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444 and the wanderings of Leto before giving birth to Apollo; but far the most instructive comparisons are to be made between Cúchulainn and Heracles, as will be seen later.

Thus far the reader has had presented to him a number of miscellaneous particulars about Cúchulainn's person and attributes; let us now say something more about his actions and the foes he had to face. Of these last, those who claim the first place are Ailill and Medb, the king and queen of Connaught, who have been mentioned on previous occasions, as has also their famous expedition, called the Táin, to Ulster, and especially to the Plain of Murthemne, or the district which was in Cúchulainn's special charge. Ailill may briefly be treated as one of the representatives of darkness, while his queen, who had been Conchobar's wife, belongs to the ambiguous goddesses of dawn and dusk found allied at one time with light and at another with darkness. So Medb did not always show herself hostile to Cúchulainn; in fact, later instances are mentioned of her displaying considerable partiality for him; and when he happened to come on business to her court at Cruachan, she would treat him with more than hospitality in the sense given that word by the civilized nations of our day. It was on the Táin she first heard of him, when his wondrous deeds of valour were daily brought home to her by the fall of the great champions of the west, whom she sent forth one after another to duel with him. At length his prolonged attempt to keep the invaders from the west at bay proved too much for him; and one day, when he was worn out by fatigue and sleeplessness, his