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love. Cuchulain tells her rudely that he is worn and harassed with war and has no mind to concern himself
with women. " It shall go hard with thee," then said the maid, "when thou hast to do with men, and I shall be
about thy feet as an eel in the bottom of the Ford." Then she and her chariot vanished from his sight and he
saw but a crow sitting on a branch of a tree, and he knew that he had spoken with the Morrigan.
The Fight with Loch
The next champion sent against him by Maev was Loch son of Mofebis. To meet this hero it is said that
Cuchulain had to stain his chin with blackberry juice so as to simulate a beard, lest Loch should disdain to do
combat with a boy. So they fought in the Ford, and the
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 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race
Morrigan came against him in the guise of a white heifer with red ears, but Cuchulain fractured her eye with a
cast of his spear. Then she came swimming up the river like a black eel and twisted herself about his legs, and
ere he could rid himself of her Loch wounded him. Then she attacked him as a grey wolf, and again, before
he could subdue her, he was wounded by Loch. At this his battle-fury took hold of him and he drove the Gae
Bolg against Loch, splitting his heart in two. "Suffer me to rise," said Loch, "that I may fall on my face on thy
side of the ford, and not backward toward the men of Erin." "It is a warrior's boon thou askest," said
Cuchulain, "and it is granted." So Loch died; and a great despondency, it is said, now fell upon Cuchulain, for
he was outwearied with continued fighting, and sorely wounded, and he had never slept since the beginning
of the raid, save leaning upon his spear; and he sent his charioteer, Laeg, to see if he could rouse the men of
Ulster to come to his aid at last.
Lugh the Protector
But as he lay at evening by the grave-mound of Lerga in gloom and dejection, watching the camp-fires of
the vast army encamped over against him and the glitter of their innumerable spears, he saw coming through
the host a tall and comely warrior who strode impetuously forward, and none of the companies through which
he passed turned his head to look at him or seemed to see him. He wore a tunic of silk embroidered with gold,
and a green mantle fastened with a silver brooch; in one hand was a black shield bordered with silver and two
spears in the other. The stranger came to Cuchulain and spoke gently and sweetly to him of his long toil and
waking, and his sore wounds, and said in the end:
"Sleep now, Cuchulain, by the grave in Lerga; sleep
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and slumber deeply for three days, and for that time I will take thy place and defend the Ford against the host
of Maev." Then Cuchulain sank into a profound slumber and trance, and the stranger laid healing balms of
magical power to his wounds so that he awoke whole and refreshed, and for the time that Cuchulain slept the
stranger held the Ford against the host. And Cuchulain knew that this was Lugh his father, who had come
from among the People of Dana to help his son through his hour of gloom and despair.
The Sacrifice of the Boy Corps
But still the men of Ulster lay helpless. Now there was at Emain Macha a band of thrice fifty boys, the sons
of all the chieftains of the provinces, who were there being bred up in arms and in noble ways, and these
suffered not from the curse of Macha, for it fell only on grown men. But when they heard of the sore straits in
which Cuchulain, their playmate not long ago, was lying they put on their light armour and took their
weapons and went forth for the honour of Ulster, under Conor's young son, Follaman, to aid him. And
Follaman vowed that he would never return to Emania without the diadem of Ailell as a trophy. Three times
they drove against the host of Maev, and thrice their own number fell before them, but in the end they were
overwhelmed and slain, not one escaping alive.
The Carnage of Murthemney
Chapter V: Tales of the Ultonian Cycle 102
 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race
This was done as Cuchulain lay in his trance, and when he awoke, refreshed and well, and heard what had
been done, his frenzy came upon him and he leaped into his war-chariot and drove furiously round and round
the host of Maev. And the chariot ploughed the earth till the ruts were like the ramparts of a
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fortress, and the scythes upon its wheels caught and mangled the bodies of the crowded host till they were
piled like a wall around the camp, and as Cuchulain shouted in his wrath the demons and goblins and wild
things in Erin yelled in answer, so that with the terror and the uproar the host of men heaved and surged
hither and thither, and many perished from each other's weapons, and many from horror and fear. And this
was the great carnage, called the Carnage of Murthemney, that Cuchulain did to avenge the boy-corps of
Emania ; six score and ten princes were then slain of the host of Maev, besides horses and women and
wolf-dogs and common folk without number. It is said that Lugh mac Ethlinn fought there by his son.
The Clan Calatin
Next the men of Erin resolved to send against Cuchulain, in single combat, the Clan Calatin. ["Clan" in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]