The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cualnge) Part 3

'Even that we could do,' said Medb; 'for I am here with my retinue of two cantreds,' said she, 'and there are the seven Manes, that is, my seven sons, with seven cantreds; their luck can protect them,' (?) said she; 'that is Mane-Mathramail, and Mane-Athramail, and Mane-Morgor, and Mane-Mingor, and Mane-Moepert (and he is Mane-Milscothach), Mane-Andoe, and Mane-who-got-everything: he got the form of his mother and of his father, and the dignity of both.'

'It would not be so,' said Fergus. 'There are seven kings of Munster here, and a cantred with each of them, in friendship with us Ulstermen. I will give battle to you,' said Fergus, 'in the middle of the host in which we are, with these seven cantreds, and with my own cantred, and with the cantred of the Leinstermen. But I will not urge that,' said Fergus, 'we will provide for the warriors otherwise, so that they shall not prevail over the host. Seventeen cantreds for us,' said Fergus, 'that is the number of our army, besides our rabble, and our women (for with each king there is his queen, in Medb's company), and besides our striplings. This is the eighteenth cantred, the cantred of the Leinstermen. Let them be distributed among the rest of the host.'

'I do not care,' said Medb, 'provided they are not gathered as they are.'

Then this was done; the Leinstermen were distributed among the host.

They set out next morning to Moin Choiltrae, where eight score deer fell in with them in one herd. They surrounded them and killed them then; wherever there was a man of the Leinstermen, it was he who got them, except five deer that all the rest of the host got. Then they came to Mag Trego, and stopped there and prepared their food.

They say that it is there that Dubthach sang this song:

'Grant what you have not heard hitherto, Listening to the fight of Dubthach.

A hosting very black is before you, Against Findbend of the wife of Ailill.

[Note: Findbennach, the Whitehorned; i.e. the other of the two bulls in whom the rival swineherds were reincarnated.]

'The man of expeditions will come Who will defend (?) Murthemne.

Ravens will drink milk of ---- [Note: Some kenning for blood?]

From the friendship of the swineherds.

'The turfy Cronn will resist them; [Note: i.e. the river Cronn. This line is a corruption of a reference which occurs later, in the account of the flooding of the Cronn, as Professor Strachan first pointed out to me.]

He will not let them into Murthemne Until the work of warriors is over In Sliab Tuad Ochaine.

'"Quickly," said Ailill to Cormac, "Go that you may ---- your son.

The cattle do not come from the fields That the din of the host may not terrify them(?).

'"This will be a battle in its time For Medb with a third of the host.

There will be flesh of men therefrom If the Riastartha comes to you."'

Then the Nemain attacked them, and that was not the quietest of nights for them, with the uproar of the churl (i.e. Dubthach) through their sleep. The host started up at once, and a great number of the host were in confusion, till Medb came to reprove him.

Then they went and spent the night in Granard Tethba Tuascirt, after the host had been led astray over bogs and over streams. A warning was sent from Fergus to the Ulstermen here, for friendship.

They were now in the weakness, except Cuchulainn and his father Sualtaim.

Cuchulainn and his father went, after the coming of the warning from Fergus, till they were in Iraird Cuillend, watching the host there.

'I think of the host to-night,' said Cuchulainn to his father. 'Go from us with a warning to the Ulstermen. I am forced to go to a tryst with Fedelm Noichride, [Note: Gloss incorporated in the text: that is, with her servant,' etc.] from my own pledge that went out to her.'

He made a spancel-withe [This was a twig twisted in the form of two rings, joined by one straight piece, as used for hobbling horses and cattle.] then before he went, and wrote an ogam on its ----, and threw it on the top of the pillar.

The leadership of the way before the army was given to Fergus. Then Fergus went far astray to the south, till Ulster should have completed the collection of an army; he did this for friendship.

Ailill and Medb perceived it; it was then Medb said:

'O Fergus, this is strange, What kind of way do we go?

Straying south or north We go over every other folk.

