Part 45 (1/2)
When they were about to return to their s.h.i.+ps, they asked him had he got any tidings of Dermat O'Dyna; and he answered--
”I have seen him this day: I will now go to seek him, and methinks I shall bring him to you in the morning.”
Then he returned to the cave; and he and Grania ate their meal, and slept that night, while Modan kept watch.
Next morning, Dermat arose with the dawn, and this time he arrayed himself for battle. He put on his heavy armour--no man who wore it could be wounded through it, or above it, or beneath it. He hung the Morallta at his left hip, the sword of Angus of the Bruga, which never left anything for a second blow; and he took his two thick-handled spears, the Ga-derg and the Ga-boi, whose wounds no one ever recovered.
Then he awakened Grania, telling her to keep watch till he returned, that Modan might sleep. And when she saw him so arrayed, she trembled with fear, for she well knew that this was his manner of preparing for battle. And she asked him what he meant to do to-day, and whether Finn's pursuers had found them. But he, to quiet her fears, put off the matter lightly, and said, ”It is better to be prepared, lest the enemy come in my way;” and this soothed her.
So he went to the hill, and met the strangers on the sh.o.r.e as before.
And they asked him had he any tidings to give them of Dermat O'Dyna.
He answered, ”He is not very far off, for I have seen him just now.”
”Then,” said they, ”lead us to his hiding-place, that we may bring his head to Finn the son of c.u.mal.”
”That would, indeed, be an ill way of repaying friends.h.i.+p,” answered he.
”Dermat O'Dyna is my friend; and he is now under the protection of my valour: so of this be sure, I will do him no treachery.”
And they replied wrathfully, ”If thou art a friend to Dermat O'Dyna, thou art a foe to Finn; and now we will take thy head and bring it to him along with the head of Dermat.”
”You might indeed do that with much ease,” answered Dermat, ”if I were bound hand and foot; but being as I am, free, I shall defend myself after my usual custom.”
Then he drew the Morallta from its sheath, and, springing forward to meet them as they closed on him, he clove the body of the foremost in two with one blow. Then he rushed through them and under them and over them, like a wolf among sheep, or a hawk among sparrows, cleaving and slaughtering them, till only a few were left, who hardly escaped to their s.h.i.+ps.
FOOTNOTES:
[CXI.] The river Laune, flowing from the Lakes of Killarney into Dingle Bay.
[CXII.] The Grey Moor of Finnlia (_Bogach-Fhinnleithe_ in the original) was somewhere between the river Laune and the river Caragh, but the name is now forgotten.
[CXIII.] The river of Carra, the Caragh river, flowing into Dingle Bay from the beautiful lake Caragh, twenty miles west of Killarney.
[CXIV.] Beha, the river Behy, about a mile and a half west from the Caragh, flowing through Glanbehy into Rossbehy creek.
[CXV.] Tonn Toma, the wave of Toma (a woman). The word Tonn (a wave or billow) was often applied to the sea-waves that break over certain sandbanks and rocks with an exceptionally loud roaring. Tonn Toma is the name of a sandbank at the head of Dingle Bay, just outside the extreme point of Rossbehy peninsula; and in the winter storms, the sea thunders on this sandbank, and indeed on the whole length of the beach of the peninsula, so as often to be heard twenty miles inland. This roaring is popularly believed to predict rain.
There is a chain of three hills, Stookaniller, Knockatinna, and Knockboy, lying between Behy bridge on the east and Drung mountain on the west, and isolated from the hills to the south-east by the valley of Glanbehy. These hills rise directly over Tonn Toma; and the old Gaelic name, Currach-Cinn-Adhmuid (the moor of the head [or hill] of timber) must have been anciently applied to one or all of them.
(See, for an account of the great historical _tonns_ of Ireland, the author's ”Origin and History of Irish Names of Places,” series ii. page 251.)
[CXVI.] Iccian Sea (Irish, _Muir nIcht_), the Irish name for the sea between England and France.
[CXVII.] Ducoss, Fincoss, and Trencoss, _i.e._ Blackfoot, Whitefoot, and Strongfoot.
[CXVIII.] Dermat had two spears, the great one called the Ga-derg or Crann-derg (red javelin), and the small one called Ga-boi or Crann-boi (yellow javelin): he had also two swords: the Morallta (great fury), and the Begallta (little fury). These spears and swords he got from Mannanan Mac Lir and from Angus of the Bruga. He carried the great spear and sword in affairs of life and death; and the smaller in adventures of less danger.