Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/40



monstrous brothers and their three crooked sisters, all of the same age, travelled over the world between Ireland and Babylon, learning magic to destroy Cohoolin. He had killed Calatin their father and their twenty-seven hideous brothers, in battle; they wanted revenge, and it was Queen Maeve of Connaught who counselled them to study magic in order to obtain it. They listened to the spells and read the books of all the wizards who lived in the forests and caves and cities of the world. They went down to Hell itself, and brought back with them three swords, three knives, and three spears, the most poisonous that ever were; and it was said that with these they would destroy three kings.

While these brothers and sisters blinked in the darkness, thinking and thinking how to fight Cohoolin by magic, Queen Maeve set against him others who fought with swords. There were the kings of North Munster, of Tara, and of Leinster, and many others whose fathers he had slain. They invaded Ulster at a time when all its warriors except Cohoolin lay under enchantment, and could not fight. His friends begged him to wait, but he was not willing, because he knew that he was a match for any of the kings, and as for poisonous Calatin's poisonous brood of monsters he feared them no more than toads or bats. He did not know, what his friends knew, that if he fought now he was certain to die. He knew that he could only die once, and that was on the day appointed by fate; until then he could go on con-