Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/242

 180 Its portico is covered, too, With wings of birds both yellow and blue."

See O'Curry's "Man. Materials," p. 310.

Page 27. "He drew the cooalya-coric," coolaya in the text, is a misprint. The cooalya-coric means "pole of combat." How it was "drawn" we have no means of knowing. It was probably a pole meant to be drawn back and let fall upon some sounding substance. The word, "draw," has, however, in local, if not in literary use, the sense of drawing back one's arm to make a blow. A peasant will say, "he drew the blow at me," or "he drew the stick," in English; or "," in Irish, by which he means, he made the blow and struck with the stick. This may be the case in the phrase "drawing the cooalya-coric," which occurs so often in Irish stories, and it may only mean, "he struck a blow with the pole of combat," either against something resonant, or against the door of the castle. I have come across at least one allusion to it in the Fenian literature. In the story, called (the great man, the king of Spain's son), the great man and Oscar fight all day, and when evening comes Oscar grows faint and asks for a truce, and then takes Finn Mac Cool aside privately and desires him to try to keep the great man awake all night, while he himself sleeps; because he feels that if the great man, who had been already three days and nights without rest, were to get some sleep on this night, he himself would not be a match for him next morning. This is scarcely agreeable to the character of Oscar, but the wiles which Finn employs to make the great man relate to him his whole history, and so keep him from sleeping, are very much in keeping with the shrewdness which all these stories attribute to the Fenian king. The great man remains awake all night, sorely against his will, telling Finn his extraordinary adventures; and whenever he tries to stop, Finn incites him to begin again, and at last tells him not to be afraid, because the Fenians never ask combat of any man until he ask it of them first. At last, as the great man finished his adventures etc. i.e., the day was rising, and Oscar goes and struck (the word is not "drew" here) the pole of combat. The great man heard that, and he said, "Oh, Finn Mac Cool, you have deceived me," etc. Considering that they were all inside of Finn's palace at Allan (co. Kildare) at this time, Oscar could hardly have struck the door. It is more probable that the pole of combat stood outside the house, and it seems to have been a regular institution. In Campbell's tale of "The Rider of Grianag," there is mention made of a slabhraidh comhrac, "Chain of