Part 37 (1/2)
Loch Lein, the Lakes of Killarney.
Caher-Dun-Isca, now the town of Caher, on the Suir, in Tipperary.
Femin was the name of the great plain lying to the south and west of the mountain of Slievenaman, or Slieve-na-man-finn, near Clonmel, in Tipperary.
Balla-Gavran, or the pa.s.s of Gavran, an ancient road, which ran by Gavran (now Gowran), in the county Kilkenny.
Cratloe, a well-known district on the Clare side of the Shannon, near Limerick.
[XCVII.] Cliach, the old name of the plain lying round Knockainy.
[XCVIII.] Fomor, a gigantic warrior, a giant; its primitive meaning is ”a sea-robber,” commonly called a Fomorian. (See note 5 at the end.)
[XCIX.] Gilla Dacker means ”a slothful fellow”--a fellow hard to move, hard to manage, hard to have anything to do with.
CHAPTER II.
CONAN AND FIFTEEN OF THE FENA ARE CARRIED OFF BY THE GILLA DACKER'S HORSE.
When the Gilla Dacker saw the Fena beating his horse at such a rate, he seemed very angry, and addressed the king in these words--
”King of the Fena, I now see plainly that all the fine accounts I heard about you and the Fena are false, and I will not stay in your service--no, not another hour. You can see for yourself the ill usage these men are giving my horse without cause; and I leave you to judge whether any one could put up with it--any one who had the least regard for his horse. The time is, indeed, short since I entered your service, but I now think it a great deal too long; so pay me my wages, and let me go my ways.”
But Finn said, ”I do not wish you to go; stay on till the end of your year, and then I will pay you all I promised you.”
”I swear,” answered the Gilla Dacker, ”that if this were the very last day of my year, I would not wait till morning for my wages, after this insult. So, wages or no wages, I will now seek another master; but from this time forth I shall know what to think of Finn Mac c.u.mal and his Fena!”
With that the Gilla Dacker stood up as straight as a pillar, and, turning his face towards the south-west, he walked slowly away.
When the horse saw his master leaving the hill, he stirred himself at once and walked quietly after him, bringing the fifteen men away on his back. And when the Fena saw this they raised a loud shout of laughter, mocking them.
The Gilla Dacker, after he had walked some little way, looked back, and seeing that his horse was following, he stood for a moment to tuck up his skirts. Then, all at once changing his pace, he set out with long, active strides; and if you know what the speed of a swallow is, flying across a mountain-side, or the dry, fairy wind of a March day sweeping over the plains, then you can understand the swiftness of the Gilla Dacker, as he ran down the hill-side towards the south-west.
Neither was the horse behindhand in the race; for, though he carried a heavy load, he galloped like the wind after his master, plunging and bounding forward with as much freedom as if he had nothing at all on his back.
The men now tried to throw themselves off; but this, indeed, they were not able to do, for the good reason that they found themselves fastened firmly, hands and feet and all, to the horse's back.
And now Conan, looking round, raised his big voice, and shouted to Finn and the Fena, asking them were they content to let their friends be carried off in that manner by such a horrible, foul-looking old spectre of a horse.
Finn and the others, hearing this, seized their arms and started off in pursuit. Now the way the Gilla Dacker and his horse took was first through Fermorc,[C.] which is at the present day called Hy Conall Gavra; next over the wide, heathy summit of Slieve Lougher; from that to Corca Divna; and they ran along by Slieve Mish, till they reached Cloghan Kincat, near the deep green sea.
During all this time Finn and his people kept them in view, but were not able to overtake them; and Ligan Lumina, one of the swiftest of the Fena, kept ahead of the others.
The horse now pa.s.sed by Cloghan Kincat without in the least abating his speed; and when he had arrived on the beach, even at the very water's edge, Ligan overtook him, and caught him by the tail with his two hands, intending to hold him till the rest of the Fena came up. He gave a mighty pull back; but the horse, not in the least checked by this, made no more ado but plunged forward through the waves, dragging Ligan after him hanging at his tail. And Ligan now found that he could neither help his friends nor free himself, for his two hands clung fast to the tail of the horse.
And so the great horse continued his course without stop or stay, bringing the sixteen Fena with him through the sea. Now this is how they fared in the sea, while the horse was rus.h.i.+ng swiftly farther and farther to the west: they had always a dry, firm strand under them, for the waters retired before the horse while behind them was a wild, raging sea, which followed close after, and seemed ready every moment to topple over their heads. But, though the billows were tumbling and roaring all round, neither horse nor riders were wetted by as much as a drop of brine or a dash of spray.