Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/156

Rh of actual conditions. In the Táin, Mac Roth sees coming in furious wise into the battle ‘a wild red-naked man in a chariot without weapons, without a fragment of clothing, and only a spit of iron in his hand.’ So the fine old warrior, Iliach mac Cas, according to one manuscript, launches himself into the fray in his ancient chariot, long unused, drawn by a pair of withered and wasted old horses, that were wearing out their existence on the seashore. Without cushions under him at all he stood in his chariot, taking with him a rough shield of iron in one hand, and a hilted formidable sword in his left. In the chariot were placed a pair of blunt, rickety-headed spears, rusty with age; and all the chariot was filled with stones, and great flat flags, heaped up around him. Thus accoutred, he went to attack the men of Erin; but apart from his sword and shield he appeared before them stark-naked. When the men of Erin saw him, they vented jeers and mockery; but at sight of him Méve said, ‘Right glad indeed were I to have all Ulster come equipped even so into the field’ (O’Grady in Hull’s Cuchullin Saga, p. 200).

A striking passage is found at the beginning of the great battle of Gairech in the Táin, when, at the call of Cuchulain and his charioteer, the sleeping warriors spring to arms. Out of their tents they force their way with such ardour that they do not wait to seek the door, but from every direction assemble ‘all stark-naked, only their weapons in their hands.’ ‘How do the men of Ulster arise to the battle, my charioteer Laegh?’ inquires the hero, who himself is prostrate on his bed with his wounds. ‘In manly wise they come forth,’ said Laegh, ‘every man stark-naked, and pressing through the side of the tent that is next to him.’ It was evidently regarded as a sign of deadly earnest if a soldier waited not to clothe himself for the fight (Táin, p. 841, line 5806-5813).

It is difficult to imagine that in the numerous single combats at the ford made actually in the running water, with which all wars were interspersed, the combatants were always