Part 17 (1/2)

Bear him on his bier beside me: never more in halls of Gort Shall a n.i.g.g.ard king deride me: slaves, of Sanchan make their sport!

But because the maidens yearnings needs must also be condoled, Hers shall be the dear-bought earnings, hers the twin-bright cups of gold.

Cups, she cried, of bitter drinking, fling them far as arm can throw!

Let them in the ocean sinking, out of sight and memory go!

Let the joinings of the rhythm, let the links of sense and sound Of the _Tain-Bo_ perish with them, lost as though theyd neer been found!

So it comes, the lay, recoverd once at such a deadly cost, Ere one full recital sufferd, once again is all but lost: For, the maidens malediction still with many a blemish-stain Clings in coa.r.s.er garb of fiction round the fragments that remain.

*The Phantom Chariot of Cuchulain*

Cuchulain, however, makes an impressive reappearance in a much later legend of Christian origin, found in the twelfth-century Book of the Dun Cow. He was summoned from h.e.l.l, we are told, by St. Patrick to prove the truths of Christianity and the horrors of d.a.m.nation to the pagan monarch, Laery mac Neill, King of Ireland. Laery, with St. Benen, a companion of Patrick, are standing on the Plain of mac Indoc when a blast of icy wind nearly takes them off their feet. It is the wind of h.e.l.l, Benen explains, after its opening before Cuchulain. Then a dense mist covers the plain, and anon a huge phantom chariot with galloping horses, a grey and a black, loom up through the mist. Within it are the famous two, Cuchulain and his charioteer, giant figures, armed with all the splendour of the Gaelic warrior.

Cuchulain then talks to Laery, and urges him to believe in G.o.d and in holy Patrick, for it is not a demon that has come to thee, but Cuchulain son of Sualtam. To prove his ident.i.ty he recounts his famous deeds of arms, and ends by a piteous description of his present state:

What I suffered of trouble, O Laery, by sea and land Yet more severe was a single night When the demon was wrathful!

Great as was my heroism, Hard as was my sword, The devil crushed me with one finger Into the red charcoal!

He ends by beseeching Patrick that heaven may be granted to him, and the legend tells that the prayer was granted and that Laery believed.

*Death of Conor mac Nessa*

Christian ideas have also gathered round the end of Cuchulains lord, King Conor of Ulster. The manner of his death was as follows: An unjust and cruel attack had been made by him on Mesgedra, King of Leinster, in which that monarch met his death at the hand of Conall of the Victories.(167) Conall took out the brains of the dead king and mingled them with lime to make a sling-stonesuch brain b.a.l.l.s, as they were called, being accounted the most deadly of missiles. This ball was laid up in the kings treasure-house at Emain Macha, where the Connacht champion, Ket son of Maga, found it one day when prowling in disguise through Ulster. Ket took it away and kept it always by him. Not long thereafter the Connacht men took a spoil of cattle from Ulster, and the Ulster men, under Conor, overtook them at a river-ford still called Athnurchar (The Ford of the Sling-cast), in Westmeath. A battle was imminent, and many of the ladies of Connacht came to their side of the river to view the famous Ultonian warriors, and especially Conor, the stateliest man of his time. Conor was willing to show himself, and seeing none but women on the other bank he drew near them; but Ket, who was lurking in ambush, now rose and slung the brain-ball at Conor, striking him full in the forehead. Conor fell, and was carried off by his routed followers. When they got him home, still living, to Emain Macha, his physician, Fingen, p.r.o.nounced that if the ball were extracted from his head he must die; it was accordingly sewn up with golden thread, and the king was bidden to keep himself from horse-riding and from all vehement pa.s.sion and exertion, and he would do well.

