The Coming of Cuculain Page 10

  CHAPTER VIII

  SETANTA, THE PEACE-MAKER

  "The swine-herd [Footnote: One of the minor gods. He resembles Mars Sylvanus of the Romans to whom swine were sacrificed.] of Bove Derg, son of the Dagda, The feasts to which he came used to end in blood."

  GAELIC BARD.

  Culain sat silent for a long time looking out before him with eyes likeiron, and when at last he spoke his voice was charged with wrath andsorrow.

  "O Concobar," he said, "and you, the rest, nobles of the children ofRury. You are my guests to-night, wherefore it is not lawful that Ishould take vengeance upon you for the killing of my brave and faithfulhound, who was a better keeper of my treasures than a company of hiredwarriors. Truly he cost me nothing but his daily allowance of meat, andthere was not his equal as a watcher and warder in the world. An eric,therefore, I must have. Consult now together concerning its amount andlet the eric be great and conspicuous, for, by Orchil [Footnote: Thequeen of the infernal regions.] and all the gods who rule beneath theearth, a small eric I will not accept."

  Concobar answered straight, "Thou shalt not get from me or from theUltonians any eric, small or great. My nephew slew the beast in fairfight, defending his life against an aggressor. But I will say somethingelse, proud smith, and little it recks me whether it is pleasing to theeor not. Had thy wolf slain my nephew not one of you would have left thisdun alive, and of your famous city of artificers I would have made asmoking heap."

  The Ultonians fiercely applauded that speech, declaring that the smithsshould get no eric, great or small, for the death of their monster. Thesmiths thereupon armed themselves with their hammers, and tongs, andfire-poles, and great bars of unwrought brass, and Culain himself seizedan anvil withal to lay waste the ranks of the Red Branch. The Ultonianson their side ran to the walls and plucked down their spears from thepegs, and they raised their shields and balanced their long spears,and swords flashed and screeched as they rushed to light out of thescabbards, and the vast chamber glittered with shaking bronze and shonewith the eyeballs of angry men, and rang with shouts of defiance andquick fierce words of command. For the Red Branch embattled themselveson one side of the chamber and the smiths upon the other, burning withunquenchable wrath, earth-born. The vast and high dome re-echoing rangwith the clear terrible cries of the Ultonians and the roar of thechildren of the gloomy Orchil, and, far away, the magic shield moaned atEmain Macha, and the waves of the ocean sent forth a cry, for the perilof death and of shortness of life were around Concobar in that hour.And, though the doors of thick oak, brass-bound, were shut and barred,there came a man into the assembly, and he was not seen. He was red allover, both flesh and raiment, as if he had been plunged in a bath ofblood. His countenance was distraught and his eyes like those of aninsane man, and sparks new from them like sparks from a smith's stithywhen he mightily hammers iron plucked white from the furnace. Smokeand fire came from his mouth. He held in his hand a long boar-yard. Thelikeness of a boar bounded after him. He traversed the vast chamber withthe velocity of lightning, and with his boar-yard beat such as werenot already drunk with wrath and battle-fury, and shot insane fire intotheir souls. [Footnote: This was the demon referred to in the lines atthe head of the chapter.]

  Then indeed it wanted little, not the space of time during which a manmight count ten, for the beginning of a murder grim and great as anyrenowned in the world's chronicles, and it is the opinion of the learnedthat, in spite of all their valour and beautiful weapons, the artificerswould then and there have made a bloody end of the Red Branch had thebattle gone forward. But at this moment, ere the first missile washurled on either side, the boy Setanta sprang into the midst, into themiddle space which separated the enraged men, and cried aloud, with aclear high voice that rang distinct above the tumult--

  "O Culain, forbear to hurl, and restrain thy people, and you theUltonians, my kinsmen, delay to shoot. To thee, O chief smith, and thygreat-hearted artificers I will myself pay no unworthy eric for thedeath of thy brave and faithful hound. For verily I will myself take thydog's place, and nightly guard thy property, sleepless as he was, and Iwill continue to do so till a hound as trusty and valiant as the houndwhom I slew is procured for thee to take his place, and to relieve meof that duty. Truly I slew not thy hound in any wantonness of superiorstrength, but only in the defence of my own life, which is not mine butmy King's. Three times he leaped upon me with white fangs bared and eyesred with murder, and three times I cast him off, but when the fourthtime he rushed upon me like a storm, and when with great difficulty Ihad balked him on that occasion also, then I took him by the throat andby his legs and flung him against one of the brazen pillars withal tomake him stupid. And truly it was not my intention to kill him and I amsorry that he is dead, seeing that he was so faithful and so brave, andso dear to thee whom I have always honoured, even when I was a child atDun Dalgan, and whom, with thy marvel-working craftsman, I have fora long time eagerly desired to see. And I thought that our meeting,whensoever it might be, would be other than this and more friendly."

