nectan."
+
+"Many youths of his nation have come hither with the same intent,"
+said the giant, "but they did not return."
+
+"This youth will," said Laeg, "after having slain the sons of
+Nectan, and after having sacked their dun and burned it with
+fire."
+
+Foil hearing that word became very angry, and he gripped his great
+staff and advanced to make a sudden end of Laeg first, and then of
+the sleeper, Laeg, on his side, drew Cuculain's sword. Hardly and
+using all his strength, could he do so and at the same time hold
+himself in an attitude of defence and attack, but he succeeded.
+His aspect, too, was high and warlike, and his eyes shone
+menacingly the while his heart trembled, for he knew too well that
+he was no match for the man.
+
+"Go back now for thy weapons of war," he cried, "and all thy war-
+furniture, and thy instruments of sorcery and enchantment. Truly
+thou art in need of them all."
+
+When Foil saw how the enormous sword flashed in the lad's hand,
+and saw the fierceness of his visage and heard his menacing words,
+he returned to the dun. The people of the dun were now awake, and
+they clustered like bees on the slope of the mound, and in the
+covered ways beneath the eaves and along the rampart, and they
+hissed and roared and shouted words of insult and contumely, lewd
+and gross, concerning Laeg and concerning that other youth who
+slept in such a place and at such a time. But Laeg stood still and
+silent, with his eyes fixed on the dun, and with the point of his
+sword leaning on the ground, for his right hand was weary on
+account of its great weight. Very ardently he longed that his
+master should awake out of that unreasonable slumber. Yet he made
+no attempt to rouse him, for it was unlawful to awake Cuculain
+when he slept. Conspicuous amongst the people of the dun were
+Foil's brethren, Tuatha and Fenla, Tuatha vast in bulk, and Fenla,
+tall and swift, wearing a mantle of pale blue. Around Fenla stood
+the three cup-bearers, who drew water from the magic well, Flesc,
+Lesc, and Leam were their names. At the same time that Foil
+reappeared in the doorway of the dun, fully armed and equipped for
+battle, Cuculain awoke and sat up. At first he was dazed and
+bewildered, for divine voices were sounding in his ears, and
+fleeting visionary presences were departing from him. Then he
+heard the people how they shouted and saw his enemy descending the
+slope of the dun, sights and sounds indeed diverse from those his
+dreams and visions. With a cry he started from his bed, like a
+deer starting from his lair, and the people of the dun fell
+suddenly silent when they beheld the velocity of his movements,
+the splendour of his beauty, and the rapidity with which he armed
+himself and stood forth for war.
+
+"That champion is Foil, son of Nectan," said Laeg, "and there is
+not one in the world with whom it is more difficult to contend
+both in other respects and chiefly in this, that there is but one
+weapon wherewith he may be slain. To all others he is
+invulnerable. That weapon is an iron ball having magic properties,
+and no man knows where to look for it, or where the man hath
+hidden it away. And O my dear master, thou goest forth to certain
+death going forth against that man."
+
+"Have no fear on that account," said Cuculain, "for it has been
+revealed to me where he hides it. It is a ges to him to wear it
+always on his breast above his armour, but beneath his mantle and
+tunic. There it is suspended by a strong chain of brass around his
+neck. With that ball I shall slay him in the manner in which I
+have been directed by those who visited me while I slept."
+
+Then they fought, and in the first close so vehement was the onset
+of Foil, that Cuculain could do no more than defend himself, and
+around the twain sparks flew up in showers as from a smithy where
+a blacksmith and his lusty apprentices strongly beat out the red
+iron. The second was similar to the first, and equally without
+results. In the third close Cuculain, having sheathed his sword,
+sprang upwards and dashed his shield into the giant's face, and at
+the same time he tore from its place of concealment the magic
+ball, rending mightily the brazen chain. And he leaped backwards,
+and taking a swift aim, threw. The ball flew from the young hero's
+hand like a bolt from a sling, and it struck the giant in the
+middle of the forehead below the rim of his helmet, but above his
+blazing eyes, and the ball crashed through the strong frontal
+bone, and tore its way through the hinder part of his head, and
+went forth, carrying the brains with it in its course, so that
+there was a free tunnel and thoroughfare for all the winds of
+heaven there. With a crash and a ringing, armour and weapons, the
+giant fell upon the plain and his blood poured forth in a torrent
+there where he himself invulnerable had shed the blood of so many
+heroes. Laeg rejoiced greatly at that feat, and with a loud voice
+bade the men of the dun bring forth their next champion. This was
+Tuatha the second son of Nectan, and the fiercest of the three, he
+buffeted his esquires and gillas, while they armed him, so that it
+was a sore task for them to clasp and strap and brace his armour
+upon him that day, for their faces were bloody from his hands, and
+the floor of the armoury was strewn with their teeth. That armour
+was a marvel and astonishment to all who saw it, so many thick,
+hard skins of wild oxen of the mountains had been stitched
+together to furnish forth the champion's coat of mail. It was
+strengthened, too, with countless bars and rings of brass sewed
+fast to it all over, and it encompassed the whole of his mighty
+frame, from his shoulders to his feet. The helmet and neckpiece
+were one, wrought in like manner, only stronger. The helmet
+covered his face. There was no opening there save breathing slits
+and two round holes through which his eyes shone terribly. On his
+feet were strong shoes bound with brass. To any other man but
+himself this armour would have been an encumbrance, for it was
+good and sufficient loading for a car drawn by one yoke of oxen;
+but so clad, this man was aware of no unusual weight. When they
+had clasped him and braced him to his satisfaction, and, indeed,
+that was not easy, they put upon him his tunic of dusky grey, and
+over that his mantle of dark crimson, and fastened it on his
+breast with a brooch whose wheel alone would task one man's full
+strength to lift from the ground.
+
+Then Tuatha went forth out of the dun, and when his people saw him
+they shouted mightily, for before that they had been greatly
+dismayed, and cast down on account of the slaying of Foil, whom
+till then they had deemed invincible. They were all males dwelling
+here together in sorcery and common lust for blood. No woman
+brightened their dark assemblies and the voice of a child was
+never heard within the dun or around it. So they rejoiced greatly
+when they beheld Tuatha and saw him how wrathfully he came forth,
+breathing slaughter, and heard his voice; for terribly he shouted
+as he strode down from the dun, and he banned and cursed Cuculain
+and Laeg, and devoted them to his gloomy gods. Beneath his feet
+the massive timbers of the drawbridge bent and creaked.
+
+Said Laeg, "This man, O dear Setanta, is far more terrible than
+the first, for he is said to be altogether invulnerable and proof
+against any weapon that was ever made."
+
+"It is not altogether thus," said Cuculain, "but if the man
+escapes the first stroke he is thenceforward invincible, and
+surely slays his foe. Therefore give into my hand Concobar's
+unendurable and mighty ashen spear, for I must make an end of him
+at one cast or not at all."
+
+Tuatha now rushed upon Cuculain, flinging darts, of which he
+carried many in his left hand. Not one of them did Cuculain
+attempt to take upon his shield, but altogether eluded them, for
+now he swerved to one side and now to another, and now he dropped
+on one knee and again sprang high in air, so that the missile
+hurtled and hissed between his gathered feet. Truly since the
+beginning of the world there was not, and to the end of the world
+there will not be, a better leaper than thy nursling, daughter of
+Cathvah; and behind him all the lawn was as it were sown thick
+with spears, and these so buried in the earth that two-thirds of
+their length was concealed and a third only projected slantwise
+from the green and glittering sward. When the man with all his
+force, fury, and venom had discharged his last shaft and seen it,
+too, shoot screaming beneath the aerial feet of the hero, he
+roared so terribly that the shores and waters of the Boyne and the
+surrounding woods and groves returned a hollow moan, and, laying
+his right hand on the hand-grip of his sword, he rushed upon
+Cuculain. At that moment Cuculain poised the broad-bladed spear of
+Concobar Mac Nessa and cast it at the man, who was now very near,
+and came rushing on like a storm, having his vast sword drawn and
+flashing. That cast no one could rightly blame whether as to force
+or direction, for the brazen blade caught the son of Nectan full
+on breast under the left pap and tore through his thick and strong
+armour and burst three rib bones, and fixed itself in his heart,
+so that he fell first upon his knees, stumbling forward, and then
+rolled over on the plain and a torrent of black blood gushed from
+his mouth and nostrils.
