Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/44

 shouted to them, 'Follow them, follow!' but they took no notice, and when he came nearer they asked in astonishment, 'Is it thy shadow thou art chasing, Cohoolin, for lack of an enemy?'

'I chase the host which ye have passed through.'

'We have seen no one for an hour, Cohoolin. Thou hast been listening too much to the poets and singers, so that thou canst not tell the difference between a few words and a man with a sword.'

He returned to the house. Once again he tried to look out, because the enemy seemed to be whispering at every inch of the walls and roof in the darkness; but the venerable druids surrounded him, and told him that it was magic only, and that there was not enough of the enemy to shake the bee out of the blossom.

Early on the next morning, Conachoor called together the druids and singers and poets, and the friends and lovers of Cohoolin, and asked them how they were going to keep him from the fight that day, and, still weary from the past day, all of them answered that they knew no way. Wherefore Conachoor advised them to take the hero into the Deaf Glen, where he could escape the sounds of enchantment. This was a glen so cut off from the remainder of the earth, that if all the men of Ireland were gathered close to it and yelled their war cries no one within could hear anything. They had already tried to persuade him into the glen, but in vain. Cathbad the Druid stood close to Cohoolin, and invited him to come to a feast in the Deaf Glen. Niav the golden-haired knelt beside him and kissed him and asked him to come; and she was one whom he never used to refuse. Again Cathbad spoke, and Cohoolin said:

'Shall I be feasting while all Ireland is preparing against Ulster, and I alone of the chiefs am free from