Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/449

Rh is, however, brought into much clearer light in another and a second version in the same manuscript, which materially differs from the other two, and retains very old features of the myth that are not reproduced in them. This is the substance of it: —Fifty maidens from the Ultonian court, with Dechtere at their head, ran away from Emain, and their whereabouts could not be discovered for the spare of three years; but in the mean time Emain was visited by wild birds which ate up the grass and every green herb. The Ultonians felt this to be a great scourge, and they resolved to give them chase; so one day the king and a few of his nobles with their charioteers set out to kill the birds, by which they were allured over the hills and far away to the neighbourhood of the Brugh of the Boyne, notorious for its fairy inhabitants (p. 171). Night overtook them, and, having lost sight of the birds, they unyoked their horses, while one of their number took a turn to see if he could discover a habitation where they might pass the night. Ere long he rejoined his friends with the news that he had found a small house occupied by a man and his wife, who would welcome them with such hospitality as their means admitted of. Thither they went to pass the night; but presently one of their number went outside, and was surprised to come across a fine mansion, at the door of which stood the owner of it bidding him welcome to his house: he entered, and was familiarly saluted by the owner's wife. He asked the meaning of this, and was told that she was Dechtere, and that the fifty maidens dwelt there with her: it was they, in fact, that had in