The Coming of Cuculain Read online

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE RETURN OF CUCULAIN

  "The golden gates of sleep unbar When strength and beauty met together Kindle their image like a star In a sea of glassy weather."

  SHELLEY.

  Then Laeg harnessed the horses and yoked the chariot. To the brazenpeaks of the chariot he fastened the heads of Foil and of Tuatha, withFoil's on the left hand and Tuatha's on the right; and the long-hairedhead of the water-wizard he made fast by its own hair to the ornament ofsilver that was at the forward extremity of the great chariot pole. Whenthis was done, and when he had secured his master's weapons and warlikeequipments in their respective places, the youths ascended the chariot,and Laeg shook the ringing reins and called to the steeds to go, andthey went, and soon they were on the hard highway straining forward tothe north. The sound of the war-car behind them outroared the roaringof the flames. Cuculain was a pale red all over, for ere the last combatwas at an end that pool of the Boyne was like one bath of blood. Hiseyes blazed terribly in his head, and his face was fearful to look upon.Like a reed in a river so he quaked and trembled, and there went outfrom him a moaning like the moaning of winds through deep woods ordesolate glens, or over the waste places of the earth when darkness isabroad. For the war-fury which the Northmen named after the Barserkersenwrapped and inflamed him, body and spirit, owing to those strenuouscombats, and owing to the venom and the poison which exhaled from thosechildren of sorcery, that spawn of Death and Hell, so that his gentlemind became as it were the meeting-place of storms and the confluence ofshouting seas. A man ran before him whose bratta on the wind roaredlike fire, and there was a sound of voices calling and acclaiming, and anoontide darkness descended upon him and accompanied him as he went, andall became obscure and shapeless, and all the ways were murk. Andthe mind of Laeg, too, was disturbed and shaken loose from its strongfoundations.

  "But now," said Cuculain, "there ran a man before us. Him I do not see,but what is this herd of monstrous deer, sad-coloured and livid, as withhorns and hoofs of iron? I have not seen such at any time. Lurid fireplays round them as they flee."

  "No deer of the earth are they," said Laeg. "They are the enchanted herdof Slieve Fuad, and from their abode subterrene they have come up lateinto the world surrounded by night that they may graze upon Eiriu'splains, and it is not lawful even to look upon them."

  "Pursue and run down those deer," said Cuculain.

  "There is fear upon me," said Laeg.

  "Alive or dead thou shalt come with me on this adventure, though it leadus into the mighty realms of the dead," cried Cuculain.

  Laeg relaxed his hands upon the reins and let the steeds go, and theychased the enchanted herd of Slieve Fuad. There was no hunting seen likethat before in Erin. So vehement was the chase that a twain of the herdwas run down and they upon their knees and sobbing. Cuculain sprang fromthe chariot and he made fast one of the deer to the pole of the chariotto run before, and on to the hinder part of it to run behind. So theywent northward again with a deer of the herd of Hell running before themand another following behind.

  "What are those birds whiter than snow and more brilliant than stars,"said then Cuculain, "which are before us upon the plain, as if Heavenwith its astral lights and splendour were outspread before us there?"

  "They are the wild geese of the enchanted flocks of Lir," answered Laeg."From his vast and ever-during realms beneath the sea they have come upthrough the dim night to feed on Banba's plains. Have nought to do withthose birds, dear master."

  Cuculain stood up in his chariot with his sling in his hand, and hefitted thereto small bolts, and slang. He did not make an end before hehad overthrown and laid low three score of the birds of Lir.

  "Go bring me those birds," said he to Laeg. The horses were plungingterribly when he said that.

  "I may not, O my master," said Laeg. "For even now, and with the reinsin my hand, I am unable to restrain their fury and their madness, tosuch a degree have their noble minds been disturbed by the sorcery andthe druidism and the enchantment with which they are surrounded. AndI fear that soon the brazen wheels will fail me, or that the axle-treewill fail me by reason of their collidings with the rocks and cliffs ofthe land, when the horses shall have escaped from my control and shallhave rushed forth like hurricanes over the earth."

  Forthwith Cuculain sprang out in front of the chariot, and seized themby their mouths and they in their rearing, and with his hands bowed downtheir heads to the earth, and they knew their master and stood stillwhile they quaked. Laeg collected the birds, and Cuculain securedthem to the chariot and to the harness. The birds returned to lifeand Cuculain cut the binding cords, so that the birds flew over and oneither side of the chariot, and singing besides.

  In that manner, speeding northward, Cuculain and Laeg drew nigh toEmain Macha. Concobar and the Ultonians happened at that very time tobe seeking a druidic response from the prophetess Lavarcam concerningCuculain and concerning Laeg, for their minds misgave them that beyondthe mearings of the Province the lads had come to some hurt, andLavarcam, answering them, said:

  "Look to yourselves now ye children of Rury, Your destruction and the end of your career are at hand. Close all gates, shoot every bar. For Dethcaen's nursling, Sualtam's son, draweth nigh.

  "Verily he is not hurt, but he hath wounded. Champions the mightiest he hath victoriously overthrown. Though he come swiftly it is not in flight. Take good heed now while there is time. He cometh like night in raiment of darkness, Starry singing flocks are round his head, Soon,O Concobar, his unendurable hand will be upon you; Soon your dead will outnumber your living."

  "Close all the gates of Emain," cried Concobar, "and treble-bar allwith bars. Look to your weapons ye heroes of the Red Branch. Man theramparts, and let every bridge be raised."

  So the high king shouted, and his voice rang through the vast and highdun and rolled along the galleries and far-stretching corridors, and washeard by the women of Ulla in their secluded chambers. And at the sametime the watchman from the watch-tower cried out. Then the women heldcouncil together, and they said:

  "Moats and ramparts and strong doors will not repel Cuculain. He willsurely o'erleap the moat and burst through the doors and slay many."

  And as they debated together they said that they alone would save thecity and defeat the war-demons who had Cuculain in their power. For theysaid--"His virginity is with him, and his beautiful shamefastness, andhis humility and reverence for women, whether they be old or young, andwhether they be comely or not comely. And this was his way always, andnow more than formerly since young love hath descended upon him in theform of Emer, daughter of Fargal Manach, King of Lusk in the south."

  Then the women of the Ultonians did a great and memorable deed, and suchas was not known to have been done at any time in Erin.

  They bade all the men retire into the dun after they had lowered thebridge; and when that was done three tens of them, such as were the mostillustrious in rank and famous for accomplishments, and they all in theprime of their youth and beauty, and clad only in the pure raiment oftheir womanhood, came forth out of the quarters of the women, and inthat order, in spite of shame they went to meet him. When Cuculain sawthem advancing towards him in lowly wise, with exposed bosom and handscrossed on their breasts, his weapons fell from his hands and thewar-demons fled out of him, and low in the chariot he bent down hisnoble head. By them he was conducted into the dun, into a chamber whichthey had prepared for him, and they drew water and filled his kieve, andthere Laeg ministered to him. He was like one fiery glowing mass--likeiron plucked red out of the furnace.

  When he had entered his bath the water boiled around him. After he hadbathed and when he became calm and cool Laeg put upon him his beautifulbanqueting attire, and he came into the great hall lowly and blushing.All were acclaiming and praising him, and he passed up the greathall and made a reverence to the King, and he sat down at the King'sfootstool
. All who saw him marvelled then more at his beauty than at hisdeeds. He was sick after that, and came very near to death, but inthe end he fell into a very deep sleep from which he awoke whole andrefreshed, though it was the opinion of many that he would surely die.Cuculain was seventeen years of age when he did these feats.