Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/262

 238 Reviews.

Among the more important variations in this version from that of the Book of Leinster, besides those to which attention has already been drawn, are the additional episodes in Cuchulain's Boy-deeds, the death of Fracch, the discovery of Fergus and Medb by Ailill's charioteer, the meeting of Cuchulain and Findabair. The Ferdiad episode is much briefer, and the pathos of its details is less insisted on. The fight of Calatin's sons and the curious explanation that accompanies it is omitted, and the play on the name of Fiacha is lost ; the deeds of the Boy-corps are twice related, and the healing of Cuchulain after his fight with Ferdiad and many of the succeeding incidents are either omitted in the Y. B. L. version or are considerably shortened. The L. U. copy unfortunately fails for this part of the story, and the final scenes are so briefly told in the Y. B. L. version that it is difficult to realise their importance in the evolution of the story. In several other instances the explanations given in the Book of Leinster are necessary to the understanding of the episode, as, for instance, where Cuchulain kills Medb's waiting-woman, mistaking her for the Queen. This, the L. L. version explains, was because she had put on Medb's *' mind," or queenly coronet. In some places the scribe seems to have mistaken the drift of his original ; we can scarcely, for example, imagine the hero Cuchulain employed on a snowy day in " examining his shirt." The later version here says that instead of sleeping to throw off his fatigue, he would be out in the open, refreshing himself by allowing the sun and wind to play upon his naked body— a much more likely method of invigorating him self -

Among the numerous interesting folklore superstitions are the belief in omens (p. 8), the whispering spells over a handful of grass to obtain a beard (p. 76), and the appeal to the elements, on page 45. An interesting expression to denote the heaps of dead after a battle is the "fold of Badb," i.e., the goddess of war (p. 88). We would suggest a correction on p. 121, where Miss Faraday makes Eogan Mac Durthacht " King of Fermoy," which is out of the line of the Tain altogether. Eoghan was a northern prince, and it was he who slew the sons of Usnech. Fearnmhaighe is probably the present Barony of Farney in co. Monaghan. Haliday gives it erroneously as Fermanagh.

Eleanor Hull.