The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cualnge) Part 10

'Take heed, O Loeg,' said Cuchulainn; 'hold the reins for great victory of Macha ... I beseech,' said Cuchulainn, 'the waters to help me. I beseech heaven and earth, and the Cronn in particular.'

The (river) Cronn takes to fighting against them; it will not let them into Murthemne until the work of heroes be finished in Sliab Tuath Ochaine.

Therewith the water rose up till it was in the tops of the trees.

Mane, son of Ailill and Medb, went before the rest. Cuchulainn smites them on the ford, and thirty hors.e.m.e.n of Mane's retinue were drowned in the water. Cuchulainn overthrew two sixteens of warriors of them again by the water.

They pitch their tents at that ford. Lugaid Mac Nois, descendant of Lomarc Allchomach, came to speak to Cuchulainn, with thirty hors.e.m.e.n.

'Welcome, O Lugaid,' said Cuchulainn. 'If a flock of birds graze upon Mag Murthemne, you shall have a duck with half of another; if fish come to the estuaries, you shall have a salmon with half of another. You shall have the three sprigs, the sprig of watercress, and the sprig of marshwort, and the sprig of seaweed. You shall have a man in the ford in your place.' [Note: This and the following speech are apparently forms of greeting. Cuchulainn offers Lugaid such hospitality as lies in his power. See a similar speech later to Fergus.]

'I believe it,' said Lugaid. 'Excellence of people to the boy whom I desire.'

'Your hosts are fine,' said Cuchulainn.

It would not be sad for you alone before them,' said Lugaid.

'Fair-play and valour will support me,' said Cuchulainn. 'O friend Lugaid, do the hosts fear me?'

'I swear by G.o.d,' said Lugaid, 'one man nor two dare not go out of the camp, unless it be in twenties or thirties.'

'It will be something extra for them,' said Cuchulainn, 'if I take to throwing from the sling. Fitting for you will be this fellow-va.s.sal, O Lugaid, that you have among the Ulstermen, if there come to me the force of every man. Say what you would have,' said Cuchulainn.

'That I may have a truce with you towards my host.'

'You shall have it, provided there be a token on it. And tell my friend Fergus that there be a token on his host. Tell the physicians, let there be a token on their host. And let them swear preservation of life to me, and let there come to me provision every night from them.'

Then Lugaid goes from him. Fergus happened to be in the tent with Ailill. Lugaid called him out, and told him this. Something was heard, namely Ailill. ... [Note: Rhetoric, six lines, the substance of which is, apparently, that Ailill asks protection also.]

'I swear by G.o.d I cannot do it,' said Lugaid, 'unless I ask the boy Again.'

'Help me, [Note: Spoken by Fergus?] O Lugaid, go to him to see whether Ailill may come with a cantred into my troop. Take an ox with bacon to him and a jar of wine.'

He goes to Cuchulainn then and tells him this.

'I do not mind though he go,' said Cuchulainn.

Then their two troops join. They are there till night. Cuchulainn kills thirty men of them with the sling. (Or they would be twenty nights there, as some books say.)

'Your journeyings are bad,' said Fergus. 'The Ulstermen will come to you out of their weakness, and they will grind you to earth and gravel. "The corner of battle" in which we are is bad.'

He goes thence to Cul Airthir. It happened that Cuchulainn had gone that night to speak to the Ulstermen [Note: In LL and Y BL this incident occurs later, and the messenger is Sualtaim, not Cuchulainn. LU is clearly wrong here.]

'Have you news?' said Conchobar.

'Women are captured,' said Cuchulainn, 'cattle are driven away, men are slain.'

'Who carries them off? who drives them away? who kills them?'

'... Ailill Mac Matae carries them off, and Fergus Mac Roich very bold ...' [Note: Rhetoric.]

'It is not great profit to you,' said Conchobar, 'to-day, our smiting has come to us all the same.'

Cuchulainn goes thence from them; he saw the hosts going forth.

'Alas,' said Ailill, 'I see chariots' ..., etc [Note: Rhetoric, five lines.]

Cuchulainn kills thirty men of them on Ath Duirn. They could not reach Cul Airthir then till night. He slays thirty of them there, and they pitch their tents there. Ailill's charioteer, Cuillius, was was.h.i.+ng the chariot tyres [Note: See previous note on the word _fonnod_; the word used here is _fonnod_.] in the ford in the morning; Cuchulainn struck him with a stone and killed him. Hence is Ath Cuillne in Cul Airthir. They reach Druim Feine in Conaille and spent the night there, as we have said before.

Cuchulainn attacked them there; he slays a hundred men of them every night of the three nights that they were there; he took a sling to them from Ochaine near them.

'Our host will be short-lived through Cuchulainn in this way,' said Ailill. 'Let an agreement be carried from us to him: that he shall have the equal of Mag Murthemne from Mag Ai, and the best chariot that is in Ai, and the equipment of twelve men. Offer, if it pleases him better, the plain in which he was brought up, and three sevens of c.u.mals [Note: The _c.u.mal_ (bondmaid) was a standard of value.]; and everything that has been destroyed of his household (?) and cattle shall be made good, and he shall have full compensation (?), and let him go into my service; it is better for him than the service of a sub king.'

'Who shall go for that?'

'Mac Roth yonder.'

Mac Roth, the messenger of Ailill and Medb, went on that errand to Delga: it is he who encircles Ireland in one day. It is there that Fergus thought that Cuchulainn was, in Delga.

'I see a man coming towards us,' said Loeg to Cuchulainn. 'He has a yellow head of hair, and a linen emblem round it; a club of fury(?) in his hand, an ivory-hilted sword at his waist; a hooded tunic with red ornamentation on him.'

'Which of the warriors of the king is that?' said Cuchulainn.

Mac Roth asked Loeg whose man he was.

'Va.s.sal to the man down yonder,' said Loeg.

Cuchulainn was there in the snow up to his two thighs, without anything at all on him, examining his s.h.i.+rt.

Then Mac Roth asked Cuchulainn whose man he was.

'Va.s.sal of Conchobar Mac Nessa,' said Cuchulainn.

'Is there no clearer description?'

'That is enough,' said Cuchulainn.

'Where then is Cuchulainn?' said Mac Roth.

'What would you say to him?' said Cuchulainn.

Mac Roth tells him then all the message, as we have told it.

'Though Cuchulainn were near, he would not do this; he will not barter the brother of his mother for another king.'

He came to him again, and it was said to Cuchulainn that there should be given over to him the n.o.blest of the women and the cows that were without milk, on condition that he should not ply his sling on them at night, even if he should kill them by day.