There lives not man nor company of men, Less than a cohort, shall within my close Set foot of trespass, short of life or limb. Conor

Yea; all are in. Let loose, and sit secure.

Good are thy viands, Smith, and strong thine ale.
Hark, the hound growling!-

Cullan

Fergus

Wild dogs are abroad.

Not ruddier the fire that laps a sword

Steeled for a king, oh Cullan, than thy wine.-
Hark, the hound baying!-

Cullan

Cathbad

Wolves, belike, are near.

Not cheerfuller the ruddy forge's light

To wayfarer benighted, nor the glow

Of wine and viands to a hungry man

Than look of welcome passed from host to guest.
Hark, the hound yelling! -

Cullan

Friends, arise and arm! Some enemy intrudes! — Tush! 'tis a boy.

Setanta

Setanta here, the son of Suailtam.

Conor

Setanta, whom I deemed on Emain green,
Engaged at ball play, on our track, indeed!
Setanta-

Not difficult the track to find, oh King,
But difficult, indeed, to follow home.
Cullan, 'tis evil welcome for a guest
This unwarned onset of a savage beast,

Which, but that 'gainst the stone posts of thy gate
I three times threw him, leaping at my throat,
And, at the third throw, on the stone edge, slew,
Had brought on thee the shame indelible

Of bidden guest, at his host's threshold, torn.
Conor -

Yea, he was bidden: it was I myself

Said, as I passed him with the youths at play,
This morning: Come thou also if thou wilt.
But little thought I, - when he said the youths
Desired his presence still to hold the goal,
Yet asked to follow for he said he longed
To hear discourse of warrior and sage,
And see the nest that hatches deaths of men

--

The tongs a-flash, and Cullan's welding blowThat such a playful, young, untutored boy Would come on this adventure of a man. Cullan

I knew not he was bidden; and I asked,
Ere I cast loose, if all the train were in.
But, since thy word has made the boy my guest, –
Boy, for his sake who bade thee to my board,
I give thee welcome: for thine own sake, no.
For thou hast slain my servant and my friend,
The hound I loved, that fierce, intractable
To all men else, was ever mild to me.

He knew me; and he knew my uttered words,
All my commandments, as a man might know:
More than a man, he knew my looks and tones
And turns of gesture, and discerned my mind,
Unspoken, if in grief or if in joy.

He was my pride, my strength, my company,
For I am childless; and that hand of thine
Has left an old man lonely in the world.
Setanta

Since, Cullan, by mischance, I've slain thy hound,
So much thy grief compassion stirs in me,
Hear me pronounce a sentence on myself.

If of his seed there liveth but a whelp
In Uladh, I will rear him till he grow
To such ability as had his sire

For knowing, honoring, and serving thee.
Meantime, but give a javelin in my hand,
And a good buckler, and there never went
About thy bounds, from daylight-gone till dawn,
Hound watchfuller, or of a keener fang

Against intruder, than myself shall be.

Cullan

A sentence, a just sentence.

Conor

Not myself

Hath made award more righteous. Be it so.
Wherefore what hinders that we give him now
His hero name, no more Setanta called

But now Cuchullin, chain hound of the Smith ?

Setanta

Setanta I, the son of Suailtam,

Nor other name assume I, or desire.

Cathbad

Take, son of Suailtam, the offered name.

To my ears

There comes a clamor from the rising years,

The tumult of a passion torrent-swollen,

Rolled hitherward, and 'mid its mingling noises,

I hear perpetual voices

Proclaim to land and fame

The name,
CUCHULLIN!

Hound of the Smith, thy boyish vow
Devotes thy manhood even now

To vigilance, fidelity, and toil:

'Tis not alone the wolf, fang-bare to snatch,
Not the marauder from the lifted latch
Alone, thy coming footfall makes recoil,
The nobler service thine to chase afar
Seditious tumult and intestine war,

Envy and unfraternal hate,

From all the households of the state.

*

Great is the land and splendid:

The borders of the country are extended:

The extern tribes look up with wondering awe

And own the central law.

Fair show the fields, and fair the friendly faces
Of men in all their places.

With song and chosen story,

With game and dance, with revelries and races,

Life glides on joyous wing

The tales they tell of love and war and glory,
Tales that the soft bright daughters of the land
Delight to understand,

The songs they sing,

To harps of double string,

To gitterns and new reeds,

Are of the glorious deeds

Of young Cuchullin in the Cuelgnian foray.

Take, son of Suailtam, the offered name.
For at that name the mightiest of the men
Of Erin and of Alba shall turn pale:

And of that name the mouths of all the men
Of Erin and of Alba shall be full.

Setanta

Yea, then if that be so - Cuchullin here!

CUCHULLIN'S WOOING OF EIMER.

TRANSLATION OF STANDISH O'GRADY.

"Hers were the gift of beauty of person, the gift of voice, the gift of music, the gift of embroidery and of all needlework, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of virtuous chastity."

Cuchullin

Come down, O daughter of Forgal Manah,
Sweet Eimer, come down without fear.
The moon has arisen to light us on our way,
Come down from thy grenan1 without fear.

Eimer

Who is that beneath my chamber window
Sends up to me his words through the dim night?
Who art thou, standing in the beechen shadows,
White-browed and tall, with thy golden hair?

Cuchullin

It is I, Setanta, O gentle Eimer!

I, thy lover, come to seek thee from the north;

It is I who stand in the beechen shadows,

Sending up my heart in words through the dim night.

Eimer

I fear my proud father, O Setanta,

My brothers, and my kinsmen, and the guards,
Ere I come unto thy hands, O my lover!

Through their well-lit feasting chamber I must pass.

Cuchullin

Fear not the guards, O noble Eimer!

Fear not thy brothers or thy sire,

Dull with ale are they all, and pressed with slumber,
And the lights extinguished in the hall.

Eimer

I fear the fierce watchdogs, O Setanta,

The deep water of the moat how shall I cross?

Not alone for myself, I fear, Setanta,

They will rend thee without ruth, Cuchullin.

1 Women's apartments.

Cuchullin

The dogs are my comrades and my namesakes;
Like my Luath they are friendly unto me.
O'er the foss I will bear thee in my arms
I will leap across the foss, my love, with thee.
Eimer-

Forward wide, all the tribes and the nations
Over Bregia, northwards to Dun — Sir,

They are kin to my father and his subjects -
For thy life I fear, O noble Cuchullin.

Cuchullin

On the lawn within the beechen shadows

Is my chariot light and strong, bright with gold;
And steeds like the March wind in their swiftness
Will bear thee to Dundalgan ere the dawn.
Eimer-

I grieve to leave my father, O Setanta,
Mild to me, though his nature be not mild;
I grieve to leave my native land, Setanta,
Frisk with its streams and fairy glades.

I grieve to leave my Dun, O Setanta,
And this lawn, and the trees I know so well,
And this, my tiny chamber looking eastward,
Where love found me unknowing of his power.

Well I know the great wrong I do my father,
But thus, even thus I fly with thee;

As the sea draws down the little Tolka

So thou, O Cuchullin, drawest me.

Like a god descending from the mountains,

So hast thou descended upon me;

I would die to save thy life, O Setanta,

I would die if thou caredst not for me.

THE FIGHT OF CUCHULLIN AND FERDIAH AT THE FORD.

TRANSLATION OF O'CURRY.

[King Ailill and Queen Maev threaten Ferdiah with the bardic curse "which withers and dishonors heroes" if he refuses to meet his former friend and companion, Cuchullin, in combat.]

Maev and Ailill sent to the Bards to make a great outcry