Book: The Cattle Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cualnge)

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'----, O my friend, O Fergus,' said Cormac. '... Hostile is the
friendship; right is your enmity; your compact has been destroyed;
evil are the blows that you strike, O friend, O Fergus,' said
Cormac.

'Whom shall I smite?' said Fergus.

'Smite the three hills ... in some other direction over them; turn
your hand; smite about you on every side, and have no consideration
for them. Take thought for the honour of Ulster: what has not been
lost shall not be lost, if it be not lost through you to-day (?).

'Go in some other direction, O Conchobar,' said Cormac to his
father; 'this man will not put out his rage on the Ulstermen any
more here.'

Fergus turned away. He slew a hundred warriors of Ulster in the
first combat with the sword. He met Conall Cernach.

'Too great rage is that,' said Conall Cernach, 'on people and race,
for a wanton.'

'What shall I do, O warriors?' said he.

'Smite the hills across them and the champions (?) round them,'
said Conall Cernach.

Fergus smote the hills then, so that he struck the three Maela
[Note: i.e. flat-topped hills.] of Meath with his three blows.
Cuchulainn heard the blows then that Fergus gave on the hills or on
the shield of Conchobar himself.

'Who strikes the three strong blows, great and distant?' said
Cuchulainn.

... Then Loeg answered and said: 'The choice of men, Fergus Mac
Roich the very bold, smites them.' ...

Then Cuchulainn said: 'Unloose quickly the hazeltwigs; blood covers
men, play of swords will be made, men will be spent therefrom.'

Then his dry wisps spring from him on high, as far as ---- goes;
and his hazel-twigs spring off, till they were in Mag Tuag in
Connaught ... and he smote the head of each of the two handmaidens
against the other, so that each of them was grey from the brain of
the other. They came from Medb for pretended lamentation over him,
that his wounds might burst forth on him; and to say that the
Ulstermen had been defeated, and that Fergus had fallen in opposing
the battle, since Cuchulainn's coming into the battle had been
prevented. The contortion came on him, and twenty-seven skin-tunics
were given to him, that used to be about him under strings and
thongs when he went into battle; and he takes his chariot on his
back with its body and its two tyres, and he made for Fergus round
about the battle.

'Turn hither, O friend Fergus,' said Cuchulainn; and he did not
answer till the third time. 'I swear by the god by whom the
Ulstermen swear,' said he, 'I will wash thee as foam [Note: Reading
with L.L.] (?) is washed in a pool, I will go over thee as the tail
goes over a cat, I will smite thee as a fond mother smites her son.'

'Which of the men of Ireland speaks thus to me?' said Fergus.

'Cuchulainn Mac Sualtaim, sister's son to Conchobar,' said
Cuchulainn; 'and avoid me,' said he.

'I have promised even that,' said Fergus.

'Your promise falls due, then,' said Cuchulainn.

'Good,' said Fergus, '(you avoided me), when you are pierced with
wounds.'

Then Fergus went away with his cantred; the Leinstermen go and the
Munstermen; and they left in the battle nine cantreds of Medb's and
Ailill's and their seven sons.

In the middle of the day it is that Cuchulainn came into the
battle; when the sun came into the leaves of the wood, it is then
that he defeated the last company, so that there remained of the
chariot only a handful of the ribs about the body, and a handful of
the shafts about the wheel.

Cuchulainn overtook Medb then when he went into the battle.

'Protect me,' said Medb.

'Though I should slay thee with a slaying, it were lawful for me,'
said Cuchulainn.

Then he protected her, because he used not to slay women. He
convoyed them westward, till they passed Ath Luain. Then he
stopped. He struck three blows with his sword on the stone in Ath
Luain. Their name is the Maelana [Note: i.e., flat-topped hills] of
Ath Luain.

When the battle was broken, then said Medb to Fergus: 'Faults and
meet here to-day, O Fergus,' said she.

'It is customary,' said Fergus, 'to every herd which a mare
precedes; ... after a woman who has ill consulted their interest.'

They take away the Bull then in that morning of the battle, so that
he met the White-horned at Tarbga in Mag Ai; i.e. Tarbguba or
Tarbgleo.[Note: 'Bull-Sorrow or Bull-Fight,' etymological
explanation of Tarbga.] The first name of that hill was Roi Dedond.
Every one who escaped in the fight was intent on nothing but
beholding the two Bulls fighting.

Bricriu Poison-tongue was in the west in his sadness after Fergus
had broken his head with his draughtmen [Note: This story is told
in the _Echtra Nerai_. (See _Revue Celtique_, vol. x. p. 227.)] He
came with the rest then to see the combat of the Bulls. The two
Bulls went in fighting over Bricriu, so that he died therefrom.
That is the Death of Bricriu.

The foot of the Dun of Cualnge lighted on the horn of the other.
For a day and a night he did not draw his foot towards him, till
Fergus incited him and plied a rod along his body.

''Twere no good luck,' said Fergus, 'that this conbative old calf
which has been brought here should leave the honour of clan and
race; and on both sides men have been left dead through you.'
Therewith he drew his foot to him so that his leg (?) was broken,
and the horn sprang from the other and was in the mountain by him.
It was Sliab n-Adarca [Note: Mountain of the Horn.] afterwards.

He carried them then a journey of a day and a night, till he
lighted in the loch which is by Cruachan, and he came to Cruachan
out of it with the loin and the shoulder-blade and the liver of the
other on his horns. Then the hosts came to kill him. Fergus did not
allow it, but that he should go where he pleased. He came then to
his land and drank a draught in Findlethe on coming. It is there
that he left the shoulderblade of the other. Findlethe afterwards
was the name of the land. He drank another draught in Ath Luain; he
left the loin of the other there: hence is Ath Luain. He gave forth
his roar on Iraird Chuillend; it was heard through all the
province. He drank a draught in Tromma. There the liver of the
other fell from his horns; hence is Tromma. He came to Etan Tairb.
[Note: The Bull's Forehead.] He put his forehead against the hill
at Ath Da Ferta; hence is Etan Tairb in Mag Murthemne. Then he went
on the road of Midluachair in Cuib. There he used to be with the
milkless cow of Dairi, and he made a trench there. Hence is Gort
Buraig. [Note: The Field of the Trench.] Then he went till he died
between Ulster and Iveagh at Druim Tairb. Druim Tairb is the name
of that place.

Ailill and Medb made peace with the Ulstermen and with Cuchulainn.
For seven years after there was no wounding of men between them.
Findabair stayed with Cuchulainn, and the Connaughtmen went to
their country, and the Ulstermen to Emain Macha with their great
triumph. Finit, amen.

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