Part 11 (1/2)

'I will not do it,' said Cuchulainn; 'if our slavewomen are taken from us, our n.o.ble women will be at the querns; and we shall be without milk if our milch-cows are taken from us.'

He came to him again, and he was told that he should have the slave-women and the milch-cows.

'I will not do it,' said Cuchulainn; 'the Ulstermen will take their slave-women to their beds, and there will be born to them a servile offspring, and they will use their milch-cows for meat in the winter.'

'Is there anything else then?' said the messenger.

'There is,' said Cuchulainn; 'and I will not tell it you. It shall be agreed to, if any one tell it you.'

'I know it,' said Fergus; 'I know what the man tried to suggest; and it is no advantage to you. And this is the agreement,' said Fergus: 'that the ford on which takes place (?) his battle and combat with one man, the cattle shall not be taken thence a day and a night; if perchance there come to him the help of the Ulstermen.

And it is a marvel to me,' said Fergus, 'that it is so long till they come out of their sufferings.'

'It is indeed easier for us,' said Ailill, 'a man every day than a hundred every night.'

_The Death of Etarcomol_

Then Fergus went on this errand; Etarcomol, son of Edan [Note: Name uncertain. YBL has Eda, LL Feda.] and Lethrinne, foster-son of Ailill and Medb, followed.

'I do not want you to go,' said Fergus, 'and it is not for hatred of you; but I do not like combat between you and Cuchulainn. Your pride and insolence, and the fierceness and hatred, pride and madness of the other, Cuchulainn: there will be no good from your meeting.'

'Are you not able to protect me from him?' said Etarcomol.

'I can,' said Fergus, 'provided only that you do not treat his, sayings with disrespect.'

They go thence in two chariots to Delga. Cuchulainn was then playing chess [Note: _Buanfach_, like _fidch.e.l.l_, is apparently a game something like chess or draughts.] with Loeg; the back of his head was towards them, and Loeg's face.

'I see two chariots coming towards us,' said Loeg; 'a great dark man in the first chariot, with dark and bushy hair; a purple cloak round him, and a golden pin therein; a hooded tunic with gold embroidery on him; and a round s.h.i.+eld with an engraved edge of white metal, and a broad spear-head, with rings from point to haft(?), in his hand. A sword as long as the rudder of a boat on his two thighs.'

'It is empty, this great rudder that is brought by my friend Fergus,' said Cuchulainn; 'for there is no sword in its sheath except a sword of wood. It has been told to me,' said Cuchulainn; 'Ailill got a chance of them as they slept, he and Medb; and he took away his sword from Fergus, and gave it to his charioteer to take care of, and the sword of wood was put into its sheath.'

Then Fergus comes up.

'Welcome, O friend Fergus,' said Cuchulainn; 'if a fish comes into the estuary, you shall have it with half of another; if a flock comes into the plain, you shall have a duck with half of another; a spray of cress or seaweed, a spray of marshwort; a drink from the sand; you shall have a going to the ford to meet a man, if it should happen to be your watch, till you have slept.'

'I believe it,' said Fergus; 'it is not your provision that we have come for; we know your housekeeping here.'

Then Cuchulainn receives the message from Fergus; anti Fergus goes away. Etarcomol remains looking at Cuchulainn.

'What are you looking at?' said Cuchulainn.

'You,' said Etarcomol.

'The eye soon compa.s.ses it indeed,' said Cuchulainn.

'That is what I see,' said Etarcomol. 'I do not know at all why you should be feared by any one. I do not see terror or fearfulness, or overwhelming of a host, in you; you are merely a fair youth with arms of wood, and with fine feats.'

'Though you speak ill of me,' said Cuchulainn, 'I will not kill you for the sake of Fergus. But for your protection, it would have been your entrails drawn (?) and your quarters scattered, that would have gone from me to the camp behind your chariot.'

'Threaten me not thus,' said Etarcomol. 'The wonderful agreement that he has bound, that is, the single combat, it is I who will first meet you of the men of Ireland to-morrow.'