+
+"That was indeed a brave cast," said Laeg, "for the coat is the
+thickness of seven bulls' hides, and plated besides, and the rib-
+bones, through which Concobar's great spear impelled by thee hath
+burst his victorious way, are stronger than the thigh-bones of a
+horse; but pluck out the spear now, for it is beyond my power to
+do so, and stand well upon thy guard, for the two combats past
+will be as child's play to that which now awaits thee. Fenla, the
+third son of Nectan, is preparing himself for battle. He is called
+the Swallow, because there is not a man in the world swifter to
+retreat, or swifter to pursue. He is more at home in the water
+than on the dry land, for through it he dives like a water-dog,
+and glides like an eel, and rushes like a salmon when in the
+spring-time he seeks the upper pools. Greatly I fear that his
+challenge and defiance will be to do battle with him there, where
+no man born of woman can meet him and live."
+
+"Say not so, O Laeg," said Cuculain, "and be not so afraid and
+cast down, but still keep a cheerful heart in thy breast and a
+high and brave countenance before the people of the dun. For my
+tutor Fergus paid a good heed to my education in the whole art of
+war and especially as to swimming. He is himself a most noble
+swimmer and I have profited by his instructions. Once he put me to
+the test. It was in the great swimming bath in the Callan, dug
+out, it is said, by the Firbolgs in the ancient days, and the
+trial was in secret and its issue has not been revealed to this
+day. On that occasion I swam round the bath holding two well-grown
+boys in my right arm and two in my left, and there was a fifth
+sitting on my shoulders with his hands clasped on my forehead, and
+my back was not wetted by the Callan. Therefore dismiss thy fear
+and answer thou their challenge with a strong voice and a cheerful
+countenance."
+
+Laeg did that and he answered their challenge with a voice that
+rang, striking fear into the hearts of those who heard him.
+Forthwith, then, Fenla, wearing sword and shield, sprang at a
+bound over the rampart and foss, and his course thence to the
+Boyne was like a flash of blue and white and he plunged into the
+dark stream like a bright spear, and diving beneath the flood he
+emerged a great way off, and cried aloud for his foe.
+
+"I am here," cried Cuculain, at his side. "Cease thy shouting and
+look to thyself, for it is not my custom to take advantage of any
+man."
+
+Marvellous and terrible was the battle which then ensued between
+these champions. For the spray and the froth and the flying spume
+of the convulsed and agitated waters around that warring twain,
+rose in white clouds, and owing to the fierceness of the combat
+and the displacement of the waters around them, the Boyne on
+either hand beat her green margin with sudden and unusual billows,
+for the divine river was taken with a great surprise on that
+occasion. Amid the roar of the waters ever sounded the dry clash
+of the meeting swords and the clang of the smitten shields and the
+ringing of helmets. Sometimes one champion would dive seeking an
+advantage, and the other would dive too, in order to elude or meet
+the assault. Then the frothing surface of the stream would clear
+itself, and the Boyne run dark as before, though the mounted water
+showed that the combat still raged in its depths. The swallows,
+too, had been scared away, returning, skimmed the surface, and the
+bird which is the most beautiful of all darted a bright streak low
+across the dark water. Anon the submerged champions, coming to the
+surface for breath, renewed their deadly combat amid foaming
+waters and clouds of spray. The full particulars of this combat
+are not related, only that the wizard-champion grew weaker, while
+his vigour and strength continued unabated with the son of
+Sualtam, and that in the end he slew the other, and in the sight
+of all he cut off his head and flung it from the middle Boyne to
+the shore, and that the headless trunk of Fenla, son of Nectan,
+floated down-stream to the sea. When the people of the dun saw
+that, they brake forth west-ward and fled. Then Cuculain and Laeg
+invaded the dun, and they burst open the doors of the strong
+chambers, and of the dungeons beneath the earth, and let loose the
+prisoners and the hostages and the prepared victims, and they
+broke the idols and the instruments of sorcery, and filled in the
+well. After that they replenished the vacant places of the war-car
+with things the most precious and such as were portable, and gave
+all the rest to the liberated captives for a prey. Last of all
+they applied fire to the vast dun, and quickly the devouring
+flames shot heavenward, fed with pine and red yew, and rolled
+forth a mighty pillar of black smoke, reddened with rushing sparks
+and flaming embers. The men of Tara saw it, and the men of Tlatga,
+and of Tailteen, and of Ben-Eadar, and they consulted their
+prophets and wizards as to what this portent might mean, for it
+was not a little smoke that the burning of Dun-Mic-Nectan sent
+forth that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE RETURN OF CUCULAIN
+
+
+     "The golden gates of sleep unbar
+     When strength and beauty met together
+     Kindle their image like a star
+     In a sea of glassy weather."