Seven years afterwards Conor saw the sun darken at noonday, and he summoned his Druid to tell him the cause of the portent. The Druid, in a magic trance, tells him of a hill in a distant land on which stand three crosses with a human form nailed to each of them, and one of them is like the Immortals. Is he a malefactor? then asks Conor. Nay, says the Druid, but the Son of the living G.o.d, and he relates to the king the story of the death of Christ. Conor breaks out in fury, and drawing his sword he hacks at the oak-trees in the sacred grove, crying, Thus would I deal with his enemies, when with the excitement and exertion the brain-ball bursts from his head, and he falls dead. And thus was the vengeance of Mesgedra fulfilled. With Conor and with Cuchulain the glory of the Red Branch and the dominance of Ulster pa.s.sed away. The next, or Ossianic, cycle of Irish legend brings upon the scene different characters, different physical surroundings, and altogether different ideals of life.

*Ket and the Boar of mac Datho*

The Connacht champion Ket, whose main exploit was the wounding of King Conor at Ardnurchar, figures also in a very dramatic tale ent.i.tled The Carving of mac Dathos Boar. The story runs as follows:

Once upon a time there dwelt in the province of Leinster a wealthy hospitable lord named Mesroda, son of Datho. Two possessions had he; namely, a hound which could outrun every other hound and every wild beast in Erin, and a boar which was the finest and greatest in size that man had ever beheld.

Now the fame of this hound was noised all about the land, and many were the princes and lords who longed to possess it. And it came to pa.s.s that Conor King of Ulster and Maev Queen of Connacht sent messengers to mac Datho to ask him to sell them the hound for a price, and both the messengers arrived at the dun of mac Datho on the same day. Said the Connacht messenger: We will give thee in exchange for the hound six hundred milch cows, and a chariot with two horses, the best that are to be found in Connacht, and at the end of a year thou shalt have as much again. And the messenger of King Conor said: We will give no less than Connacht, and the friends.h.i.+p and alliance of Ulster, and that will be better for thee than the friends.h.i.+p of Connacht.

Then Mesroda mac Datho fell silent, and for three days he would not eat or drink, nor could he sleep o nights, but tossed restlessly on his bed. His wife observed his condition, and said to him: Thy fast hath been long, Mesroda, though good food is by thee in plenty; and at night thou turnest thy face to the wall, and well I know thou dost not sleep. What is the cause of thy trouble?

There is a saying, replied Mac Datho, Trust not a thrall with money, nor a woman with a secret.

When should a man talk to a woman, said his wife, but when something were amiss? What thy mind cannot solve perchance anothers may.

Then mac Datho told his wife of the request for his hound both from Ulster and from Connacht at one and the same time. And whichever of them I deny, he said, they will harry my cattle and slay my people.

Then hear my counsel, said the woman. Give it to both of them, and bid them come and fetch it; and if there be any harrying to be done, let them even harry each other; but in no way mayest thou keep the hound.

Mac Datho followed this wise counsel, and bade both Ulster and Connacht to a great feast on the same day, saying to each of them that they could have the hound afterwards.

So on the appointed day Conor of Ulster, and Maev, and their retinues of princes and mighty men a.s.sembled at the dun of mac Datho. There they found a great feast set forth, and to provide the chief dish mac Datho had killed his famous boar, a beast of enormous size. The question now arose as to who should have the honourable task of carving it, and Bricriu of the Poisoned Tongue characteristically, for the sake of the strife which he loved, suggested that the warriors of Ulster and Connacht should compare their princ.i.p.al deeds of arms, and give the carving of the boar to him who seemed to have done best in the border-fighting which was always going on between the provinces. After much bandying of words and of taunts Ket son of Maga arises and stands over the boar, knife in hand, challenging each of the Ulster lords to match his deeds of valour. One after another they arise, Cuscrid son of Conor, Keltchar, Moonremur, Laery the Triumphant, and othersCuchulain is not introduced in this storyand in each case Ket has some biting tale to tell of an encounter in which he has come off better than they, and one by one they sit down shamed and silenced. At last a shout of welcome is heard at the door of the hall and the Ulstermen grow jubilant: Conall of the Victories has appeared on the scene. He strides up to the boar, and Ket and he greet each other with chivalrous courtesy: