Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/487

Rh to the end of the world.' Cúchulainn and the Mórrigu were now, so to say, quits, and the story ends without shedding any light on the later relations between them. Another story, however, which describes Cúchulainn's death, makes the Mórrigu, out of friendship for him, break his chariot on the eve of the fatal day, so as to induce him to stay at home; how the reconciliation had been effected I cannot say; and I have only entered into these details because they form the Irish counterpart of the hostility evinced by Here towards Heracles, and their final reconciliation.

The Mórrigu, it is needless to say, failed in her friendly effort to keep Cúchulainn at home on the day already referred to, for the warriors of Ulster were again in their couvade, and he alone was left to face the enemy, who was this time under the command of Lugaid king of Erinn, and Erc king of Leinster. The former slew Cúchulainn near Loch Lamraith in the Plain of Murthemne on the very day when the Ultonians were able to come out of their confinement; and Conall Cernach, Cúchulainn's foster-brother, pursued Lugaid, and overtook him before the close of the day bathing in the Liffey. A