+
+                      SHELLEY.
+
+
+Then Laeg harnessed the horses and yoked the chariot. To the
+brazen peaks of the chariot he fastened the heads of Foil and of
+Tuatha, with Foil's on the left hand and Tuatha's on the right;
+and the long-haired head of the water-wizard he made fast by its
+own hair to the ornament of silver that was at the forward
+extremity of the great chariot pole. When this was done, and when
+he had secured his master's weapons and warlike equipments in
+their respective places, the youths ascended the chariot, and Laeg
+shook the ringing reins and called to the steeds to go, and they
+went, and soon they were on the hard highway straining forward to
+the north. The sound of the war-car behind them outroared the
+roaring of the flames. Cuculain was a pale red all over, for ere
+the last combat was at an end that pool of the Boyne was like one
+bath of blood. His eyes blazed terribly in his head, and his face
+was fearful to look upon. Like a reed in a river so he quaked and
+trembled, and there went out from him a moaning like the moaning
+of winds through deep woods or desolate glens, or over the waste
+places of the earth when darkness is abroad. For the war-fury
+which the Northmen named after the Barserkers enwrapped and
+inflamed him, body and spirit, owing to those strenuous combats,
+and owing to the venom and the poison which exhaled from those
+children of sorcery, that spawn of Death and Hell, so that his
+gentle mind became as it were the meeting-place of storms and the
+confluence of shouting seas. A man ran before him whose bratta on
+the wind roared like fire, and there was a sound of voices calling
+and acclaiming, and a noontide darkness descended upon him and
+accompanied him as he went, and all became obscure and shapeless,
+and all the ways were murk. And the mind of Laeg, too, was
+disturbed and shaken loose from its strong foundations.
+
+"But now," said Cuculain, "there ran a man before us. Him I do not
+see, but what is this herd of monstrous deer, sad-coloured and
+livid, as with horns and hoofs of iron? I have not seen such at
+any time. Lurid fire plays round them as they flee."
+
+"No deer of the earth are they," said Laeg. "They are the
+enchanted herd of Slieve Fuad, and from their abode subterrene
+they have come up late into the world surrounded by night that
+they may graze upon Eiriu's plains, and it is not lawful even to
+look upon them."
+
+"Pursue and run down those deer," said Cuculain.
+
+"There is fear upon me," said Laeg.
+
+"Alive or dead thou shalt come with me on this adventure, though
+it lead us into the mighty realms of the dead," cried Cuculain.
+
+Laeg relaxed his hands upon the reins and let the steeds go, and
+they chased the enchanted herd of Slieve Fuad. There was no
+hunting seen like that before in Erin. So vehement was the chase
+that a twain of the herd was run down and they upon their knees
+and sobbing. Cuculain sprang from the chariot and he made fast one
+of the deer to the pole of the chariot to run before, and on to
+the hinder part of it to run behind. So they went northward again
+with a deer of the herd of Hell running before them and another
+following behind.
+
+"What are those birds whiter than snow and more brilliant than
+stars," said then Cuculain, "which are before us upon the plain,
+as if Heaven with its astral lights and splendour were outspread
+before us there?"
+
+"They are the wild geese of the enchanted flocks of Lir," answered
+Laeg. "From his vast and ever-during realms beneath the sea they
+have come up through the dim night to feed on Banba's plains. Have
+nought to do with those birds, dear master."
+
+Cuculain stood up in his chariot with his sling in his hand, and
+he fitted thereto small bolts, and slang. He did not make an end
+before he had overthrown and laid low three score of the birds of
+Lir.
+
+"Go bring me those birds," said he to Laeg. The horses were
+plunging terribly when he said that.
