The tongs a-flash, and Cullan's welding blow-
That 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.

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."

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.

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.

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

and get up an excitement, and raise up a triple barrier of scandal and reproach against his name unless he came to them. Then came Ferdiah to them, for it was better for him to fall in chivalrous and martial exploit than to fall by the libels and outcries of the Bards. And when he came, a full and wondrous joy took possession of Ailill and Maev, and they promised him abundance of goods if he would go and encounter exalted Cuchullin, and that he should be free of imposition of exaction or tribute, and that nothing should ever be required of him during eternity. And that he should get for a wife Fionbar, the beauteous only daughter of Ailill and Maev, who excelled in beauty and in form all the women of the world, and that he should take the golden jewel that was in the cloak of Maev, a talisman of great virtue. .. Ferdiah took his steeds and mounted his chariot at the rising of the sun. . . . And Ferdiah beheld the polished bounding chariot of Cuchullin coming rapidly and actively, with his people clad in green, and with a shaking of stout spears and dexterous bloodthirsty javelins held up aloft. And two fleet steeds under the chariot, bounding broad-chested, high-spirited, holding high their heads and arching their long necks. And they were as a hawk on a sharp blustering day, or as a whirlwind in a brisk spring day in March in its course over the lovely wide marshy plains. Or like a beauteous excellent deer at the first starting of the hounds- such were those two steeds under the chariot of Cuchullin.

And Ferdiah gave Cuchullin a manly and a truly mild welcome. And then said Cuchullin: "O Ferdiah, it was not meet of thee to come to do battle with me at the jealous instigation and complaint of Ailill and Maev, and for the sake of their false promises and deceitful gifts. O Ferdiah, and woe is it to thee to have abandoned my friendship for the friendship of any one woman. Fifty champions have hitherto fallen by me, and long is it ere I would forsake thee for the promises of any woman; for we were together gaining instruction in chivalry, and together went we to every battle and conflict, and together pursued we the chase, and together were we in every desolate place of darkness and sorcery."

"Dost thou bear in mind, great Cuchullin," said Ferdiah, "the enerous exercise we used to go through with Uatha and Scatha and with Aifé?" "Well do I remember them," said Cuchullin. "And now let us joust with our trusty spears."