[3-3] LU. and YBL. 820-831 and, partly, in Eg. 1782.

    [a] Literally, ‘your.’

    [a] ‘Garech,’ LU. and YBL. 827.

[1]Then did the men of Erin deliberate about going to ravage and lay waste Mag Breg and Meath and the plain of Conall and the land of Cuchulain; and it was in the presence of Fergus macRoig they discussed it.[1]

    [1-1] H. 2. 17.

[W.1465.] The four grand provinces of Erin moved out on the morrow, and began to harry the plains of Breg and Murthemne.  And the sharp, keen-edged anxiety [LL.fo.69a.] for Cuchulain came over his fosterer Fergus.  And he bade the men of Erin be on their guard that night, for that Cuchulain would come upon them.  And here again he sang in his praise, as we wrote it before,[b] and he uttered the lay:—­

    “If Cuchulain, Cualnge’s Hound,
    And Red Branch chiefs on you come,
    Men will welter in their blood,
    Laying waste Murthemne’s plain!

[4]"Woe to him possesses wealth, ’Less he find a way to ’scape; And your wives will be enslaved, And your chiefs fill pools of blood![4]

    “Far away he[c] held his course,
    Till he reached Armenia’s heights;
    Battle dared he, past his wont,
    And the Burnt-breasts[d] put to death!

    “Hardest for him was to drive
    Necht’s sons from their chieftest haunts;
    And the smith’s hound—­mighty deed—­
    Hath he slain with single hand!

[W.1483.] “More than this I’ve naught to say, As concerns Dechtire’s son; My belief, in troth, is this:  Ye will now meet with your fate.”

    [b] See above, p. 41.

    [4-4] H. 2. 17.

    [c] That is, Cuchulain.

    [d] That is, the Amazons.

    [3-3] LU. and YBL. 820-831 and, partly, in Eg. 1782.

After this lay, that was the day that Donn (’the Brown Bull’) of Cualnge came into the land of Margine [1]to Sliab Culinn[1] and with him fifty heifers of the heifers [2]of Ulster;[2] and there he was pawing and digging up the earth in that place, [3]in the land of Margine, in Cualnge;[3] that is, he flung the turf over him with his heels. [4]While the hosts were marching over Mag Breg, Cuchulain in the meanwhile laid hands on their camps.[4] It was on the same day that the Morrigan, daughter of Ernmas, [5]the prophetess[5] of the fairy-folk, came [6]in the form of a bird,[6] and she perched on the standing-stone in Temair of Cualnge giving the Brown Bull of Cualnge warning [7]and lamentations[7] before the men of Erin.  Then she began to address him and what she said was this:  “Good, now, O luckless one, thou Brown Bull of Cualnge,” so spake the Morrigan; “take heed; for the men of Erin. [8]are on thy track and seeking thee[8] and they will come upon thee, and [9]if thou art taken[9] they will carry thee away to their camp [10]like any ox on a raid,[10] unless thou art on thy guard.”  And she commenced to give warning to him in this fashion, [11]telling him he would be slain on the Tain, and she delivered this judgement[11] and spake these words aloud:[a]—­