+
+"I may not, O my master," said Laeg. "For even now, and with the
+reins in my hand, I am unable to restrain their fury and their
+madness, to such a degree have their noble minds been disturbed by
+the sorcery and the druidism and the enchantment with which they
+are surrounded. And I fear that soon the brazen wheels will fail
+me, or that the axle-tree will fail me by reason of their
+collidings with the rocks and cliffs of the land, when the horses
+shall have escaped from my control and shall have rushed forth
+like hurricanes over the earth."
+
+Forthwith Cuculain sprang out in front of the chariot, and seized
+them by their mouths and they in their rearing, and with his hands
+bowed down their heads to the earth, and they knew their master
+and stood still while they quaked. Laeg collected the birds, and
+Cuculain secured them to the chariot and to the harness. The birds
+returned to life and Cuculain cut the binding cords, so that the
+birds flew over and on either side of the chariot, and singing
+besides.
+
+In that manner, speeding northward, Cuculain and Laeg drew nigh to
+Emain Macha. Concobar and the Ultonians happened at that very time
+to be seeking a druidic response from the prophetess Lavarcam
+concerning Cuculain and concerning Laeg, for their minds misgave
+them that beyond the mearings of the Province the lads had come to
+some hurt, and Lavarcam, answering them, said:
+
+"Look to yourselves now ye children of Rury, Your destruction and
+the end of your career are at hand. Close all gates, shoot every
+bar. For Dethcaen's nursling, Sualtam's son, draweth nigh.
+
+Verily he is not hurt, but he hath wounded. Champions the
+mightiest he hath victoriously overthrown. Though he come swiftly
+it is not in flight. Take good heed now while there is time. He
+cometh like night in raiment of darkness, Starry singing flocks
+are round his head, Soon, O Concobar, his unendurable hand will he
+upon you; Soon your dead will outnumber your living."
+
+"Close all the gates of Emain," cried Concobar, "and treble-bar
+all with bars. Look to your weapons ye heroes of the Red Branch.
+Man the ramparts, and let every bridge be raised."
+
+So the high king shouted, and his voice rang through the vast and
+high dun and rolled along the galleries and far-stretching
+corridors, and was heard by the women of Ulla in their secluded
+chambers. And at the same time the watchman from the watch-tower
+cried out. Then the women held council together, and they said:
+
+"Moats and ramparts and strong doors will not repel Cuculain. He
+will surely o'erleap the moat and burst through the doors and slay
+many."
+
+And as they debated together they said that they alone would save
+the city and defeat the war-demons who had Cuculain in their
+power. For they said--"His virginity is with him, and his
+beautiful shamefastness, and his humility and reverence for women,
+whether they be old or young, and whether they be comely or not
+comely. And this was his way always, and now more than formerly
+since young love hath descended upon him in the form of Emer,
+daughter of Fargal Manach, King of Lusk in the south."
+
+Then the women of the Ultonians did a great and memorable deed,
+and such as was not known to have been done at any time in Erin.
+
+They bade all the men retire into the dun after they had lowered
+the bridge; and when that was done three tens of them, such as
+were the most illustrious in rank and famous for accomplishments,
+and they all in the prime of their youth and beauty, and clad only
+in the pure raiment of their womanhood, came forth out of the
+quarters of the women, and in that order, in spite of shame they
+went to meet him. When Cuculain saw them advancing towards him in
+lowly wise, with exposed bosom and hands crossed on their breasts,
+his weapons fell from his hands and the war-demons fled out of
+him, and low in the chariot he bent down his noble head. By them
+he was conducted into the dun, into a chamber which they had
+prepared for him, and they drew water and filled his kieve, and
+there Laeg ministered to him. He was like one fiery glowing mass--
+like iron plucked red out of the furnace.
+
+When he had entered his bath the water boiled around him. After he
+had bathed and when he became calm and cool Laeg put upon him his
+beautiful banqueting attire, and he came into the great hall lowly
+and blushing. All were acclaiming and praising him, and he passed
+up the great hall and made a reverence to the King, and he sat
+down at the King's footstool. All who saw him marvelled then more
+at his beauty than at his deeds. He was sick after that, and came
+very near to death, but in the end he fell into a very deep sleep
+from which he awoke whole and refreshed, though it was the opinion
+of many that he would surely die. Cuculain was seventeen years of
+age when he did these feats.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE COMING OF CUCULAIN ***
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