  As he went on speaking the fierce brows of the smith relaxed, and firsthe regarded the lad with pity, being so young and fair, and then withadmiration for his bravery. Also he thought of his own boyish days,and as he did so a torrent of kindly affection and love poured from hisbreast towards the boy, yea, though he saw him standing before him withthe blood of his faithful hound gilding his linen lena and his whitelimbs. Yet, indeed, it was not the hound's blood which was on the boy,but his own, so cruelly had the beast torn him with his long and strongand sharp claws.

  "That proposal is pleasing to me," he said, "and I will accept the eric,which is distinguished and conspicuous and worthy of my greatness and ofmy name and reputation amongst the Gael. Why should a man be angry forever when he who did the wrong offers due reparation?" Therewith overhis left shoulder he flung the mighty anvil into the dark end of thevast chamber among the furnaces, at the sound of whose falling thesolid earth shook. On the other hand Concobar rejoiced at this happytermination of the quarrel, for well he knew the might of those hugechildren of the gloomy Orchil. He perceived, too, that he could withsafety entrust the keeping of the lad to those people, for he sawthe smith's countenance when it changed, and he knew that among thoseartificers there was no guile.

  "It is pleasing to me, too," he said, "and I will be myself the lad'ssecurity for the performance of his promise."

  "Nay, I want no security," answered the smith. "The word of a scion ofthe Red Branch is security enough for me."

  Thereafter all laid aside their weapons and their wrath. The smiths witha mighty clattering cast their tools into the dark end of the chamber,and the Ultonians hanged theirs upon the walls, and the feasting andpledging and making of friendly speeches were resumed. There was no moreany anger anywhere, but a more unobstructed flow of mutual good-will andregard, for the Ultonians felt no more a secret inclination to laugh atthe dusky artificers, and the smiths no longer regarded with disdain thebeauty, bravery, and splendour of the Ultonians.

  In the meantime Setanta had returned to his place between the King andFergus Mac Roy. There a faintness came upon him, and a great horrorovershadowed him owing to his battle with the dog, for indeed it was nocommon dog, and when he would have fallen, owing to the faintness, theypushed him behind them so that he lay at full length upon the couchunseen by the smiths. Concobar nodded to his chief Leech, and he cameto him with his instruments and salves and washes. There unobserved hewashed the cruel gashes cut by the hound's claws, and applied salves andstitched the skin over the wounds, and, as he did so, in a low voice hemurmured healing songs of power.

  "Where is the boy?" said Culain.

  "He is reposing a little," said Concobar, "after his battle and hisconflict."

  After a space they gave Setanta a draught of mighty ale, and his heartrevived in him and the colour returned to his cheeks wherein before wasthe pallor of death, and he sat up again in his place, slender and fair,between Co
ncobar and Fergus Mac Roy. The smiths cried out a friendlywelcome to him as he sat up, for they held him now to be theirfoster-son, and Culain himself stood up in his place holding in bothhands a great mether [Footnote: A four-cornered quadrangular cup.] ofale, and he drank to all unborn and immature heroes, naming the nameof Setanta, son of Sualtam, now his dear foster-son, and magnified hiscourage, so that the boy blushed vehemently and his eyelids trembledand drooped; and all the artificers stood up too and drank to theirfoster-son, wishing him victory and success, and they drained theirgoblets and dashed them, mouth downwards, upon the brazen tables, sothat the clang reverberated over Ulla. Setanta thereupon stood up whilethe smiths roared a welcome to their foster-son, and he said that itwas not he who had gained the victory, for that someone invisible hadassisted him and had charged him with a strength not his own. Then hefaltered in his speech and said again that he would be a faithful houndin the service of the artificers, and sat down. The smiths at that timewould not have yielded him for all the hounds in the world.

  After that their harpers harped for them and their story tellers relatedtrue stories, provoking laughter and weeping. There was no story toldthat was not true in the age of the heroes. Then the smiths sang oneof their songs of labour, though it needed the accompaniment of ringingmettle, a song wild and strange, and the Ultonians clear and high sangall together with open mouths a song of battle and triumph and of themarching home to Emain Macha with victory; and so they spent the night,till Concobar said--

  "O Culain, feasting and singing are good, but slumber is good also.Dismiss us now to our rest and our slumber, for we, the Red Branch, mustrise betimes in the morning, having our own proper work to perform dayby day in Emain Macha, as you yours in your industrious city."

  With difficulty were the smiths persuaded to yield to that request, forright seldom was there a feast in Dun Culain, and the unusual pleasureand joyful sense of comradeship and social exaltation were very pleasingto their hearts.

  The Ultonians slept that night in the smiths' hall upon resplendentcouches which had been prepared for them, and early in the morning,having taken a friendly leave of the artificers, they departed, leavingthe lad behind them asleep. Setanta remained with the smiths a long timeafter that, and Culain and his people loved him greatly and taught himmany things. It was owing to this adventure and what came of it thatSetanta got his second name, viz., the Hound of Culain or Cu-Culain.Under that name he wrought all his marvellous deeds.