'Ailill of Ai with his hosting Fears that you will betray them.

You have not given your mind hitherto To the leading of the way.

'If it is in friendship that you do it, Do not lead the horses Peradventure another may be found To lead the way.'

Fergus replied:

'O Medb, what troubles you?

This is not like treachery.

It belongs to the Ulstermen, O woman, The land across which I am leading you.

'It is not for the disadvantage of the host That I go on each wandering in its turn; It is to avoid the great man Who protects Mag Murthemne.

'Not that my mind is not distressed On account of the straying on which I go, But if perchance I may avoid even afterwards Cuchulainn Mac Sualtaim.'

Then they went till they were in Iraird Cuillend. Eirr and Indell, Foich and Foclam (their two charioteers), the four sons of Iraird Mac Anchinne, [Marginal gloss: 'or the four sons of Nera Mac Nuado Mac Taccain, as it is found in other books.'] it is they who were before the host, to protect their brooches and their cushions and their cloaks, that the dust of the host might not soil them. They found the withe that Cuchulainn threw, and perceived the grazing that the horses had grazed. For Sualtaim's two horses had eaten the gra.s.s with its roots from the earth; Cuchulainn's two horses had licked the earth as far as the stones beneath the gra.s.s. They sit down then, until the host came, and the musicians play to them.

They give the withe into the hands of Fergus Mac Roich; he read the ogam that was on it.

When Medb came, she asked, 'Why are you waiting here?'

'We wait,' said Fergus,' because of the withe yonder. There is an ogam on its ----, and this is what is in it: "Let no one go past till a man is found to throw a like withe with his one hand, and let it be one twig of which it is made; and I except my friend Fergus." Truly,' said Fergus, 'Cuchulainn has thrown it, and they are his horses that grazed the plain.'

And he put it in the hands of the druids; and Fergus sang this song:

'Here is a withe, what does the withe declare to us?

What is its mystery?

What number threw it?

Few or many?

'Will it cause injury to the host, If they go a journey from it?

Find out, ye druids, something therefore For what the withe has been left.

'---- of heroes the hero who has thrown it, Full misfortune on warriors; A delay of princes, wrathful is the matter, One man has thrown it with one hand.

'Is not the king's host at the will of him, Unless it breaks fair play?

Until one man only of you Throw it, as one man has thrown it.

I do not know anything save that For which the withe should have been put.

Here is a withe.'

Then Fergus said to them: 'If you outrage this withe,' said he, 'or if you go past it, though he be in the custody of a man, or in a house under a lock, the ---- of the man who wrote the ogam on it will reach him, and will slay a goodly slaughter of you before morning, unless one of you throw a like withe.'

'It does not please us, indeed, that one of us should be slain at once,' said Ailill. 'We will go by the neck of the great wood yonder, south of us, and we will not go over it at all.'

The troops hewed down then the wood before the chariots. This is the name of that place, Slechta. It is there that Partraige is.

(According to others, the conversation between Medb and Fedelm the prophetess took place there, as we told before; and then it is after the answer she gave to Medb that the wood was cut down; i.e.

'Look for me,' said Medb, 'how my hosting will be.' 'It is difficult to me,' said the maiden; 'I cannot cast my eye over them in the wood.' 'It is ploughland (?) there shall be,' said Medb; 'we will cut down the wood.' Then this was done, so that Slechta was the name of the place.)

They spent the night then in Cul Sibrille; a great snowstorm fell on them, to the girdles of the men and the wheels of the chariots.

The rising was early next morning. And it was not the most peaceful of nights for them, with the snow; and they had not prepared food that night. But it was not early when Cuchulainn came from his tryst; he waited to wash and bathe.

Then he came on the track of the host. 'Would that we had not gone there,' said Cuchulainn, 'nor betrayed the Ulstermen; we have let the host go to them unawares. Make us an estimation of the host,'

said Cuchulainn to Loeg, 'that we may know the number of the host.'