The Coming of Cuculain Read online

  CHAPTER III

  DETHCAEN'S NURSLING

  "Very small and beautiful like a star."

  --HOMER.

  "I love all that thou lovest, Spirit of delight; The fresh earth in new leaves drest, And the blessed night; Starry evening and the morn, When the golden mists are born."

  SHELLEY.

  Sualtam of Dun Dalgan on the Eastern Sea, took to wife Dectera, daughterof Factna the Righteous. She was sister of Concobar Mac Nessa. Sualtamwas the King of Cooalney [Footnote: Now the barony of Cooley, amountainous promontory which the County of Louth projects into the IrishSea.] a land of woods and mountains, an unproductive headland reachingout into the Ictian Sea.

  Dectera bare a son to Sualtam, and they called him Setanta, That was hisfirst name. His nurse was Dethcaen, the druidess, daughter of Cathvahthe druid, the mighty wizard and prophet of the Crave Rue. Hisbreast-plate [Footnote: A poetic spell or incantation. So even theChristian hymn of St. Patrick was called the lorica or breastplate ofPatrick.] of power, woven of druidic verse, was upon Ulla [Footnote:Ulla is the Gaelic root of Ulster.] in his time, upon all the childrenof Rury in their going out and their coming in, in war and in peace.Dethcaen [Footnote: Dethcaen is compounded of two words which meanrespectively, colour, and slender.] sang her own songs of protectionfor the child. His mother gave the child suck, but the rosy-cheeked,beautiful, sweetly-speaking daughter of Cathvah nursed him. On herbreast and knee she bare him with great love. Light of foot andslender was Dethcaen; through the wide dun of Sualtam she went withher nursling, singing songs. She it was that discovered his first ges,[Footnote: Ges was the Irish equivalent of the tabu.] namely, that noone should awake him while he slept. He had others, sacred prohibitionswhich it was unlawful to transgress, but this was discovered byDethcaen. She discovered it while he was yet a babe. With her own handsDethcaen washed his garments and bathed his tiny limbs; lightly andcheerfully she sprang from her couch at night when she heard his voice,and raised him from the cradle and wrapped him tenderly, and put himinto the hands of his mother. She watched him when he slumbered; therewas great stillness in the palace of Sualtam when the child slept. Sherepeated for him many tales and taught him nothing base. When he wasthree years old, men came with hounds to hunt the stream which ran pastDun Dalgan. [Footnote: Now Dundalk, capital of the County of Louth.]Early in the morning Setanta heard the baying of the hounds and theshouting of the men. They were hunting a great water-dog which hadhis abode in this stream. Setanta leaped from his couch and ran to theriver. Well he knew that stream and all its pools and shallows; he knewwhere the water-dog had his den. Thither by circuit he ran and stoodbefore the month of the same, having a stone in either hand. The huntedwater-dog drew nigh. Maddened with fear and rage he gnashed his teethand growled, and then charged at the child. There, O Setanta, with thestroke of one stone thou didst slay the water-dog! The dog was carriedin procession with songs to the dun of Sualtam, who that night gave agreat feast and called many to rejoice with him, because his only sonhad done bravely. A prophet who was there said, "Thou shalt do manyfeats in thy time, O Setanta, and the last will resemble the first."

  Setanta played along the sand and by the frothing waves of the sea-shoreunder the dun. He had a ball and an ashen hurle shod with bronze;joyfully he used to drive his ball along the hard sand, shouting amonghis small playmates. The captain of the guard gave him a sheaf of toyjavelins and taught him how to cast, and made for him a sword of lathand a painted shield. They made for him a high chair. In the great hallof the dun, when supper was served, he used to sit beside the championof that small realm, at the south end of the table over againstthe king. Ever as evening drew on and the candles were lit, and theinstruments of festivity and the armour and trophies on the walls andpillars shone in the cheerful light, and the people of Sualtam sat downrejoicing, there too duly appeared Setanta over against his father bythe side of the champion, very fair and pure, yellow-haired, in hisscarlet bratta fastened with a little brooch of silver, serene and gravebeyond his years, shining there like a very bright star on the edge of athunder-cloud, so that men often smiled to see them together.

  While Sualtam and his people feasted, the harper harped and trainedsingers sang. Every day the floor was strewn with fresh rushes or driedmoss or leaves. Every night at a certain hour the bed-makers went roundspreading couches for the people of Sualtam. Sometimes the king sleptwith his people in the great hall. Then one warrior sat awake throughthe night at his pillow having his sword drawn, and another warrior satat his feet having his sword drawn. The fire-place was in the midst ofthe hall. In winter a slave appointed for that purpose from time to timeduring the night laid on fresh logs. Rude plenty never failed in the dunof Sualtam. In such wise were royal households ordered in the age ofthe heroes. For the palace, it was of timber staunched with clay and wasroofed with rushes. Without it was white with lime, conspicuous afarto mariners sailing in the Muirnict. [Footnote: The Irish Sea or St.George's Channel. Muirnict means the Ictian Sea.] There was a rampartround the dun and a moat spanned by a drawbridge. Before it there wasa spacious lawn. Down that lawn there ever ran a stream of sparklingwater. Setanta sailed his boats in the stream and taught it here to besilent, and there to hum in rapids, or to apparel itself in silver andsing liquid notes, or to blow its little trumpet from small cataracts.