Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/46

 ants. This multitude shrieked and made all the sounds of battle, of men conquering and being conquered, of the angry and the wretched, of horns and trumpets, of women weeping over the horrible things they saw or dreaded, of children sobbing, of goblins and all inhuman things that haunt wild places and neighbourhoods of war and death. The glen was as full of this tumult as water is of wetness, and the women in the hall raised their voices to keep it from Cohoolin. Nevertheless he heard it and deemed it the triumphant enemy and his dying countrymen; surely now the time of battle had come. But Cathbad told him these noises were mockeries made by Calatin's children. The singers sang, the poets chanted, the dancers danced. The witches grew weary of their useless enchantments, and one of them named Bibe thought of another deceit. Changing herself into the form of one of Niav's attendants she called to her mistress and, when Niav came out with her women, lured them away and bewitched them and lost them in the glen. Next she took the shape of Niav herself, for she knew that it was Niav who had made Cohoolin promise not to attack the men of Erin without her permission.

'Cohoolin,' she said, 'Ulster is being laid waste and the people will blame me because thou gavest me a promise not to go out against the enemy. I release thee. Go quickly and scatter them.'

'It is hard to know what a woman means,' said Cohoolin, ' but a little time past and what thou desiredst above all other things was that I should not fight.'

As he rose up the edge of his mantle was under one foot and he was jerked back again into his seat. Red with shame he sprang up a second time, and the force of the spring shot his gold mantle pin up to the roof, and